MT Vasudevan Nair with actor Mammootty at the trailer launch in Kochi on July 15, 2024 ManorathangalBased on the short stories of MT. , Photo courtesy: The Hindu
True greatness lies in quantity.
You can also find glimpses of talent and genius in a poem, book, film or song. But the real thing is to cultivate that talent again and again.
That’s why William Shakespeare is the greatest writer of all time. he could write small village, storm, a Midsummer Night’s DreamAnd yes, he could write all those lovely sonnets too.
It boggles the mind how one man can produce such an astonishing amount of high quality work. When you go through the work of MT Vasudevan Nair in literature and cinema, you get a similar feeling. Malayali life is incomplete without MT
In any language, few have straddled the two worlds with so much ease, so much authority, so much abundance, and given so much joy to generations. He influenced a society and its culture in a way that very few people have.
He was not a writer of popular fiction. He wrote a lot of serious literature, but his popularity is perhaps no less than anyone else’s. It is difficult to think of so many writers in any Indian language who have received so much respect and love.
He has some incredible fans, like you would typically associate with movie or sports stars.
MT himself has written about a most unusual fan. A farmer who came to his house and to whom the author gave books as a gift. But that man had bought every book written by MT.
He saw the farmer taking out some old notes from his pocket. He held them in both his hands and said to the stunned author: “You have to take it, please don’t say you won’t.”
MT tells him he has no financial problems and has a job.
“I know,” said the farmer. “But when we go to a temple, don’t we pay money Dakshina As a gift to the priest or to the temple? Consider this a gesture of that kind.”
queue up for the script
Among MT’s biggest fans were the biggest directors of Malayalam cinema, who were willing to queue for years to get a script from him. By writing around 60 scripts, MT made some of them happy.
However, his first love was always imaginary. He was never fascinated by the magic of cinema. He directed only six feature films. He once told this writer that he did not want to direct films on a regular basis because there would be a financial commitment to the producer and he did not want to answer the question a director always faces: what’s next?
Read this also MT Vasudevan Nair, the great of screenwriting
So he spent most of his energy on his writing. And the Malayalam language, and literature, became richer for it.
Much of his imaginary world was set in his childhood in a village in Malabar, but he also wrote about life far beyond that. He also skillfully retells the Mahabharata from Bhima’s point of view. Through his short stories and novels, he brought out the minds of characters with astonishing vividness.
He was also an expert in cinema. Many of his screenplays were derived from his short stories or novels, but he also took inspiration from real-life events, history, and folklore.
His films were not only critically acclaimed but most of them were commercially successful. This says a lot not only about him but also about the sensitivity of the Malayali audience.
Despite being active in literature and cinema, he was also playing his role as the editor of a literary magazine very well. He helped many new writers find their voices, even though they were completely different from those of his writers; He would encourage them and also edit their stories.
appropriate memorial
MT also took the lead in building a befitting memorial to the father of Malayalam, Thunchath Ezhuthachan, in Tirur. This was one of his favorite projects.
A less documented aspect of his personality was public speaking. Before ill health affected him, he was the best speaker of Malayalam for a long time. As a reporter on cultural tune, one can hear many of his best speeches. It seemed as if he was filling the void left by Sukumar Azhikode.
True greatness sometimes lies in diverse talents.
published – December 26, 2024 03:08 am IST
