TAMIL
Literary phenomenon
ASHOKAMITRAN
KALKI VALARTHA THAMIZH — A miscellany collected from the writings of ‘Kalki’ R.Krishnamurthy in the periodical Ananda Vikatan: Vikatan Prasuram, 757, Anna Salai, Chennai-600002. Rs. 160.
THE WRITER Kalki is a 20th century modern Tamil literary phenomenon. His writing career lasted just about 20 years but he wrote zestfully and incessantly, and his body of work runs to several volumes. He was an uncompromising nationalist; his life coincided with the struggle for freedom during the Gandhian years. He was keen on a large readership but he was also uncompromising in values and matters of taste which might today be considered conservative; but within such strict confines he communicated with remarkable certainty and infectious enthusiasm. Critically he may not be considered ambitious but he was ambitious in tackling an enormous variety of topics in a reader-friendly manner. His immense popularity gave him in his own time a good share of ferocious detractors out to destroy his immense popularity and put his literary integrity under a cloud.
It is now more than 50 years and his detractors are in sheltered and maybe unfrequented shelves while Kalki is still in print by a dozen publishers — his works have been placed in public domain — and he is still read and enjoyed. “Kalki Valartha Thamizh”, which means the Tamil nurtured by Kalki, stays clear of controversies but does include a pick of his articles and stories he wrote for Ananda Vikatan around the years 1928- 38. Kalki is most famous for three historical novels written during 1941-50. In this volume one would realise that the novels were products of years of reflection and the seeds of those novels were recognisable as early as 1934. His brief career had two phases and this collection is from his first. The book is elegantly produced and is embellished with a number of photographs and illustrations which accompanied his pieces when they were first published in the periodical.
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