M.T. Vasudevan Nair | I saw my own childhood in M.T.’s fiction, says writer C.V. Balakrishnan

M.T. Vasudevan Nair's impactful stories and dedication to writing inspired a budding writer's journey in literature and film.

Growing up in a village near Payyannur, I felt the short stories M.T. Vasudevan Nair wrote about his childhood were plucked from my own surroundings. There were far too many similarities in our matriarchal backgrounds, poverty in childhood and the extended absence of the father. I was moved to tears by his stories such as Oru Pirannalinte Orma, Karkidakam and Ninte Ormaykk. Those stories, and M.T. the writer, have played a major role in making me a writer. I still remember the speeches he made at literary camps and elsewhere. I was overjoyed when he published one of my short stories, Oru Maranavruthantham, in Mathrubhumi magazine when he was its editor.

At the Mathrubhumi office in Kozhikode, N.V. Krishna Warrier introduced me to him. M.T. told me that the second story I had submitted would also be published. I met him several times after that and we often discussed books, and he introduced me to new authors, such as Truman Capote and Pramoedya Ananta Toer.

He was an amazing reader, who would get excited by great books published across the world. I remember reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude after he wrote about it. I could agree with him: this was the book that would beat all other books. M.T. told me that he had lent the novel to critic M. Krishnan Nair.

I have admired M.T.’s devotion to writing. He never made a compromise. He worked relentlessly to achieve perfection. I was always amazed by his craft, the way he constructed the plot or wrote his dialogues. Be it in films, novels or short stories, he had this gift to come up with unforgettable dialogues. His sentences were just as powerful.

Among his novels, my favourite is Asuravithu. Govindan Kutty is one of the strongest characters of all time in our fiction. No man has gone through as much suffering as he has.

Kaalam is another novel I have high regard for. The portrayal of Sethu is remarkable.

As someone who also dabbled in screenplays for films, I have marvelled at his scripts. He will remain our best scriptwriter. One of the things that struck me most about his scripts is the way he turned his short stories into full-length feature films. That cannot be an easy process, turning a small story into a film that would run into more than two hours, as he did with Murappennu, Aalkoottathil Thaniye, Iruttinte Aathmavu, Edavazhiyile Poocha Mindapoocha, Kuttyedathi, Oppol and Ennu Swantham Janakikutty.