C. N. Sreekantan Nair

C. N. Sreekantan Nair was born on March 31, 1928 at Chavara, in Karunagappally taluk of Kollam district in the south Indian state of Kerala to Madavur Neelakanta PIllai and Madhavikutty Amma.[1] After schooling at local schools, he did his college education at Thiruvananthapuram during which time he was involved in student politics and served as the secretary of Akhila Thiruvithamcoor Vidyarthi Congress and as the vice president of the Akhilendhya Vidyarthi Congress. He participated in the Vidyarthi Congress of 1947 which was banned by C. P. Ramaswami Iyer, the then Diwan of Travancore, and he had to go into hiding. After the Indian independence, he completed his graduate studies and joined Prabhodham daily run by A. P. Udhayabhanu. Later, he worked in a number of publications, such as Navabharatham, Kaumudi, Tharapadham, Kathamalika and Deshabhandhu.[2] He also worked as the district information officer of Department of Information and Public Relations, a job he quit, following a difference with R. Sankar, the then chief minister of Kerala.[1]

Sreekantan Nair was married to Karimuttathuveettil Kanakalatha[3] and the couple two children.[4] Towards the later part of his life, he turned spiritual and was involved in the running of a press, Sreemudralayam, in Kottayam which was later shifted to Ernakulam. He died on December 18, 1976, at the age of 48.[1]

Sreekanatan Nair, whose body of work comprises 10 plays, 4 short story anthologies and a book of non-fiction,[5] is best known for his Ramayana-based trilogy,[6] Saketham, Lankalakshmi and Kanchana Sita[7][8] and Ayyappa Panicker, a noted poet and scholar, observed that Lankalakshmi brought out the playwright in Sreekantan Nair, while Saketham and Kanchana Sita highlighted the poet and the philosopher in the playwright.[9] His first major play was Nashtakachavadam, which was a short story in the beginning but was later rewritten as a play in 1957 and Kali a play he wrote in 1967 is known as the first surrealist play in Malayalam literature.[1] Nair, who experimented with stage direction and concepts of theatre,[10] co-founded Nataka Kalari, a Kollam-based forum for the promotion and practice of theatre; several known writers and artists such as M. Govindan, Ayyappa Panikkar, G. Aravindan, Kainikkara Kumara Pillai and G. Sankara Pillai were involved with the movement.[3]

Sreekantan Nair's involvement with Malayalam cinema started with the 1966 film, Archana, directed by K. S. Sethumadhavan, and he wrote the story, screenplay and dialogues for the film.[11] His next venture was for Kamuki, an Adoor Gopalakrishnan film, which was based on Nair's story but the film never released.[12] Theerangal, a film by Rajeevnath in 1978 was based on his story and he wrote the dialogues for the movie and collaborated with the director on the screenplay.[13] His play, Kanchana Sita was adapted into a film with same name by G. Aravindan and the film fetched the National Film Award for Best Direction for its director.[14]

Sreekantan Nair received the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Drama in 1962 for the play, Kanchana Sita.[15] He was also a recipient of the M. P. Paul Prize, his play, Nashtakachavadam, fetching him the award.[2]

• C. N. Sreekantan Nair; Sarah Joseph (2005). Retelling the Ramayana. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-566623-2.
• Rakhi, K.R., M.A., PhD (2013). Treatment of Myth in C N Sreekantan Nair's Kanchana Sita. Oxford University Press. ISSN 1930-2940.
• Lankalakshmi – English Translation by Vasanthi Sankaranarayanan
• Abhilash Pillai (2007). C. N. Sreekantan Nair – Vision & Mission of a theatre Activist. Sahitya Akademi. ASIN B004RC2Y42.
• C. N. Sreekantan Nair (2013). In the shade of Sahyadri. OUP India. ISBN 9780198092179.

• Lankalakshmi on YouTube
• "Portrait commissioned by Kerala Sahitya Akademi". Kerala Sahitya Akademi. 15 April 2019. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
• "Handwriting". Kerala Sahitya Akademi. 15 April 2019. Retrieved 15 April 2019.