The first time MT Vasudevan Nair sent a story to a magazine, he used the pen name VN Thekkepattu, his family name, as he had seen writer SK Pottekkatt do. The second time, he prefixed the name of his hometown, Koodallur in Palakkad, following the example of writer Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai. The third time, he decided to use his official name, MT Vasudevan Nair. Months later, when he received a parcel of copies of Chitrakerala, a magazine published in Madras, he discovered that all three of his stories had been printed.
That was the start, many decades ago. When MT -- two letters that he would be fondly called by -- passed away on Christmas day of 2024, he left generations of Malayalis grappling with a grief akin to a personal loss. This was the great writer, who had taken his poetic prose to cinema and brought literature closer to Malayalis like no one before. It would seem apt to begin writing his story from that year, when his own foray into literature began.
A lot of reading and writing took place during that year when MT sat at home, having finished high school but missing out on college because the family could not afford to send two siblings to the university at the same time. One of MT’s brothers was already in college. Until then, he had little access to books, growing up in a remote village. But missing a year turned out to be a blessing—not just for MT, but for his many admirers, for that year at home would set him on the path to be a writer.
In his interviews, MT would recall going to the house of writer Akkitham Achuthan Namboodiri who lived nearby and borrowing book after book to read. All that reading, combined with the books he had devoured as a child from the school library and the few his brothers brought home, made MT want to write. The first jottings, as many beginners do, were written in private, not meant for publication. Gradually, the poems turned to prose, because, as MT would say, poetry just didn’t work for him—especially when he was so familiar with the work of great poets like Vallathol, Ulloor, and Asan.
After the short stories came the novels. One of his most renowned works, Naalukettu, was written when MT was 23. Like most of his seminal works, it took inspiration from his childhood, spent in a naalukettu—traditional houses of privileged caste families, with an inner courtyard dividing the house into four sides. The story centred on a young boy forced to leave his ancestral house with his mother, who had married a man of her choice, and the inner turmoil he grows up with.
The young author’s literary merit was duly acknowledged with an award from the Kerala Sahitya Akademi in 1958. Accolades would continue to follow him through his illustrious career, which included editing the prestigious Mathrubhumi magazine and intermittently churning out stories, articles, and novels.
Kaalam, another greatly appreciated novel about changing times and man’s eagerness to reach the top, brought MT his Kendra Sahitya Akademy award in 1970. Randhamoozham, his novel based on the Mahabharata and told from the point of view of a largely uncelebrated character Bhima, turned out to be one of his best. Manju (Snow), featuring a female protagonist Vimala, also ranked among MT’s most adored works. Kuttiyedathi, another story led by a woman, was inspired by a woman in his neighbourhood, Meenakshi.
Among his short stories, the one about Leela, a young girl who had spent a summer at his home after coming from Sri Lanka in the company of his father, stood out. Another story based on real life, Leela also had a sequel when the grownup author travels to Sri Lanka in search of her.
At some point, MT forayed into the world of films, though not with enthusiasm at first, as he later admitted. His preferred medium was always literature. But even in cinema, he maintained his literary ways, scripts sounding like poetry. Words poured out of his characters with the ease of everyday language, yet dipped in poetic beauty. None of it seemed out of place, pretentious, fake.
It was a time of new actors and experimentation, and MT’s beautiful scripts easily found a place among an adaptive audience. Iruttinte Athmavu, Aaranyakam, Anubandham, Aalkootathil Thaniye, Kadavu, Sadayam, Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha, Utharam, Perunthachan, Panjagni, and Parinayam, and many other scripts endeared him to audiences with different tastes and perspectives. His works spanned genres from drama to romance to thriller.
In his films, women stood tall and spoke their minds, with the originality that the times allowed. He could miraculously get into the shoes of a young girl, wandering through forests when she was lonely and writing in a little bound book (Aranyakam), or a mature woman recently released from jail for defying injustice, and unafraid to do so again (Panjagni), or a village teacher who had sacrificed many things for love but could take the reins when she wanted to (Aalkootathil Thaniye).
MT often said and wrote about his mother as his model. When there was talk of dividing the family property among her four sons, she insisted that the plot be divided into five, for she had a daughter too.
When MT wrote about men, he sided with the less talked about, like Bhima in Randamoozham, or with the one on the wrong side, like Chandu in Oru Vadakkan Veera Geetha, the film. For Iruttinte Athmavu, he drew from his childhood and brought to life a mentally ill man he remembered had once broken his chains and come to his mother asking for food. Stars, including Prem Nazir, Sharada, Mammootty, Mohanlal and Seema, led his unforgettable stories.
He also directed a few films, all of which have stood the test of time, decade after decade. Amid today’s innumerable acts of intolerance, critics often quote MT’s Nirmalyam, pointing out how there was once a movie in which an oracle spat on the idol of a goddess and it was accepted by one and all as a work of art and expression. His Oru Cheru Punchiri, telling the simplest of tales about the life and ways of an old couple in a village, is one of the sweetest and most cherished films to come out in Malayalam.
To commemorate his 90th birthday, Malayalam cinema paid a tribute by adapting nine of his short films into an anthology of nine films, by different filmmakers. The film Manorathangal, which came out on OTT this year, was spearheaded by his daughter Aswathy Nair.
With his work in literature and cinema, MT brought language closer to generations of Malayalis. For his literature, MT won the Jnanpith – the highest award for literature in India – as early as 1995, and for his work in films, he got in 2013 the JC Daniel award, for lifetime contribution in Malayalam cinema. He was also a winner of the Government of India’s Padma Bhushan, third highest civilian award.
