A renowned poet from Kerala, in the southeastern of India, MT Vasudevan Nair passed away at the age of 91.
Nair died in a doctor in Kerala’s Kozhikode city, where he was admitted a few days ago with breathing problems.
Apart from being a famous blogger, MT, as Nair was frequently known, was also an lauded film producer and writer.
Tributes have begun pouring in for the writer, who was considered the doyen of Malayalam-language literature.
Born in 1933 in Kerala’s Palakkad district, Nair was a voracious reader – though reading was not encouraged in his family – and began writing from a young age, with his work being published in magazines.
“Unlike other boys of my age I was not very interested in playing. There was only one game I could play alone – writing,” he once told Outlook magazine.
Nair began teaching math to kids in school after finishing her science degree. Eventually, he later accepted the renowned Mathrubhumi regular journal and quickly established himself as a writer and director with a number of books and little story choices, paper columns, memoirs, and travelogues to his credit.
Nair is credited with finding and publishing a number of emerging authors who later gained notoriety as an director.
Nair’s novel Naalukettu ( Four blocks ), about the decline of a joint family, won one of Kerala’s highest literary honours in 1959. Years later, he adapted the text into a television drama for the government-run Doordarshan route, winning a condition honor.
His book Randamoozham ( The Second Turn ), a retelling of the Hindu epic Mahabharata from the perspective of Bhima, is regarded as a classic of Indian literature.
He has won several awards throughout his career, including India’s highest intellectual dignity, the Jnanpith.
Nair, who also won numerous national and state awards, had a prolific job as a writer and producer in Malayalam theatre.
Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha ( A northern ballad of valour ), one of his best-known screenplays, was based in Kerala in the 16th century, where he retold a well-known folktale and upended notions of villainy and honor. The picture, with its powerful conversations and shows, is considered a classic in Malayalam theatre.
A new story line, Manorathangal, which adapted his short stories, featured greats from the southwestern Indian film industry for as Kamal Haasan, Mammootty, Mohanlal and Fahadh Faasil.
Malayalam actor Mohanlal, who acted in the series, called Nair” Kerala’s pride”.
“You can change the dialogues of any other films, but not MT’s, since those dialogues are essential to understand the essence of what is being conveyed,” he said.
In conversations, Nair had frequently talk about the books he was reading from around the globe.
In a tribute to the writer on his 90th birthday last year, MV Shreyams Kumar, the managing director of Mathrubhumi, wrote that Nair was always reading and rereading books.
” I’ve often thought about what potential years, myself included, really learn from MT. I believe it is attention. Whenever I see him, he is surrounded by books, entirely engaged, almost as if in prayer. The latest produces are always on his board, behind masterpieces by artists like Marquez”, he wrote.