MT Vasudevan Nair (1933-2024): The Master

THAT MT VASUDEVAN NAIR, popularly known among Malayalees as MT, was a literary colossus is a statement of the obvi­ous—he acquired that status decades before he died at 91 on Christmas Day of 2024. More than anything else, it is the versatility of the wizard that never stops surprising whoever gets hooked on reading him. His works, especially novels, short stories, and screenplays, act like opiates.

In his highly creative and productive life, MT donned many hats, including film director, lyricist, editor, institution builder, etc. For someone who was adored deeply—especially because he made thoughtful, inventive novels and fine works of literature accessible to the masses—he also had many critics for the content of his works, including for what they call his anti-women bias and excessive focus on the collapse of the feudal matrilineal extended families of yore.

MT knew both his die-hard fans and detractors. He let them be, and like the great Kerala poet Balachandran Chullikkad said, MT never forced anyone to read his books. Nor did he care about what others thought about how he lived and worked—he lived and worked rather recklessly and seemed to have no sense of guilt about it.

A close reading of his works, however, reveals MT’s nuanced approach to his craft. Perhaps many of us found his writing addictive because he highlighted the plight of the children of extended feudal Kerala upper-caste families in decline who were seen as fair game and treated as the least significant members of these families. This is in sharp contrast to the nuclear families of today, where lives are more or less centred on the kids.

Who says MT wasn’t iconoclastic enough? In his debut movie Nirmalyam (1973), which MT directed based on his own story, an oracle—the protagonist played by PJ Antony who went on to win the next year’s National Award for Best Actor—spits on the idol of the deity at a temple under his supervision out of disgust for life. Any such intense portrayal of life and faith is unthinkable in contemporary Kerala.

As a writer and film personality, MT often placed characters from epics and ballads who were seen as losers as heroes. In his historical fiction, Randamoozham (The Second Turn, 1984), MT narrates the story from the viewpoint of Bhim, the strongest of the Pandavas, and how he felt slighted at every opportunity by some of his brothers and the wife he shared with the rest of them. Similarly, he rejected outright the version of the famous Northern Ballads of Kerala in his 1989 movie Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha (A Northern Story of Valour) starring Mammootty as Chanthu, who was projected as the real hero as opposed to the entrenched perception of him being a betrayer and a villain.

As an editor of one of the most popular Malayalam literary weeklies in its prime, MT promoted not only his peers but also a large section of younger writers who went on to earn a name for themselves in the Kerala literary firmament and beyond. He was an early bloomer who won numerous awards beginning in his early twenties, eventually receiving the Padma Bhushan and Jnanpith Award, besides the scores of awards he had won earlier, which included the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Novel, the prestigious Vayalar and Ezhuthachan awards, and others.

MT, who was born into a lower-middle-class family in a small village called Kudallur in 1930s Malabar, had a spectacular career in his multiple roles as a creative genius and a maestro, yet one cannot accuse him of having chased such gains at the expense of the quality of his works. The film for which he wrote the screenplay in his inimitable style—Vilkkanundu Swapnangal (Dreams for Sale, 1980), starring Mammootty—is proof of how sheer brilliance translates into a commercial hit and a timeless classic.

Besides penning best-selling novels like Naalukettu, MT’s first major novel which he wrote at 23, Manju (Mist), Kaalam, Asuravithu, etc, he is also credited with turning the Thunchan Memorial Trust and Research Centre in Tirur, Malappuram, into a stellar institution.

deathIn MemoriamKeralaliteratureMalayalamMT Vasudevan Nair