Where MT Vasudevan Nair leaves Malayalam literature
A version of this story was originally published in Malayalam in Ala.
THE RECENT DEATH of the Malayalam literary doyen M T Vasudevan Nair provoked a deluge of tributes in the South Indian state of Kerala and beyond. Apart from his enormous literary contributions, MT, as Nair was popularly known, had a prolific career as a screenwriter and director in Malayalam cinema. He won several national and state awards, including the Jnanpith Award in 1995, India’s highest literary honour, as well as the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award in 1970. MT’s works brought the culture, dialect and ethos of Valluvanad, a chiefdom located in present-day central Kerala, into the broader discourse of Malayalam literature and of global literary conversations. Born in 1933 in the town of Kudallur, in Kerala’s Palakkad district, MT gained renown for his humanistic storytelling, and for his exploration of complex relationships and societal realities with remarkable nuance and emotional depth. His literary works – novels, short stories and screenplays – are celebrated for their lyrical prose and complex characters, as well as for an authentic portrayal of Kerala’s cultural and social milieu.