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Mayabazar by N.S. Shankar
Press Club Prakashana, Rs. 180
At the outset the publishers claim that Mayabazar is "an anthology of notes and comments on cinema culture" and will therefore publish books authored by its members under the series "Press Club Kannada Sambhrama".
On the other hand, the author N. S. Shankar, in his introductory note, very modestly seeks to know if his short articles deserve to be brought out in the form of a book at all? "Is the book required?" he asks.
Mayabazar is a compilation of periodic articles contributed by Shankar to a Kannada tabloid, beginning 1991, on various topics and issues related to the cinema industry and also on individuals connected with it.
The over 90 pieces, are not devoid of subjectivity, not shorn of the writer's forced display of erudition and inanities. Although complacent, while providing ample authenticated, interesting and academic information on various aspects, events and individuals of the Indian cinema industry.
Mr. Shankar is honest enough to admit that the articles were not written within any disciplined framework. He had only surmised that his writings would gain their own shape in the process of writing. Despite shortcomings, articles such as Tarkada Gonu Muridu, Prema Mattitara Kathegalu, Godfather, Nayagan, and Veerappan... Puttanna Kevala Nenapu Saake, and Puttanna, Siddalinghaiah, Ashwath mattu Prashasthi hold mirror to his positive but individualistic frame of mind. They revealingly punctuate his struggle to win over his contradictory and elusive positions on cinema industry, film making and film review over the years. They also bring his limitations in striking a balance between his own creative and critical faculties to the fore as they meander to search something unknown and abstract. This he does while he ironically ignores and vilifyies the familiar and the concrete generally at the cost of realisation of right intentions.
Coming back to the foreword, the publishers insist, "books brought out by the Press Club Prakashana are sure to be discussed in the literary circles." But the very decision of publishing Mayabazar in the light of the observation "Whether this book is required?" provides an insight into the publisher's future ventures.
K.N. VENKATASUBBA RAO
Scholarly, yet lucid
Antonio Gramsci
by K. Phaniraj
Abhinava, Rs. 50
How is it that we in India know so little about Antonio Gramsci while Lenin, Stalin, Mao and Che are much read and talked about? K. Phaniraj starts the book on the important Left intellectual-activist of Italy with this fundamental question.
The compact and very lucid biography that follows is particularly interesting for two reasons: it places Gramsci in the historic and political context of his time when fascist forces reigned supreme even as it also places him in our own context when the same fascist thought processes are again gaining ground.
The editor of Shathamana Chintane series of Abhinava (of which this book is part), G. Rajashekhar, writes: "The present context of communal violence in India and the intellectual justifications being offered for it remind us of the strategies of fascists. Antonio Gramsci was an intellectual who thought deeply about fascism and fought it till his last breath."
Literally so because the conditions under which Gramsci was kept in prison aggravated the illnesses that he had haunted him since childhood (breathing problems, migraine and a bad back) and he died at 45. Sentencing him to 20-year rigorous imprisonment for his "anti-national activities", the judge had said: "It's to prevent this brain from thinking for the next 20 years." But it was in the prison that Gramsci's political thoughts got crystallised and he wrote them down in 34 notebooks, which was later published as Prison Note Books.
His comrades smuggled them out before they could be confiscated and destroyed by Mussolini's government. What makes this small volume remarkable is the way the author scales down the complex political thoughts of Gramsci into a language accessible to even those who are not very conversant with Marxist theories. For instance, before he goes on to illustrate how Gramsci's thoughts differed from the Stalinist interpretation of Marxist ideology, Phaniraj makes a small detour to explain the Stalinist position. And the author consistently uses familiar examples to illustrate concepts instead of peppering the book with jargons.
For instance, he explains the notion of "counter-hegemony" with the example of salt satyagraha and of "passive revolution" with an episode from Mehboobnagar. Even as larger political debates are discussed at length, small details such as Gramsci's reluctance to give up his less refined mother tongue Sardinian for the more standardised Italian also find a special mention.
The book ends with two translations of Gramsci's works, with some helpful notes from Phaniraj in between. The one on intellectual-activists (Gramsci believed these aren't and can't be separate categories of people) is particularly relevant for our times. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the many strands of leftist thought.
BAGESHREE S.
Leafing Through is a fortnightly column featuring Kannada books.
Send in books for review to Friday Review,
The Hindu, 19 & 21, Bhagwan Mahaveer Road (Infantry Road),
Bangalore 560001.
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