R.K. Narayan

A tourist guide meets an unhappy married woman who wants to take up dancing. With his motivation, she becomes a successful dancer but success corrupts the man's mind.

When mistaken to be a sage by some villagers, an ex-tour guide reflects on his past and lost love to search for spiritual wisdom to guide the villagers in this lesser-known English-language version of R.K. Narayan's classic.

A small town celebrates the triumph of their revolution. Under the euphoria of the moment, the town's founder is declared a traitor and the destruction of his statue is decided by the people. A journalist buys the statue before it is destroyed. Later, the townspeople discover that the statue isn't from who they thought it was and they decide to retrieve it. The journalist, however, doesn't want to give it back, giving rise to the dilemma.

The charming Mr. Sampat weaves his way into theatrical company with his moneymaking schemes, only to cause the everyone involved to go bankrupt, including Malini, the young actress who has fallen in love with him.

Margayya, a smart moneylender, works as an advisor for the innocent villagers. However, his life takes a drastic turn when he loses his job.

Miss Malini created at least one immortal character ‘Sampath’. Life is a constant struggle for Malini, a poor young woman with an ailing father.She reluctantly accepts stage actor-friend Sundari’s suggestion to go on stage, and joins her theatre group, Kala Mandhiram.Success smiles on her and she soon becomes an idol of the masses. Sampath, a suave swindler, befriends Malini and takes control of her life. He persuades her to start her own theatre company. A puppet in his hands, Malini severs ties with those who have helped her in the past such as Sundari.Soon she is in debt and back at the bottom of the ladder. Sampath abandons her. Sundari and others come to her rescue and Malini goes back to Kala Mandhiram and begins her life anew, sadder but certainly wiser!

The South Bank Show is a television arts magazine show produced by ITV between 1978 and 2010. A new series began on Sky Arts from 27 May 2012. Presented by Melvyn Bragg, the show aims to bring both high art and popular culture to a mass audience.

## Series Overview Set in the fictional South Indian town of Malgudi, *Malgudi Days* brings R. K. Narayan’s celebrated stories to life through a rich collection of tales about ordinary people and everyday experiences. Blending humour, warmth, irony and social observation, the series explores childhood, family, friendship, ambition, poverty, tradition, superstition and the changing values of Indian society. From schoolboys and shopkeepers to servants, postmen, astrologers and wandering performers, each story captures the distinctive character of Malgudi while reflecting universal human emotions. Adapted from Narayan’s short stories and novels, *Malgudi Days* remains one of Indian television’s most enduring literary adaptations.