The people’s bard
A Gentle Giant
The year was 1946. A 15-year-old boy published a Malayalam poem titled Munnottu (forward) and gained immediate acceptance. It was the beginning of a long march forward.
At 79, Ottaplakkal Neelakantan Velu Kurup, popularly known as ONV Kurup, has won the Jnanpith Award to top many other awards and honours he had won. Over the years ONV has endeared himself to readers with his poems reflecting contemporary concerns and exuding ineffable charm and lucidity.
The flair of his poetry still remains vibrant. Being in the limelight for six decades as a poet, lyricist, academician, orator and social activist is a rare phenomenon.
He is the product of tumultuous times when Kerala had witnessed proletarian uprisings and political repression. Hailing from Chavara, a sleepy village reeking of coconut fibre and mineral sand near Kollam, he was drawn to communist ideology quite early.
His father Krishna Kurup, a Sanskrit scholar and connoisseur of arts, had a profound influence on the young ONV.
His sudden death plunged the eight-year-old boy into loneliness. He found solace in books. “Poetry was a drop of light that came to me in the dark solitude of my childhood’’, the poet recalls.
It is the rural landscape of his native Chavara that primarily inspires him. At a reception in Kollam recently, ONV said: “A poet attains ecstasy when he gets the feeling that the people of his native place own him. There are many writers, including Homer, who had to leave the world without attaining such a feeling.”
He was among the progressive writers who tried to articulate the hopes and aspirations of a restive generation. ONV along with Vayalar Rama Varma and P Bhaskaran drew inspiration from the struggle against exploitation and wrote about a new dawn, an egalitarian society.
ONV had a very fruitful association with Kerala People’s Arts Club (KPAC), the cultural arm of the Left, during this period. The 1952 play Ningal Enne Communistakki (You made me a communist) was a milestone.
The lyrics penned by ONV reflecting the revolutionary fervor of the times with a romantic touch were instant hits. His theatre songs resonated with the images of heroic struggle against oppression and the passionate wish for a society sans exploitation.
Anything under the sun is subject for his poetry. Little pleasures and pains of day-to-day life, myriad hues of human relations, many moods of love, anxiety, despair - the whole gamut of human emotions are fertile grounds for poetic expression. It can be a sigh or a drop of tear.
Unfulfilled love is a recurring theme. The poet often assumes the role of a representative of the suffering millions and exhorts them to rise against tyranny and injustice. The thematic variety is astonishing.
ONV’s major works include Daahikkunna Paanapaathram (The Thirsty Chalice), Mayilpeeli (Peacock Feather), Agnishalabhangal (Fire Moths), Aksharam (Alphabet ), Karutha Pakshiyude Paattu (Song of a Black Bird), Uppu (Salt), Bhoomikkoru Charama Geetham (A requiem for the Earth) and Ujjayini). Ujjayini is a novel in verse exploring the genius of Kalidasa.
During the red decade it was the plight of toiling masses that inspired his poems. In a poem Njan Ninne Snehikkunnu (I love you) ONV dwells on the tragic love story of a girl selling butter milk by the roadside and a soda vendor.
The unmistakable messianic zeal soon gave way to disillusionment as the new dawn envisioned appeared as a mirage. The ideological fissures in the communist ranks added to the confusion. For ONV this was an opportunity to re-discover his pursuit and transcend his limitations.
His poetic realm began to take a new trajectory with a broader vision. Not confining to issues of immediate concern, he began to give expression to new challenges facing humanity.
The poet in him never loses heart. Outliving the anxiety and disillusionment, humanist hopes and aspirations provided a new dimension to his poems in the 70s. Even while expressing vast depths of sadness, there is a glimmer of hope in the horizon. But social concerns are ever present.
ONV is a master in painting pictures of landscapes through words. For him nature and human beings are inseparable and the future of humankind hinges on this harmony.
When nature faces threats our own future is in peril. His love and concern for nature finds its finest expression in Bhoomikkoru Charama Geetham. It has emerged as a modern classic with an apocalyptic vision of mother earth’s impending demise.
It is a haunting image of the earth ravaged by human greed. Atrocities committed by man have left deep scars on her. Here he scales new heights with a different idiom reflecting contemporary realities. He was on the vanguard of the epic struggle by writers and environmentalists to protect the Silent Valley forests. It was the same concern that prompted him to agitate against the plan to fell mahogany trees in front of University College, Thiruvananthapuram.
For ONV, poetry is synonymous with music and rhythm. The celebrated poet has won as much acclaim for his film lyrics as his poems have. The lyrical wonders that he created in association with music directors G Devarajan and Salil Chaudhury remain the ever green melodies of Malayalam films.
He has won 13 state film awards and a national award for the best lyric. Long after the films have vanished from public memory, the songs continue to enchant the public.
Despite the crisis facing the world of communism, his faith in the ideology remains intact. “I write poems for a better tomorrow.
There is no harm in dreaming of an egalitarian society. It is the most beautiful dream one can have,’’ professor ONV told this writer after the break-up of the Soviet Union. What has ensured the undiminished popularity of his poems is the steady evolution of his craft to reflect the changing ethos and aspirations of society. He has been reinventing himself constantly.
His poetic world is a blend of tradition and modernity drawing heavily from the folk tradition. In ONV’s poems laced with commitment to the underprivileged, one can hear what Wordsworth has called, “the still, sad music of humanity.’’
