Odayil Ninnu by P.Kesavadev

Born on August 1905. His real name was Kesava Pilla. He got inspired by the words of Pandit Kushiram and joined Aryasamaj and changed his name to Kesavadev. Then he as a leader of Rationalism, and later entered into politics.

He led many trade union groups. He was the editor of many weekly's like swadheshabhimani, rajabharatham, prathidhinam, mahathma etc. He led Malayalam literature during the 1930's . His first novel was Odayil ninnu. He wrote around 80 works. On 1964 he got Kendra Sahithya Award and received Soviet land Nehru Award during 70's.

He got Kerala Sahithya academy fellowship and he died on 1983 July 01.

Odayil Ninnu is the first and famous Novel of Shri P. Kesavdev. Written in Malayalam during 1942. This is one of the best known work of Shri P. Kesavadev.

The summary of the story in very short can be said as : this is the story of a rikshaw puller - Pappu, who was living his life without any mission in his life. He was a fighter for justice and equality. Once he met a small child Lakshmi and came to know more about her and her mother - Kalyani. Later he spends his entire life for the small kid Lakshmi.

He joined her to school and made everything that Lakshmi wished in her life. He made her a graduate. As Lakshmi grows up , she became very arrogant and proud . She hardly spokes to her guardian. She didn't even wanted Pappu's presence. But Pappu was not taken aback from these ; he continued to take care of Lakshmi and forgives everything that she showed to him.

But gradually Lakshmi and Kalyani went away from his life , without a word of gratitude. Pappu had taken Lakshmi from a gutter and made her to the maximum highest level as he could and hence the name Odayil Ninnu for the novel meaning - from the gutter.

The Novel ends while Lakshmi realizes her mistakes, but by that time Pappu was long away from the life.. The novel describes the struggles and life of Pappu and also his view towards life.

• Ayalkkar
• Adhikaram
• Odayil Ninnu
• Bhranthalayam
• Adyathe Kadha
• Aarkku Vendi
• Enikkum Jeevikkanam
• Njana Thettukaran
• Oru Sundariyude Athmakadha
• PremaViddi
• Vilpanakkaran
• Thiranjedutha Kadhakal
• Yamuna ekagramayi Oyukunnu
• Bhavivaran
• Kamukante Kathu
• Nadakakruthu
• Njan ipoo communist akum
• Munnoottu
• Tharavadu
• Ethirppu
• Thirinju nootam

I got the novel odayil ninnu from one of my friend and it took me hardly one day to completely read the book. It's a small novel and before reading the novel, all I had in my mind was the movie in the same name.

I had seen that movie and what I had in my mind was the characters that I saw in the film. I can't think somebody else in the place of Pappu other than the famous actor Sathyan.

The film Odayil Ninnu was a great commercial success and also it got a certificate of merit from National Film Awards. It was released on March 1965, the black and white movie. The story was the same as the Novel. The roles played was as follows

Sathyan : the lead role of Pappu

K.R.Vijaya : the heroine Lakshmi

Prem Nazir : played an important role , Gopi who later marries Lakshmi

Kaviyoor Ponnamma : Mother of Lakshmi

it was produced by P. Ramaswami and directed by K.S. Sethumathavan

It is better to read the novel first, than to see the movie. I made the mistake of reading the novel after seeing the film. I had seen the film long ago during my childhood times. But then also I couldn't get the feeling while reading the novel as I had already fixed the characters and their mannerisms to the actors in the film, I couldn't visualize more.

Movie actually destroys the way we think. But while reading, we actually visualizes things in a different manner and once we see the movie, our ability to visualize goes away...