Screening of Short Film : An Astrologer’s Day based on R. K. Narayan 's 'An Astrologer’s Day

Hello Readers !

Welcome to my blog. I am going to write about the very interesting short story An Astrologer’s Day by R. K. Narayan and movie adaptation of the short story. How the movie adaptation is helpful to understand short story. This task was given by Vaidehi ma'am. 

R. K. Narayan : An Astrologer’s Day 

R.K. Narayan, in full Rasipuram Krishnaswami Narayan, original name Rasipuram Krishnaswami Narayanswami, (born October 10, 1906, Madras [Chennai], India—died May 13, 2001, Madras), one of the finest Indian authors of his generation Writing in English.

‘An Astrologer’s Day’ by R. K. Narayan is a story deals with a day’s events in the life of a good for nothing fellow turned into an astrologer to earn his bread and butter. A single day brings in his drastic past back before him but being a smart fellow, he finely deals with it.

Important Scenes – The encounter with Guru Nayak, The conversation with wife, The market scene

• The conversation with wife 

I feel happy to know about the end  of the astrologer's mental burden of his life through their conversation.  The astrologer felt guilty for murdering Guru Nayak. Due to the fear, he had even left his village and settled his life in Malgudi. But, he found Guru Nayak alive. He realised that he wasn't the murderer. He even advised him not to return to the south. The astrologer finally got rid of his terrible burden. 

Next I feel a little upset to know about their pitiable economic status. To get twelve and a half annas, the astrologer's wife planned to buy Jaggeru and coconut to prepare sweet for their daughter.  Their daughter was demanding sweets for a long time. This shows the obligation of the family where a single daughters simple wish remained pending for a long time due to the lack of money. 

• The encounter with Guru Nayak 

The meeting with Guru Nayak and the astrologer seems quite ironic. Here, we find Guri Nayak asking astrologer about the culprit who once had stabbed him with a knife on his chest. He doesn't know the culprit himself is the astrologer. Due to the darkness and the astrologer's get up, Guru Nayak is unable to recognize him. The life long burden for the astrologer is the murder of Guru Nayak. He feels quite surprised to find Guru Nayak alive. The information of the culprit to find 

👉How faithful is the movie to the original short story?

The Movie Adaptation of An Astrologer’s Day is very helpful to understand the Shortstory. It portrayed the subject of a story well. But here we can see some changes in the adaptation. The character of the daughter of that astrologer is completely missing in the original short story. It was added by the director in the movie adaptation. If we look at the story, some situations were changed in the movie adaptation. Because movie captures importance scenes movie is short then the story. We watched movie in one sitting and understood the concept of the movie so movie adaptation is helpful to understood concept of the short story.

👉After watching the movie, have your perception about the short story, characters or situations changed?

After watching movie we can find that there are many changes was made by director.It portrayed the subject of the story well But here we can see some changes in the adaptation. The character of the daughter of that astrologer is completely missing in the original short story. It was added by the director in the movie adaptation. If we look at the story, some situations were changed in the movie adaptation.

👉Do you feel ‘aesthetic delight’ while watching the movie? If yes, exactly when did it happen? If no, can you explain with reasons?

In the story, the astrologer has a great listening power. Listening helps in developing good relations with people. Listening, as differentiated from hearing, is about consciously understanding and applying one’s mind to what is heard. As the story illustrates, being a good listener helps one to fare better in any activity that one takes up. The astrologer isn’t knowledgeable of his work but still manages to convince his customers and make his living, owing to his great listening skills. He establishes a rapport with his clients by just listening to them for a few minutes without uttering a word, while analysing their troubles and simultaneously composing his talk and answers to the clients. This helps him to mask his own shortcomings and succeed in his work, where he would otherwise not have. Hence, great listening power is a strong skillset we all should develop.