MT Vasudevan Nair: Celebrated Indian author dies at 91

Born in 1933 in Kerala’s Palakkad district, Nair was a voracious reader – though reading was not encouraged, external 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, external.

Nair studied chemistry in college and went on to teach maths to school students. Later, he joined the prestigious Mathrubhumi weekly magazine and soon made a name for himself as a writer and editor, with several novels and collections of short stories, newspaper columns, memoirs and travelogues to his credit.

As an editor, Nair is credited with discovering and publishing many young writers who later became famous.

Nair’s novel Naalukettu (Four blocks), about the decline of a joint family, won one of Kerala’s highest literary honours in 1959. Decades later, he adapted the book into a television film for the government-run Doordarshan channel, winning a state award.

His novel Randamoozham (The Second Turn), a retelling of the Hindu epic Mahabharata from the point of view of the character Bhima, is considered a classic of Indian literature.

He has won several awards throughout his career, including India’s highest literary honour, the Jnanpith.

Besides his literary work, Nair had a prolific career as a screenwriter and director in Malayalam cinema, winning several national and state awards.

Among his best-known screenplays is Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha (A northern ballad of valour), set in 16th-Century Kerala, in which he retold a popular folktale and upended notions of villainy and honour. The film, with its powerful dialogues and performances, is considered a classic in Malayalam cinema.

A recent anthology series, Manorathangal, which adapted his short stories, featured stalwarts from the southern Indian film industry such as Kamal Haasan, Mammootty, Mohanlal and Fahadh Faasil.

Malayalam superstar 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, external.

In interviews, Nair would often speak about the books he was reading from around the world.

In a tribute to the writer on his 90th birthday last year, MV Shreyams Kumar, the managing director of Mathrubhumi, wrote, external that Nair was always reading and rereading books.

“I’ve often thought about what future generations, myself included, should learn from MT. I believe it is concentration. Whenever I see him, he is surrounded by books, fully immersed, almost as if in meditation. The latest releases are always on his table, alongside classics by writers like Marquez,” he wrote.