An Astrologer's Day : R. K. Narayan

  Hello everyone! 

I am Nidhi Jethava and a student of MK Bhavnagar University. In this blog I am going to ponder some of the interesting questions about 'An Astrologer's Day' As we all know, ‘An Astrologer’s Day’ is a very fascinating short story.

 ‘An Astrologer’s Day’ is written by a well-known short story writer R.K.Narayan. R.K. Narayan is famous for his short stories. Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami was born in1906. 

Here I am putting the link of original text:-

An Astrologer's Day

Here I am putting the story adaptation :-

Q.1 How faithful is the movie to the original short story?

Answer :-

While discussing the film adaptation, we can see that there is so much correspondence between a story and adaptation. Plot is going the same way as it is in the story. One might say that it's quite faithful to the original story. Just two scenes are there which are not in the original test. One is the astrologer’s wife at the initial part and his reveal of his crime through the story of money. 

Q. 2    After watching the movie, has your perception about the short story, characters or situations changed?

Answer :- 

Actually the plot of the movie is similar, so after watching it, it will be tough to say that my perception has changed at all. Yes but while discussing character and situation it affected me. Before watching it would be hard for me to clearly imagine the character but adaptation helped us to understand it more clearly. 

Q. 3   Do you feel ‘aesthetic delight’ while watching the movie? If yes, exactly when did it happen? If not, can you explain with reasons?

While watching the adaptation I could not feel ‘aesthetic delight’. There are some reasons.

• First and foremost reason is the change of setting. In the short story setting is important. R.K.Narayan is famous for his fictional town ‘Malgudi’. So if the filmmaker used the setting of ‘Malgudi’ town then it might give an appropriate idea. 

• Inappropriate introduction of the most important character ‘An Astrologer’, when we read the story then we found a proper image of an astrologer. In the initial part of the story we can read very knit observations in the story. 

So, considering these points I can say that I can not feel 'aesthetic delight'.

Q.4   Does screening of movies help you in better understanding of the short story?

Answer :-

Yes, movie screening is helpful to understand the story. Sometimes it might happen that we are fed up with reading or we are not interested in reading lengthy things. So adaptation or screening will help us to understand the storyline very well.

Q.5 Was there any particular scene or moment in the story that you think was perfect?

Answer:-

Yes, the communication scene between an astrologer and Guru Nayak is as appropriate as in the story. It has no single change. So we are also aware that that part is the climax of the story and the film adaptation is able to show that scene as it is.

Q.6 If you are a director, what changes would you like to make in the remaking of the movie based on the short story “An Astrologer’s Day” by R.K.Narayan?

Answer :- 

'An Astrologer's Day' is a very eye-catching story. Some good adaptation is also made on it. While discussing the question as a Filmmaker then I would like to do some kind of changing. First the age of astrologers. It might be around forty. My setting might be in some fictional small town like Malgudi. The biggest change is the characterization of Guru Nayak. In the story Guru Nayak blindly trusts an astrologer but my Guru Nayak will cross check what he actually tells and at the end Nayak will catch the real identity of an astrologer.

Thank you....