1. How was the author’s job odd in the eyes of the other staff? How did they respond to this?
Answer:
Asokamitran’s job at the Gemini Studios was to collect information from newspapers and magazines and to paste the cuttings in files for reference. This was probably the only odd work in the Gemini Studios while every other staff was some sort of an artist. They, therefore, advised the author to do some better jobs other than wasting his time cutting papers in a department similar to a barbershop.

2. Why did the author pray for crowd shooting?
Answer:
Like many of the other staff who believed that Asokamitran was doing next to nothing in the Gemini Studios, the Office Boy too used to advise him for hours. When the author was tired of his unending epics, he used to pray for a crowd shooting to keep the Office Boy busy.

3. Who was Kothamangalam Subbu ? How did he make all the other staff hate him?
Answer:
Kothamangalam Subbu joined the Gemini Studios as a clerk and remained the same in the records. But in practice he soon acquired the status of the No. 2 at the studios thanks to his amazing genius and multifaceted skills. He did any work for his boss and ignored the rest above him. This made him envied and hated by the rest of the staff.

4. Discuss Subbu’s identity as a poet. Why was he not known as a poet?
Answer:
Apart from being an amazing director of movies, Subbu had the identity as a poet. The world of his time and later never recognized Subbu as a poet yet he was a great unknown poet. He wrote poem in the simplest Tamil language and was able to recreate the classical poems in his own style.

5. Subbu excelled as an actor too. Discuss.
Answer:
Subbu was a good actor. He was able to act better than the lead actors yet never wished to take any lead roles in any movie.

6. In spite of all the good qualities and readiness to be a host any time, Subbu had only enemies. Why?
Answer:
Subbu was good to everyone he came by, spoke in his niceness, fed his relatives, excelled everyone in the Gemini Studios but was hated by most of them just because he was so close to the boss of the studios. Being a clerk in the attendance register he was above all and above all the departments. Those who bore designations above Subbu felt it intolerable to obey him.

7. How did the legal adviser behave illegally in the instance of the actress?
Answer:
The legal adviser was, of course, an advocate, yet was known as an illegal adviser. Once he recorded the voice of an actress who shouted at the producer and director while in the shooting sets. The legal adviser’s behaviour turned out to be illegal because he did it without the actress’ permission.

8. In what context did Congress rule mean Prohibition and how was it for the staff of Gemini Studios meeting over a cup of coffee a rather satisfying entertainment?
Answer:
Congress being the ruling party, made the public’s life horrible by imposing curfew and emergency in the initial years of Independent India. Citizens were not allowed to gather and hold meetings. While the whole of the nation struggled under emergencies, the six hundred Gemini staff enjoyed freedom inside the studios as their freedom was not restricted.

9. How did Subbu surpass the office boy despite his limitations?
Answer:
The office boy in the make-up department was always ahead of Subbu in the beginning, especially in education, having influential people to support. But he ended up where he began while Subbu ascended the steps to the maximum height and surpassed the office boy.

10. The staff of the Gemini Studios attributed Subbu’s success to his being a Brahmin. Why?
Answer:
Most of the staff of the Gemini Studios was unhappy with Subbu. His amazing influence on the Boss and the consequent privileges he enjoyed made them feel jealous of him. So, instead of accepting his talents, they consoled themselves by attributing his fortunes to be a Brahmin.

11. How are poets and prose writers different according to Asokamitran? What personal experience makes him say that?
Answer:
Asokamitran believes in the qualitative difference between prose writers and poem writers. A poem can be written in no time if the poet is a genius while prose such as a novel can be written by a person who has a lot of patience and perseverance. Type prose writer’s mind should be so shrunken that no rejection can disappoint him but he will be encouraged from failures and rejections.

12.What is Communism? What ideas about the communism gathered popularity in India?
Answer:
Communism is a political order that believes in the equality of citizens and abolition of private ownership. The state or nation is the owner and caretaker of each citizen. Citizen’s welfare is nation’s prime concern. It sometimes resorts to armed revolution to establish social and political equality.

13.What was MRA? Why did it tour the world?
Answer:
MRA, short for Moral Rearmament Army was an anti-Communist organization that toured the world informing the world of the evil side of Communism that was spreading throughout Asia and some parts of Europe. Headed by Frank Buchman, the MRA believed that Communism was evil and it would wipe out democracy in the world.

14.How was Vasan played into the hands of the MRA?
Answer:
There is no clear indication that Vasan, the owner of the Gemini Studios, was a Communist or not yet there are very clear hints that he was a prominent Communist of Chennai. The MRA spread its anti-Communist messages through their stage programs and made the poets and writers of the South India hate Communism which was a great achievement. Vasan, who knew nothing of their intentions, was indeed fooled by MRA at his cost.

15.Why was Stephen Spender invited to the Gemini Studios? Who wanted him there?
Answer:
Stephen Spender was a great poet with Communist inclinations. S. S. Vasan, the owner of the Gemini Studios, wanted Spender give a speech on the greatness of Communism to his staff.

16.How are poets and prose writers different, according to Asokamitran? What personal experience makes him say that?
Answer:
Asokamitran says poems can be written by any genius while prose writing is the true pursuit of a really determined person who has suffered a lot of rejections and is ready for any further disappointments with more perseverance to pursue his mission of writing a long prose.

17.Spender’s speech was a shock for him and a matter of utter shame for the literati of the Gemini Studios?
Answer:
Stephen Spender was called to the Gemini Studios to talk to the staff there about Communism but what he spoke was of his struggles as a poet. Whatever he spoke, his talk was not followed by practically anyone. When Spender realized that his audience didn’t follow his talk, he stopped in utter shame to have made a talk to a deaf audience while the Gemini staff got dispersed in great humiliation because Spender’s accent failed them.

18.The Boss of the Gemini Studios may not have much to do with Spender’s poetry. But not with his god that failed.’ Explain.
Answer:
Stephen Spender was invited to the Gemini Studios to enlighten the staff with great ideals of Communism but what Spender spoke was about his thrills and struggles to establish himself as a poet. The bosses of the studio like S. S. Vasan were interested in Spender as a Communist, not as a poet.

19.How did the British periodical ‘The Encounter’ become important in Asokamitran’s life?
Answer:
‘The Encounter’ was a British periodical. When Stephen Spender was its editor, this periodical organized a short story competition for writers from all over the world.

20.How does the book, ‘The God That Failed’ deserve its title?
OR
Justify the title, ‘The God That Failed.’
Answer:
The ‘God That Failed’ was written by six eminent writers who were attracted to Communism and abandoned it because they hated it later on. Communism was in its beginning, a God because it stood for equality and removal of class systems and poverty. While the Gods or incarnations before it achieved their goals, Communism failed in attaining its goals as it was a failure in itself.

21.What made Asokamitran hope Stephen Spender too would ‘be singing the same song at the same time when he sealed the envelope of his manuscript?
Answer:
Asokamitran had been struggling to establish as a writer when he came across the periodical, The Encounter. When he saw that the editor of The Encounter was Stephen Spender, the same poet who came to Gemini Studios and talked about his struggles to become a poet, Asokamitran felt as if he had found a long lost brother.