M.T. Vasudevan Nair: The pen that influenced a society and culture

M.T. Vasudevan Nair with actor Mammootty in Kochi on July 15, 2024 at the trailer launch of Manorathangal, based on MT’s short stories.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

True greatness lies in volume.

Flashes of brilliance, genius even, you may come across in a poem, a book, a film, or a song. But the real thing is to create that bit of brilliance again, and again.

That is why William Shakespeare is the greatest writer of all time. He could write Hamlet, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. And yes, he could write all those lovely sonnets, too.

It boggles the mind how one man could produce such an astonishing volume of top quality work. You get a similar feeling when you go through M.T. Vasudevan Nair’s work in literature and cinema. The Malayali life is incomplete without M.T.

Few, in any language, have straddled two worlds with such consummate ease, such authority, such prolificacy, and have given so much joy to generations. He influenced a society and its culture like very few have.

He was no writer of popular fiction. He wrote rather serious literature, but his popularity has perhaps been second to none. It is difficult to think of too many writers who have been revered and loved as much, in any Indian language.

He has some incredible fans, the kind of which you would normally associate with film or sports stars.

M.T. himself has written about a most unusual fan. A farmer who came to his home and whom the writer offered books as a gift. But the man had bought every book M.T. had written.

He saw the farmer take a few worn-out notes from his pocket. He held them out in both his hands and told the stunned writer: “You must take it, please don’t say you won’t.”

M.T. told him he had no financial issues and that he had a job.

“I know,” the farmer said. “But when we go to a temple, do we not give money as dakshina to the priest or as a gift to the temple? Think of this as that kind of a gesture.”

Que up for scripts

Among M.T.’s biggest fans were the biggest directors of Malayalam cinema, who would be willing to queue up for years to get a script from him. By writing some 60 scripts, M.T. made some of them happy.

His first love, however, was always fiction. He was never enamoured by the magic of cinema. He directed only six feature films. He once told this writer that he didn’t want to direct films regularly because there would be a financial commitment to the producer and that he didn’t want to answer the question a director always faced: what next?

Also read | M.T. Vasudevan Nair, a colossus of screenwriting

So he spent most of his energy on his writing. And the Malayalam language, and literature, became richer for that.

Much of his fictional world was rooted in the milieu he grew up, in a village in Malabar, but he also wrote about life far beyond. He also masterfully retold Mahabharata from Bhima’s viewpoint. Through his short stories and novels, he brought out the mind of the character with astonishing vividness.

He was a master in cinema, too. Several of his screenplays were adapted from his short stories or novels, but he also drew inspiration from real life incidents, history and folklore.

His films were not just critically acclaimed but most of them were commercial successes. That says a lot not just about him, but the sensibility of the Malayali audience.

Even as he was active in literature and cinema, he was also playing his role as the editor of a literary magazine with perfection. He helped several new writers find their voices, though they were distinctly different from his own; he would encourage them and even edit their stories.

Fitting monument

M.T. also led from the front in creating a fitting monument to the father of Malayalam, Thunchath Ezhuthachan, at Tirur. It was one of his pet projects.

A lesser documented facet of his personality was public speaking. Before ill-health affected him, he was, for quite some time, the best speaker in Malayalam. As a reporter on the cultural beat, one could listen to many, many great speeches by him. It was as if he was making up for the void left behind by Sukumar Azhikode.

True greatness sometimes also lies in varied talents.