Subbu and the legal adviser

Subbu was the No. 2 at Gemini Studios, always beside The Boss, S. S. Vasan. He was totally loyal to his principal, and he turned his whole creative talent to his employer's advantage.

He was full of ideas. When a film producer was stuck on how to film a scene, Subbu could suggest a dozen ways of doing it, on the spot. Film-making must have been easy with him around. He was also a poet, though his poetry was for the masses, and a novelist, and a fine actor: he never wanted to play the main role, but every minor role he played was better than the main characters.

He was a generous man: dozens of relatives and friends lived in his house, and he fed and looked after them. He was always cheerful, and had a kind word for everyone. Yet, the author says, he had enemies, like the office boy, perhaps because he was so close to The Boss.

Subbu sat in the Story Department, among writers and poets. With them sat the studio's legal adviser, whom everyone, by mistake, took for a writer. He once caused a disaster. A young actress lost her temper on the set and shouted at the producer; the legal adviser quietly recorded her outburst, and then played it back to her. She was so shocked to hear her own voice that she was struck dumb, and her film career came to an end. So people jokingly called him the opposite of a legal adviser.

He also looked different. In a studio where everyone wore khadi, he wore trousers and a tie, and sometimes a coat, and stood out like a lone being among them. When The Boss decided to close the Story Department, and the poets were sent home, the legal adviser lost his job along with them, which is the gentle irony the author enjoys.