PROFILE | M.T. Vasudevan Nair at 90: Maverick maestro of words and frames

Published : Jul 26, 2023 16:37 IST - 10 MINS READ M.T. MT as scriptwriter and filmmaker MT entered the world of films in the mid-1960s when Malayalam cinema was on the cusp of change; it was struggling to find its own narrative styles and visual idiom, and surviving as a popular medium and industry. The notable films of this period—the trilogy of Murappennu, IruttinteAtmavu, and Asuravithu, and the two “city films”: Nagarame Nanni and Pakalkinavu —inaugurate the major themes of the writer’s oeuvre: the degenerating tharavads ; hopeless loves and conflicts within and between individuals, families, and communities; the lure of the city; and the futility of trying to settle scores with the past. The films set in the “MT milieu”, so to speak, were in sharp contrast—in them, the past was a nostalgic refuge from the present, a glorified feudal era that the new heroes wanted to reinhabit, reinvent, and relive. From his earliest films, MT’s attitude towards religion was critical, as is evident from Asuravithu, where the protagonist Govindankutty, raging against his community, converts to Islam, only to find himself doubly ostracised.