| Malayattoor Ramakrishnan | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 27, 1927 Kalpathi, Palakkad |
| Died | 27 December 1997 (aged 70) |
| Occupation | IAS Officer, Writer |
| Spouse | Krishnaveni (1935-1999) |
Malayattoor Ramakrishnan (Malayalam: മലയാറ്റൂര് രാമകൃഷ്ണന്; 27 May 1927 – 27 December 1997) was a prominent Malayali novelist of the 20th century from Kerala state, South India. He is credited with having authored several important works in Malayalam literature, including novels, short stories and biographical sketches. Yanthram, Verukal, Yakshi and Service Story were some of his most famous works.
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Malayattoor Ramakrishnan was born on 27 May 1927 as K. V. Ramakrishna Iyer in Kalpathi in Palakkad in a family of Kerala Iyers. He was one of six siblings. The family settled down in a small village (Thottuva - Cheranalloor East) near the banks of the Periyar River. He studied in Perumbavoor and in Aluva and completed his Bachelors degree and a Law degree in Thiruvananthapuram.
Even during his student days, he had started writing and cartooning. He became a communist sympathiser and even contested Kerala assembly elections in Perumbavoor only to lose. In 1954, he married Krishnaveni (1935–1999). They had two children.
He started his work as a sub-editor in Free Press Journal in Bombay. He was a contributing cartoonist to Shankar's Weekly. He is also credited with the first Malayalam translation of Bram Stoker's Dracula apart from translating Sherlock Holmes novels into Malayalam.
In 1954, Ramakrishnan entered the Kerala judicial service and served as a magistrate. In 1957, he entered the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). He served as Sub-Collector in Ottapalam, Collector in Kozhikode, and held various positions in the Secretariat of Kerala, including as Member, Board of Revenue and Chairman of the Lalit Kala Akademi. The memoirs of his long career as a bureaucrat are narrated in his work Service Story – Ente IAS Dinangal.
Malayattoor wrote his best known work - Verukal (Roots) in 1965. It is a semi-autobiographical work which tells the story of a family of Tamil speaking Iyers who settled in Kerala. This won him the Kerala Sahithya Academy Award.[1] In 1981, he resigned from the Indian Administrative Service in order to devote his time to writing. It was during the period 1981 to 1997 that his most famous works emerged from his pen. Among his other famous novels are Yakshi, Yanthram, Nettoor Mathom and Amritham Thedi. For Yanthram, he was awarded the Vayalar Award.
Malayattoors novel Ponni (1967), was based on the lifestyle of Adivasis of Attappady at Malleswaram Hills. Slash and burn cultivation practised by the Adivasis suddenly stopped by the Government forcing them to search for new jobs. The hero changes his hair style to suit the times. The courtship dance and traditional songs were depicted in a realistic way. Ponni's characters talked and sang a mixture of Tamil and Malayalam with a tinge of Kannada. Its film adaptation of the same name had Kamal Hasan and Lakshmi in the lead roles.
Malayattoor had also authored scripts for several films. The most famous of these were Yakshi starring Sathyan, Chembarathi starring Madhu and Iyer the Great starring Mammootty. Malayattoor was also a well-known cartoonist and painter. For some years, he was Chairman of the Kerala Lalit Kala Academy. Some of his paintings are displayed in the Kerala Chitra Tirunal Art Gallery.
Apart from being a writer, he had also worked as an IAS officer, Magistrate and Lawyer. Before joining IAS, he contested to Kerala assembly on a Left front ticket. Malayattoor remained active though his later years and was working on a novel when he died in 1997 at Thiruvanathapuram. He was given a state funeral by the Government of Kerala.
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