MT Vasudevan Nair was 40 years old when he directed a film for the first time. By then he had already written Naalukettu, Asuravithu, Kaalam, and Manju, four of the best known literary works in Malayalam, and scripted quite a few acclaimed films such as Murappennu and Iruttinte Athmavu. As decades passed by, many more memorable scripts, novels, and short stories rolled out of his pen, making it hard to choose a few to celebrate today, on his 90th birthday. We have managed to pick nine of MT’s best works, scripts and novels among them, in no particular order.
Scripts led by women
Aranyakam – When a male writer makes his protagonist a teenage girl with a grand imagination, it sounds like a scheme that can go wrong in multiple ways. Ammini (a vivacious Saleema) here is not your average teenager. She speaks brightly about anything and everything, uncomfortable truths tumbling out of her as if she was still a little girl, showing a sense of humour that goes almost stubbornly unacknowledged by those around her. But Ammini is also sensitive and her youngness comes out in her many lonesome moments. MT, as the scriptwriter of this Hariharan film, not only caught all of it in a most alluring manner, but brought Ammini close to generations of women watching her story.
Panchagni – In some ways, Panchagni is the polar opposite of Aranyakam, with a woman of experience at its centre. Indira (an excellent Geetha) is out on parole when the movie begins, meeting her family and old friends, her face unreadable as she fights her emotions. She had gone to jail as a naxalite, for killing someone who had raped, impregnated, and killed a tribal woman. On the outside, Indira looks incapable of such acts, wrapped in her white mundum neriyathum, talking little and trying her best to stay out of trouble. But in the face of injustice, she forgets everything else. Another captivating MT script filmed by Hariharan.
MT as director
Nirmalyam – MT’s first as a director, the movie was recalled in later decades when the times changed so much that it seemed impossible for such a work to be made any longer. The film’s protagonist is a velichappadu – an oracle who becomes the voice of god to people – managing a nearby temple, making little money to take home to his family of four. Poverty becomes intolerable as the grownup son can find no job and the daughter gets her heart broken. When worse comes to worst, the velichappadu (PJ Antony) spits on the idol of the goddess he had served for long, a scene many believe will not be allowed in today’s India.
Oru Cheru Punchiri – This film of MT’s is one of his most adorable works, the kind of movie you can watch over and over again and still feel so attached to. A darling old couple beautifully lead the story with their grounded conversations and witty exchanges, their everyday life revolving around the farm, the kitchen, and the friendly neighbours. One of Oduvil Unnikrishnan’s best roles, he pairs up with Nirmala Sreenivasan to give Malayalam cinema this sweet, sweet work of art.
Scripts of varied genres
Iruttinte Athmavu – Regarded as one of the best performances by Prem Nazir, this script of MT’s has a man with an intellectual disability at its centre. When the film came out, MT was 32 years old, and already considered one of the best writers in Malayalam. He had first written Iruttinte Athmavu as a short story, then adapted it to a screenplay for another legendary writer – P Bhaskaran – to direct it. Velayudhan’s story is heart-wrenching, as he makes his loud and angry protests while chained up in his own house, loved only by a cousin (Sharada) he is supposed to marry. The film won a National Award for Social Issues, and is considered part of a trilogy of MT’s scripts on political melodramas, along with Murappennu and Asuravithu.
Utharam – A different genre altogether, Utharam is neither a great love story nor a social drama, but your standard mystery drama, circling the death of a young woman inside a huge house. One morning that seemed like any other, Selina, a cheerful writer and happily married woman, takes a gun to her head and dies by suicide, shocking everyone around her, most of all her doting husband Mathew. But of course, nothing about an MT script is standard or stereotypical. More than a whodunit, the film dwells on the question of why she did it. Mammootty appears on the scene as a journalist friend who tries to find out the why of it, the script beautifully unravelling the layers of Selina (an expressive Suparna). MT’s script, adapted from Daphne du Maurier’ No Motive, is directed by VK Pavithran.
Read: Revisiting 'Utharam', the Mammootty mystery film that hides a deep secret
Anubandham – Mammootty used to regularly appear in the MT scripts of the 1980s, quite a few of them directed by the prolific IV Sasi. In Anubandham, Mammootty plays a middle-aged teacher moving to a village where he meets an old student (Seema) he had secretly been in love with. A widow now, she has troubles of her own, shunned by the orthodox-minded neighbours for not sporting plain clothes or the subdued manner expected of a bereaved wife. MT’s language expertly glides through the stories of these complicated grownups and their innocent children, making even the bitter parts of the story precious to watch.
MT’s novels
Randamoozham - Like he flipped the narrative of a ballad and turned the villain into a hero in the film Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha, MT's magic touch on the Mahabharata pulls out a less celebrated brother of the Pandavas, the big Bhima, as the protagonist in Randamoozham, one of his most known novels. While most popular adaptations of the epic dealt with the younger Arjuna, considered the most skilful Pandava, MT's Mahabharata told the unappreciated acts of Bhima, a man full of love and sacrifice and an undeniable strength that is taken for granted.
Naalukettu – One of his earliest and most recognised works, Naalukettu came out when MT was only 25. It revolved around a boy, Appunni, living away from his matriarchal family, with his mother alone. The duo are outcasts because the mother had chosen to marry the man she liked. Known both for its literariness and its portrayal of the decline of the joint family system, MT’s Naalukettu remains one of the most celebrated novels in Malayalam.