Eight years ago I was browsing in the DC Books shop at Thiruvananthapuram's Statue Road when I met a young man (well, my age) who struck me as special. Thin, lithe, bearded and with a sparkle in the eye. He did not have a hairstyle, he had hair about him. Clad in a neckless T and jeans. He picked up a thick tome from a shelf and for want of any other audience, addressed me and started extolling it lavishly. Roberto Bolano if I remember right. He seemed to be in a trance, awed by the sheer joy the sight of the book gave him. Wow, I thought, who is this man? My kind of mad man any case! Less than a year later I was at Kanakakunnu watching the release of books by new authors by veterans like Sethu, Mukundan and Chandramathi. Our beard man was there too. His book was a short story collection, Kottayam - 17.
They called him Unni. R.
The book was a delightful read. One of the stories, Anandamargam is about some female college professors setting out on a picnic, another called Leela is about a nouveau riche guy who has the outlandish ambition of wanting to copulate with a woman resting against an elephant. His stories are dialogue-rich and with enormous visual possibilities, like those of Zachariah from the previous generation. Unni wrote regularly in Malayalam weeklies and special issues but it was easier following his progress on the screen. He co-wrote the Amal Neerad movie Bachelor Party with another young man Santhosh Echikkanam. Unni's other scripts are Chappa Kurishu, Munnariyippu, a short called Kullante Bharya (in the film Anchu Sundarikal), short film Bridge in Kerala Cafe, Big B and Charlie (won him best screenplay award in 2015). His story Ozhivudivasathe Kali was adapted into a state award-winning movie. Director Ranjith, himself a top-notch screenwriter, adapted Unni's Leela to screen. His story Vaank ran into controversy.
Interestingly the other young writers I witnessed at Kanakakunnu that day all came to contribute to cinema. The foremost of these writers Subhash Chandran's story Parudeesa Nashtam became the dud film My Mother's Laptop. Santhosh Echikkanam wrote Idukki Gold, Annayum Rasoolum, Chandrettan Evideya, etc. Former The Week journalist Vinu Abraham's novella Nashtanayika is what became director Kamal's Celluloid, he wrote Parudeesa, plus he was the consultant for all those remakes that Suresh Kumar produced in recent years like Rathinirvedam, Chattakkari, Parankimala, Nidra and Neelathamara. Indu Menon wrote the story of Pithavum Kanyakayum, the film made by her husband and director Rupesh Paul. The story is about a middle-aged man who spends the night with a girl who happens to be his daughter's classmate. Barely 40, Indu is one of our boldest writers of erotica. In person, she is a picture of traditional femininity - set sari, puffed sleeve blouse, flower-bedecked hair, jimikki in the ears, enough bangles to conceal the hands, sandal paste and bindi on the forehead..... not the kind of image you would associate her stories with. In one of the stories, the protagonist, a lecherous man, collects used lingeries of women he sleeps with as souvenirs.
[caption id="attachment_1228" align="aligncenter" width="1048"]
Me with Benyamin in 2012[/caption]
The brave new generation of Malayalam is represented by some of the writers mentioned above along with Benyamin, K.R. Meera and the slightly older T.D. Ramakrishnan whose post-modernist works are a novelty in our literature. Meera became the youngest Vayalar Award winner at 44 when she won it for Arachar (Hangwoman in J. Devika's translation) but the very next year 43-year-old Subhash Chandran won it for Manushyanu Oru Amukham (Preface to Man. Translated by Fathima E.V). Meera's other works include Meera Sadhu (translated by Ministhy IAS As The Poison of Love) and Sooryane Aninja Oru Sthree. Subhash who grew up professionally with Mathrubhumi is now their Periodicals Editor. Benyamin left his Bahrain job in engineering and is a fulltime writer. Last year he won the inaugural JCB Literary Prize for Jasmine Days, the translation of his novel Mullappoo Niramulla Pakalukal. His other works include the novels Adujeevitham, Abeesagin, Pravachakanmarude Randaam Pustakam, Akkapporinte Irupathu Nasrani Varshangal, Manja Veyil Maranangal, Manthirilile Irupath Communist Varashangal, Arogyasastram and the short story collections Euthanasia, Penmarattam and EMSum Penkuttiyum. Adujeevitham (Goat Days) about the travails of a poor gulf immigrant who finds himself in jail in Saudi Arabia, is a watershed work from 2008 that has run into 150 editions. It is being made into a movie by Blessy. It is also a textbook in many universities. TD Ramakrishnan is the author of the novels Francis Ittycora, Sugandhi Enna Andal Devanayagi, Alpha and Mama Africa. Had Prof. M. Krishnan Nair been alive today, he would have called these works 'manufactured fiction' I feel. Google is God for the post-modernist. TDR's latest, Mama Africa is nearly 500 pages and set in Africa - mostly Uganda and neighboring Zaire and Tanzania and told through the eyes of a Malayali writer girl who lived through the Idi Amin/Milton Obote regimes. He wrote the novel without setting foot on the continent! Similarly, a lot of action in Benyamin's Manjaveyil Maranangal (Yellow Lights of Death) occurs in Diego Garcia island. Santhosh Echikkanam's short story Biriyani is considered one of the best ever in Malayalam. V. J. James, a scientist with ISRO won the novel category award of Kerala Sahitya Akademi for his work Nireeshwaran. K. V. Mohankumar who wrote Ushnarashi and E. Santhosh Kumar of Andhakaranazhi (English translation The Island of Lost Shadows) are two other names to watch out for. A spurt of good translations into English means the writers are getting wider exposure (and global awards).
[caption id="attachment_1238" align="alignnone" width="621"]
K. R. Meera[/caption]
Watch T.D. Ramakrishnan, Benyamin and Subhash Chandran discuss 'Malayalam literature in the world map' at Kerala Literary Festival.
I suppose one can rightly conclude that the future of Malayalam literature is in safe hands!
(2019)
They called him Unni. R.
[caption id="attachment_1228" align="aligncenter" width="1048"]
Me with Benyamin in 2012[/caption]The brave new generation of Malayalam is represented by some of the writers mentioned above along with Benyamin, K.R. Meera and the slightly older T.D. Ramakrishnan whose post-modernist works are a novelty in our literature. Meera became the youngest Vayalar Award winner at 44 when she won it for Arachar (Hangwoman in J. Devika's translation) but the very next year 43-year-old Subhash Chandran won it for Manushyanu Oru Amukham (Preface to Man. Translated by Fathima E.V). Meera's other works include Meera Sadhu (translated by Ministhy IAS As The Poison of Love) and Sooryane Aninja Oru Sthree. Subhash who grew up professionally with Mathrubhumi is now their Periodicals Editor. Benyamin left his Bahrain job in engineering and is a fulltime writer. Last year he won the inaugural JCB Literary Prize for Jasmine Days, the translation of his novel Mullappoo Niramulla Pakalukal. His other works include the novels Adujeevitham, Abeesagin, Pravachakanmarude Randaam Pustakam, Akkapporinte Irupathu Nasrani Varshangal, Manja Veyil Maranangal, Manthirilile Irupath Communist Varashangal, Arogyasastram and the short story collections Euthanasia, Penmarattam and EMSum Penkuttiyum. Adujeevitham (Goat Days) about the travails of a poor gulf immigrant who finds himself in jail in Saudi Arabia, is a watershed work from 2008 that has run into 150 editions. It is being made into a movie by Blessy. It is also a textbook in many universities. TD Ramakrishnan is the author of the novels Francis Ittycora, Sugandhi Enna Andal Devanayagi, Alpha and Mama Africa. Had Prof. M. Krishnan Nair been alive today, he would have called these works 'manufactured fiction' I feel. Google is God for the post-modernist. TDR's latest, Mama Africa is nearly 500 pages and set in Africa - mostly Uganda and neighboring Zaire and Tanzania and told through the eyes of a Malayali writer girl who lived through the Idi Amin/Milton Obote regimes. He wrote the novel without setting foot on the continent! Similarly, a lot of action in Benyamin's Manjaveyil Maranangal (Yellow Lights of Death) occurs in Diego Garcia island. Santhosh Echikkanam's short story Biriyani is considered one of the best ever in Malayalam. V. J. James, a scientist with ISRO won the novel category award of Kerala Sahitya Akademi for his work Nireeshwaran. K. V. Mohankumar who wrote Ushnarashi and E. Santhosh Kumar of Andhakaranazhi (English translation The Island of Lost Shadows) are two other names to watch out for. A spurt of good translations into English means the writers are getting wider exposure (and global awards).
[caption id="attachment_1238" align="alignnone" width="621"]
K. R. Meera[/caption]Watch T.D. Ramakrishnan, Benyamin and Subhash Chandran discuss 'Malayalam literature in the world map' at Kerala Literary Festival.
I suppose one can rightly conclude that the future of Malayalam literature is in safe hands!
(2019)
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