PERCY BLAKENEY – THE SCARLET PIMPERNAL BY BARONESS ORCZY - #BLOGCHATTERA2ZCHALLENGE2022

                                                                   Amazon.in

*SPOILER ALERT

If there was one textbook that I enjoyed above all others, it was ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’ by Baroness Orczy, a book that gave me a glimpse into the Reign of Terror that preceded the French Revolution. I had finished reading ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ by Charles Dickens and had fallen in love with Sydney Carton there. Here was yet another character that had all the right qualities to inspire love – the character of Sir Percy Blakeney, and I fell in love all over again.

The two main characters were the foppish and languid Sir Percy Blakeney and his beautiful wife, Marguerite St. Just, who had been an actor. In those days, the aristocrats were in danger, as one chance word could send them to the gallows. When Marguerite inadvertently became the cause of condemning the Marquis St Cyr and his sons to death, it estranged her from her husband.

Marguerite, on her part, was disillusioned with the lethargic and dandyish life that Sir Percy led. There was so much happening around and yet, he seemed to take no interest in anything but his shallow life.

                                                            Marguerite and Percy

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Meanwhile, there was an intrepid group called ‘The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel’ consisting of a group of twenty English aristocrats. Their slogan was “one to lead and nineteen to follow”. Their main task was to rescue French aristocrats from the guillotine. Their leader was known as The Scarlet Pimpernel after the little red flower that he drew on the cryptic messages he left. Only the Prince of Wales and the Pimpernel's own followers knew his identity because the work he did was immensely dangerous. Marguerite openly admired the gentleman for his daring exploits.

The villain of the piece was Citizen Chauvelin, the sly French envoy to England. He began to blackmail Marguerite because he had got the information that her brother, Armand, was hand in hand with the Pimpernel. He promised to save Armand if she volunteered information on the whereabouts of the Pimpernel.

Against her wishes, Marguerite confided in her husband, entreating him to save Armand. Percy promised to do so, and he left for France the very next day.

Imagine Marguerite’s horror when she realised that her foppish dandy of her husband was the Scarlet Pimpernel. He had been living a double life to hide his actual identity. It was only then she realised what an amazing actor he was, a master of disguise, the perfect swordsman, and a quick thinker, so different from what she had imagined him to be. She also rued the fact that due to her machinations, again unwittingly, Chauvelin now knew the Pimpernel’s identity and his role in rescuing the aristocrats.

The hero and the villain met at an inn at Calais, where the latter was all set to capture the famed Scarlet Pimpernel. However, once again, Sir Percy managed to give him the slip, heavily disguised, and Chauvelin was left to bemoan his loss.

The story ended on a happy note as Percy and Marguerite rediscovered love again now that the misconceptions and the facades had been torn apart. They returned to England on their schooner aptly named ‘The Day Dream’.

Baroness Orczy wrote her play ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’ and staged it at Nottingham’s Royal Theatre on 15^th October 1903. It did not do too well, and she rewrote the last act and staged it again in London at the New Theatre on 5^th January 1905. This time, it did amazingly well, with over 2000 performances, having turned into one of the most popular shows in the UK.

                                                             Baroness Orczy

Wikipedia

The book titled ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’ was published two years after the play, and it met with such éclat that the author wrote several sequels that made her ‘charming daredevil hero’ the darling of theatregoers and readers.

Many films on The Scarlet Pimpernel were made, right from 1917 onwards up to 1950. The most popular version was in 1934 starring Leslie Howard, Merle Oberon and Raymond Massey. The story was remade for television and for radio shows and proved to be as popular in all the versions it was turned into. For as they say, courage, adventure and romance go hand in hand, and walk into people’s hearts.

                                              Merle Oberon and Leslie Howard

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OTHELLO – WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE - BLOGCHATTERA2ZCHALLENGE2022

                                                       Penguin Random House

“O beware, my lord, of jealousy; it is the green-eyed monster that doth mock the meat it feeds on.”

These words spoken by the devious Iago to his master, Othello, form the crux of the play, ‘Othello’, one of the tragedies of the Bard. Shakespeare certainly knew how to play on the emotions of his spectators through the various failings that assail the human race.

‘The Tragedy of Othello – The Moor of Venice’ was written around 1603, against the backdrop of the Ottoman-Venetian War. Othello was a Moor, the military commander of the Venetian army defending Cyprus against the Turks. He was a noble and valiant man, well loved by all. His inspiring stories were what attracted the beautiful Desdemona to fall in love with him. She would listen to him, enrapt as he waxed eloquent about his travels and adventures.

Othello knew he was much older than Desdemona. His hard life as a soldier and his race were also factors that fuelled his insecurity. He was deeply in love with his beautiful wife, and he could not believe that she had accepted him as her husband. Her father, Brabantio, had accused him of seducing his innocent daughter, but Desdemona had come forward and declared her love for him.

                                                          Wikimedia Commons

Meanwhile, there are other plots at work. Iago, Othello’s trusted ensign, is angry with Othello for having promoted a younger man named Cassio above him. He is aware that another wealthy, but fickle, gentleman called Roderigo was also in love with Desdemona. Othello’s insecurities make him a pawn in the devious Iago’s hands.

Iago convinces Othello that his wife is unfaithful and is having a dalliance with Cassio. He places a handkerchief of Desdemona’s in Cassio’s chambers. In little ways, he keeps poisoning Othello’s mind against the gentle Desdemona, till the Moor is incensed and vows to kill her.

The unfortunate story comes to an end as Othello smothers Desdemona with her pillow, only to hear immediately after from her maid, Emily, that she had been the one to give the handkerchief to her husband, Iago. The tale ends with Iago and Othello being apprehended for murder, but Othello finally takes his own life, broken-hearted and broken.

William Hazlitt once said, “The nature of the Moor is noble… but his blood is of the most inflammable kind.” Sad, but true!

The first theatrical performance of the play was way back in 1604 in Whitehall Place in London. Many other performances followed. 1943 saw the emergence of Paul Robeson as Othello, the only black man in an all-white cast. The show ran for 296 performances which was almost twice as long as any Shakespearean play on Broadway.

                                                     Paul Robeson as Othello

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In 1995, another production of Othello came out with a black actor, Laurence Fishburne playing the title role to Kenneth Branagh’s Iago. Laurence Olivier played Othello at the Royal National Theatre in 1964, and the story goes that he suffered a bad case of stage fright. However, the performance was so sought after that it was recorded on LP. The film version in 1965 garnered the greatest number of Oscars for Olivier for a Shakespearean film. All the four main actors received Oscar nominations. Olivier played Othello in blackface (using black make up), adopted a special accent in a deeper tone of voice as well as a special walk, apart from rolling his eyes, which was typical of the early depictions of blackfaces. Maggie Smith was Desdemona in this version.

                                                 Laurence Olivier and Maggie Smith

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 A Hindi version of Othello was brought out by Vishal Bharadwaj in 2006 titled Omkara with a star cast that had Ajay Devgan playing the title role. The other roles were essayed by Saif Ali Khan, Vivek Oberoi, Kareena Kapoor, Bipasha Basu, Naseeruddin Shah and Konkana Sen Sharma.

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NICK CARRAWAY – THE GREAT GATSBY - #BLOGCHATTERA2ZCHALLENGE2022

 

                                                            Wikipedia Commons

‘The Great Gatsby’ by the American writer, F Scott Fitzgerald, was written in 1925. Nick Carraway was the protagonist and narrator of this novel. The Gatsby mentioned in the title referred to Jay Gatsby, the millionaire, who owned an enormous estate in Long Island near New York city.

Nick Carraway who had participated in World War 1, comes back to West Egg, an opulent part of Long Island and makes his home close to his cousin, Daisy Buchanan and her wealthy husband, Tom, who was Nick’s Yale classmate.

It is then that Nick meets Jay Gatsby, a neighbour of Daisy’s, and a man who intrigues him deeply. Jay was rumoured to be Daisy’s old lover and he is still very much in love with her. In fact, Jay confesses as much to Nick and confides that his extravagant lifestyle and swashbuckling parties were only to impress her. Nick brings them together and they resume their affair.

Meanwhile, Nick has a fling with Jordan Baker, a young heiress and a golf champion. He is not exactly in love but feels “a tender curiosity” for her. It is she who breaks the news that Tom is having an affair with Myrtle who is married to the mechanic, George Wilson. This relationship proves to be the tinderbox that goes up in flames, setting in action a whole progression of unhappy events that finally force Nick to drop everything and leave for the Midwest, heartbroken and disillusioned.

Nick’s role is just that of a narrator standing on the fringes, reporting what he observes. He is an idealist who believes the best of people, but he is in for rude shocks as he discovers that the people he idolises have feet of clay. He starts off as a genial and easy-going person, but becomes moody as the novel progresses.

‘The Great Gatsby’ was the result of a short affair that the author, Fitzgerald, had with a young socialite, Ginevra King, and the riotous parties he attended at the time. The book did not do well commercially at the beginning, but its popularity grew in leaps and bounds during World War II when free copies were distributed to soldiers serving overseas by the Council of Books in Wartime. Today, the novel is considered a classic.

                                                                      Amazon.com

The first film on the book came out in 1926 where Neil Hamilton played Carraway. Toby Maguire played the role in 2013. The film has an overwhelming cast with Leonardo Di Caprio as the suave Gatsby, Carey Mulligan as Daisy and Amitabh Bachchan as Meyer Wolfsheim, a gangster who helped Gatsby.

‘The Great Gatsby’ has been adapted for television and radio as well over the years. It has also been adapted into three graphic novels.

                                                       Goodreads.com

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MISS MARPLE – AGATHA CHRISTIE - #BLOGCHATTERA2ZCHALLENGE2022

                                                                  amazon.in

I ran into Miss Marple when I was in my teens, or maybe even a little before, along with Hercule Poirot, and Tommy and Tuppence! Those were the days I would devour all the books I could lay hands on, and Agatha Christie was the one writer who could always entertain me, come rain or sunshine.

While Poirot was the more flamboyant character, with his egg-shaped dome and prized moustache, Miss Marple took a little longer to creep into my heart. Apparently meek, unassuming and a elderly spinster, she did not have the histrionics. However, her little grey cells were as potent as those of Poirot, sometimes even sharper.

‘The Murder at the Vicarage’ (1930) was the book in which she made her appearance, and ‘Sleeping Murder’ (1976) the one in which she exited. Miss Marple’s character was based on Christie’s step-grandmother and her older female friends, prototypes of whom could be found in tiny villages across England.

                                                                        Amazon.in

Miss Marple was not a particularly nice person in the first few books. She was a gossip who loved poking her nose into people’s lives. This did help her in solving her cases but did not win her any friends in St. Mary Mead. Luckily, her character evolved over the books as she became a better human being, and better liked all around.

Miss Marple was fond of saying that all kinds of crimes and criminals could be found at St. Mary’s mead, even though it was a small village. She would link previous incidents with the present, and she had a deep distrust of the goodness of human nature. Consequently, she was never surprised at how low the human mind could fall, a trait that helped her to solve many a mystery in her quiet, genteel way.

Miss Marple’s closest relative appears to be her nephew, Raymond West, who was a well-known author, and sceptical of his aunt’s investigative abilities. She did surprise him, off and on, and it was he who aided her financially since she had never had a job. However, she did have her own independent means as well.

While Miss Marple appeared to be your average English spinster, gentle and unassuming, she had a shrewd brain that constantly ticked and a talent for dissecting human nature.

Agatha Christie remains the world’s best-selling author with 66 detective novels and 14 short story anthologies. Her play, ‘The Mouse Trap’ remains the world’s longest running play.

In 1949, a stage adaptation of ‘Murder at the Vicarage’ came out at Northampton. What is interesting is that 35-year-old Barbara Mullen played Miss Marple. The play toured England after its London debut. In 1974, years after, Mullen who was now 60, played the tole all over again for a year.

Many films based on Christie’s books were produced over the decades. George Pollack directed four of them from 1961 to 1964. Margaret Rutherford played Miss Marple in all of them. She made changes in the character envisaged by Agatha Christie, which the latter disapproved of. However, the author dedicated her popular novel (one of my favourites), ‘The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side’ to Rutherford.

                                            Margaret Rutherford as Miss Marple

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The most famous version of ‘The Mirror Crack’d…’ was the one directed by Guy Hamilton in which Angela Lansbury was Miss Marple. The all-star cast included Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, Geraldine Chaplin, Tony Curtis and Kim Novak.

Many television shows also came out from 1984 to 1992. The one titled ‘Miss Marple’ was helmed by the BBC and featured Joan Hickson playing the title role. The story goes that in 1940, Christie witnessed her acting in a play adapted from one of her books titled ‘Appointment with Death’. After it was done, Christie apparently wrote the actor a note saying. “I hope one day you will play my dear Miss Marple.”

                                                 Joan Hickson as Miss Marple

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BEYOND MY BLINKERS BY SUBIR ADHICARY

 
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The preface has this simple statement by the author.

“My attempt is simple – to make people smile and identify themselves with the protagonists in the stories.”

The stories revolve mostly around Dwarka, “not Krishna’s Dwarka… the DDA’s Dwarka. A living hell, Sir. No water, no streetlights, no multiplex, no security, no hospital. Only chain snatching, car jacking, promises and taxes.” As Lord Yama himself pores over this reply, the reader realises that Subir Adhicary’s book is choc-a-bloc with tongue-in-cheek statements like this, enhanced further with healthy doses of humour.

From the first chapter, the author’s mission is clear. His anecdotes not only bring forth a chuckle, but they also sting a bit, as they hold up the foibles of people and the society they live in. ‘The Protest Technologist’ talks of an encounter in the highly priced Barista, Café Coffee Day between Batraji who has an idea that is brilliant enough to last over a coffee and an expensive pastry.

The benefits of Positive Thinking which work in strange ways, the myriad ways in which bribes are sought, the left hand always tucked under the table, the ostentation of Diwali gifts and the laughable description of the kind of people found in attendance at a big fat Delhi wedding – these are some aptly narrated stories that can be seen anywhere across the country.

The fervour of our leaders to change the names of places, historical and otherwise, is well known. One of the most amusing pieces in the book refers to the change of Humayun’s Tomb to Faqir Chand ka Maqbara, and the reason had me in splits. Equally entertaining is the anecdote that talks of finding the raw nerve in one’s boss and pressing it to one’s advantage. Sage advice, indeed!

‘The Bisleri Brigade’ is another hilarious piece that talks of Yogis, Bhogis and Tyagis, the latter the deadliest of the lot. I do not want to give away the plot of what happens in the Muthoot Plot in Sector 10, Dwarka. 

The author has a jocular turn of phrase. He ruminates on the time gone by (Nasbandi) as opposed to the present day (Notebandi). The conversation between Yamraja and Chitragupta over souls stuck in immigration bay at Nursing Homes imbued with humour strikes very close to home.

Likewise, the author offers amusing career options which have tremendous potential to create wealth, immunity and influence. One noteworthy section contains a dialogue between Lord Vishnu and Narada where the latter convinces the Lord not to visit Dwarka because his subjects are content. The reasons for their contentment evince an enigmatic smile on the Lord’s face, and probably a sardonic one on the faces of the readers.

Subir Adhicary uses humour lavishly to get his ideas across. Once the smile has disappeared, the sting behind his words remains. For example:

“We specialise in preaching but hardly practise anything ourselves… Politicians speaking in favour of anti-corruption laws stack away their black money in foreign banks. Those hailing women’s emancipation do not let their women life their veils or wear skimpy clothes.” The chapter being on cleanliness, he advises school children to be “the torch bearers of ‘Preach and Practise’. Until then, loiter in the litter.”

One usage that had me in splits was this description. “For, he was Fevicol on legs. To dislodge him, once he sat, was a challenge.” The sketches done by the author himself, apt and light-hearted, enhance the calibre of the book further.

At the end of the book, one needs to sit back and ponder over the myriad topics Subir Adhicary has touched upon, sometimes with irony, often with hilarity, However, there are a couple of anecdotes which leave one with the sense of sadness, mainly those dealing with the empty nest syndrome. After years of egging their children to compete and excel, like horses “not looking beyond their blinkers”, the parents discover that they have done so well that their children have moved beyond their line of sight. This is when the cover image, which is a cheerful breezy one of a horse smiling beyond its blinkers, suddenly makes sense.

As Francis Bacon put it, “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.” ‘Beyond One’s Blinkers’, I would say, belongs to the last category.

 Name of the Book: Beyond My Blinkers

Publishers: Vitasta

Cover and Layout: Somesh Kumar Mishra

Sketches by Subir Adhicary

Price of the Book: Rs. 250 on Amazon

                                                                 Amazon.in 

 

 

LANCELOT – THE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE - #BLOGCHATTERA2ZCHALLENGE2022

 
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Lancelot or Launcelot du Lac was one of the greatest Knights of the Round Table. Those were the days of chivalry and valour, and Lancelot was a close friend of the legendary King Arthur. According to folk lore, he was the orphaned son of King Ban and Queen Elaine of Benwick. When their kingdom was usurped by their enemy, King Claudus, the royal couple fled with their baby son. Elaine had to tend to her husband’s ill health, and in the meantime, an enchantress kidnapped the baby prince. His upbringing was shrouded in mystery. It was rumoured that the ‘Lady of the Lake’ was the one who brought him up. This is how he attained the title ‘du Lac’ meaning ‘the lake’, - “the most handsome lad in the land”.

Lancelot was unparalleled as a swordsman and a jouster, the hero of many a battle. At the age of eighteen he arrived with the Lady of the Lake to King Arthur’s court clad all in silver steel, riding a white horse. He went by the soubriquet ‘The White Knight’. He was knighted by the king, and his foster mother gave him a magic ring that would shield him from all enchantment.

Lancelot was given the duty of being Queen Guinevere’s Knight. King Arthur loved Lancelot enough to trust him with the task, but there was an almost magical attraction between the royal lady and the knight which made them fall madly in love with each other. Lancelot dedicated all the brave tasks that he undertook to the Queen, even going to the extent of rescuing her when she was abducted by Arthur’s enemy, Maleagant.

                                              Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere

Wikipedia

There are accounts of Lancelot losing his mind when he felt that Guinevere doubted his love, or when he was imprisoned by a certain lady named Camille, and on both occasions, he was cured by the Lady of the Lake. Thus, there could have been a darker side to him which was hardly revealed because his chivalric side was more in prominence.

An interesting story describes how Princess Elaine of Corbenic was so madly in love with Lancelot that she used magic to make him believe that she was Guinevere and slept with him. (The story of Ahalya comes to mind!) The liaison resulted in a son, Galahad, and when Guinevere heard about it, she banished Lancelot from Camelot, which caused him to lose his mind once again. Eventually, after years of wandering in the wilderness, he was found by Elaine, who showed him The Holy Grail through a veil and cured him of his madness. Ten years later, he returned to Camelot and Guinevere.

Sadly, their adulterous relationship brought about many upheavals as well as the destruction of the Round Table.

Many films and theatrical productions have revolved around King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. In 1953, Robert Taylor played the role of Lancelot, followed by numerous films on the same theme. Richard Gere was Lancelot in First Knight (1995) to Julia Ormond's Guinevere.

                                               Richard Gere and Julia Ormond

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The Mists of Avalon (1982) by Marion Zimmer Bradley, the Warlord Chronicles trilogy (1995-97) by Bernard Cornwell and The Squire’s Tales series (1998-2010) all interpreted Lancelot in different ways.

Malory’s Morte d’Arthur showcased Lancelot as the central figure, a figure who strove for perfection in the form of The Holy Grail, but never attained it because of his relationship with the Queen, a recurrent and enduring theme in poetry, drama, fiction and fiction.

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KANNAGI – SILAPPATIKARAM - #BLOGCHATTERA2ZCHALLENGE2022

 
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There is nothing more dangerous than a woman scorned. This is the premise of the story of Kannagi or Kannaki, the heroine of the Tamil epic ‘Silappatikaram’ or ‘The Tale of an Anklet’ written by Ilango Adikal.

Kannagi was the chaste wife of Kovalan whose parents were sea traders. The initial joy turned into frustration as Kovalan strayed, falling into the clutches of a beautiful dancer, Madhavi. He was so besotted by her that he lavished all his money on her and ended up penniless. When he finally realised his folly, he returned to his faithful wife, Kannagi.

A repentant Kovalan wanted to recoup his losses and live happily with Kannagi again. He took her anklet, which had precious gems within it, and decided to sell it in the Madurai market.

The Pandya king, Nedunj Cheliyan I, ruled over the kingdom at the time. When Kovalan went to a jeweller to sell the anklet, the latter thought that the anklet belonged to the queen. He reported it to the king, who was furious with Kovalan. Without further verification, and without a trial of any sort, he had Kovalan beheaded.

An enraged Kannagi set out to prove her husband’s innocence. She stood before him, as regal as a goddess, and chastised him for having punished Kovalan without a second’s thought. She took out her other anklet and held it out. The next moment, she threw it with force on to the floor. The anklet broke open and rubies poured out of it.

“Is this your wife’s anklet?” she asked him, her eyes blazing.

The king was in shock. He stared at the rubies scattered on the ground, consternation on his face. He had made a terrible misjudgement because the Queen’s anklets contained pearls within. He had sentenced an innocent man to death.

Unable to face up to what he had done, the king committed suicide. However, Kannagi was still not appeased. She uttered a curse that the city of Madurai be burnt down. The capital city of Pandya began to blaze, with heavy losses following. It was then that the Goddess Meenakshi, the deity of the Madurai Meenakshi temple, approached her and calmed her down. Kannagi bowed to Her divine wishes and attained salvation. It is said that she was surrounded by the gods, with Lord Indra himself escorting her to heaven.

Kannagi Statue at Marina Beach, Chennai

Wikimedia Commons

The saga of Kannagi continues to fascinate readers over the centuries. Cheran Chenguttuvan, an ancient king, built a temple in her name around 2000 years ago, and named it the ‘Kannagi Kottam’ or the ‘Mangala Devi Kannagi temple’ which is situated in Theni district in Peerumedu Taluk in Kerala.

There have been a few film adaptations of Silappatikaram. In 1942, the film ‘Kannagi’ came out, the title role being performed by actor Kannamba. It had its share of success. 

                                                                  Hyperleap

The next movie called ‘Poompuhar’ was one penned by Karunanidhi. The popular television series – ‘Bharat Ek Khoj’ talked about Silappatikaram in two of its episodes. Pallavi Joshi and Rakesh Dhar played the roles of Kannagi and Kovalan. In 1996, Doordarshan brought out a series called Upasana on the same theme.

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