Madath Thekkepat Vasudevan Nair, or better known as MT, legendary writer, editor and screenwriter, He breathed his last in Kozhikodewhere he spent the better part of his 91 years. MT arrived on the literary scene when the social bent of pre-independence India was waning to make way for more personal and psychological angst with fiction. Her stories about aristocratic joint families giving way to nuclear ones, nature being consumed by industry, men’s angst at times of sudden social change and women’s defiance of the establishment made her a giant icon not only in Kerala but in the wider cultural landscape. India.
He was only 25 when he won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi for Nalukettu (1959), the story of an angry young man who wants to destroy his ancestral home because of how the family treats his rebellious mother. A decade later, MT won the Central Sahitya Akademi Award for ‘Kalam’ (1969), the story of a man who sees all achievement as futile and searches for a reason to live, from woman to job to family, tumultuous. of a purpose.
But before that, he worked for a degree in chemistry and worked as a math teacher in a school, a profession that attracted him to considerable vacations. After a brief stint as a government block development office, he found his home in literature and cinema – his childhood favourites. His brothers were noted writers, and MT began his literary career in 1957 by editing Mathrubhumi Weekly. Under his leadership, the magazine would launch the careers of literary giants like OV Vijayan, Sethu, M Mukundan, Paul Zakaria. and Sarah Joseph.
“I have known him for six decades, first as a reader and then as a mentor. In 1967, I was on a tour of some of the drought-prone areas of Bihar. It was a horrifying experience for the Malayalis surrounded by vegetation and water. I was 24 at the time and was shocked by the pain I saw. I wrote something but wasn’t sure if it was a story or an essay. I didn’t know MT then, but he loomed large in our literary landscape. I sent it home, never expecting to hear back. To my surprise, he not only came back and helped publish that story, he was also instrumental in pushing me to write my first novel,” said 82-year-old Sethu.
He added: “He was the best literary editor in any Indian language. From Kakkanadan to Padmarajan, he was instrumental in bringing out about 10 important writers in the 1960s. He was my mentor in every sense of the word.”
When MT started writing, Vaikom Muhammad Basheer, Thakazhi Sivashankar Pillai, Ponkunnam Varki, Kesavadev, Karur Neelkanth Pillai, SK Pottekkat, ‘Urub’ PC Kuttikrishnan and Lalithambika Antharjanam were the reigning stars of Malayalam literature. MT’s writing would be a broken sign with the old order. Zakaria, 79, said: “He turned the tables on Malayalam literature with Nalukettu (1958), which he hailed from the (elite) Nair community and which was driven to the ground due to a lot of financial worries and friction. He also wrote Randamoozham (1984) which told the story of the Mahabharata from Bhima’s point of view.
It tells the story of the Pandava brothers, freed from mythology, grounded in realism. “He is the man who modernized Malayalam fiction and, as other writers contributed, he brought it alive. The popularity that Malayalam-to-English translations enjoy today is partly due to his great influence,” Zakaria said.
Karthika VK, publisher, Westland Books, who has worked with V Abdullah and later Geeta Krishnakutty (who worked on Randamoozham) on several translations of MT, said, “His stories… are all very influential and have influenced the way most Malayalis think. About home, family, history, mythologies old and new… I have long admired him: his lack of empathy for humans, his dry sense of humour, his deep emotional connection with the Malayali psyche, his unrelenting insistence on the primacy of freedom of expression and integrity in politics. And also his affection and loyalty to longtime associates.
Although he left his hometown of Cuddalore after school, it became the basis of his work’s intimacy with nature. He once wrote: “I was born in a poor middle-class agricultural family in a sleepy little village… The villagers believed that if one could recite Ejuthachan’s spiritual Ramayanam well, one’s education was complete. If you take the cattle to the nearby stream without allowing them to graze through the lush paddy fields on either side of the dam, the elders will find you fit for farm work.”
Apart from nine novels and 19 short story collections, Nair also made a mark in screenwriting, penning over 50 screenplays and directing six films. “He brought a modern sensibility to (the form) … despite being a modernist, he stuck to the traditional mode of storytelling because he was comfortable with it,” Zakaria said. MT’s most recent screenwork includes Manorthangal, a 2024 collection of his stories which he adapted for the screen, featuring some of the biggest names in Malayalam cinema like Mahesh Narayanan, Fahadh Faasil, Priyadarshan and Mohanlal.
“He was my mentor, friend and drinking buddy for over 60 years,” Zakaria said. “He was a good man, an easygoing man, concerned and caring for his friends, although he could seem aloof with people he didn’t know well.” Karthik said, “MT is, without a doubt, one of the greatest writers of all time… There really cannot and will never be (another) like him.”
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