Every landscape is a story

A chat with Malayalam contemporary fiction writer S Hareesh whose translated works are making waves.

With three collections of short stories and a novel, Malayalam contemporary fiction writer S Hareesh has several awards under his belt, including the Kerala Sahitya Akademi award. The latest is the 2020 JCB prize for Literature for his debut novel ‘Meesha’ (Moustache).

It is the second debut novel as well as the second Malayalam translation to win the award.

Kuttanad forms the backdrop of the novel whose main character is Vavachan, who defies caste norms to keep his moustache. Blending caste politics, magic realism or folklore, poverty, oppression and history, it is as much the story of the land and its people as it is of Vavachan.

Hailed as a contemporary classic in Malayalam literature, ‘Meesha’ ran into controversy in 2018 after right-wing elements claimed it was insulting Hinduism. Following threats to himself and his family, Hareesh withdrew the novel that was being serialised in a popular weekly. The Supreme Court dismissed a plea filed against the novel, citing that a writer’s imagination must be free and the novel eventually got published.

He has written screenplays too including one for the film ‘Jallikattu’, based on his story ‘Maoist’.

Born and raised in Kuttanad in Kerala, Hareesh divides his time between a full-time job in the revenue department and writing. Excerpts from an interview:

The landscape itself seems like a character in your stories...

I was born and grew up in Kuttanad, a unique place and I have always wanted to reflect that uniqueness in my fiction. The story of Vavachan cannot be told without Kuttanad being a central character because lives here are inextricably connected to the land. A Kuttanadan lives in close connection with its waterscape, fields, birds and water creatures. This connection is reflected even in their everyday anxieties and concerns. Land in Kuttanad is a natural and intimate character in its story.

Were you satisfied with the translation of ‘Meesha’ given that it is steeped in local life experiences, dialect, people and history?

My initial thought was that a novel like ‘Meesha’, steeped in local language and locally lived experiences, would be impossible to translate. But Jayasree Kalathil has done a great job and I am fully satisfied with it. It is important that a book finds a translator who understands it because if mistakes are made once, it would be impossible to correct them later. When people read ‘Meesha’ in English as ‘Moustache’, they are not reading what I wrote, but what Jayasree wrote, extending and extrapolating from what I wrote.

Did the controversy impact you or the sales of the book?

Of course, the controversy was difficult personally, but I don’t believe it affected my writing. I am sure I don’t need to talk about the extent of intolerance towards writing and writers in India currently. I do believe that controversies have an adverse effect on how books are read. Even those who supported me talked more about whether or not the controversy was valid rather than about the book itself. Only a handful of people in Kerala read and discussed the book for what it was. The translation, on the other hand, had several reviews in the English media. ‘Meesha’ sold well in Kerala, but it is only after the JCB Prize that people began reading it properly.

Your take on ‘Jallikattu’ and your screenplay writing?

The film is quite significantly different from the story ‘Maoist’. Cinema is primarily the director’s art. I like to say that my story was the inspiration for Lijo Jose Pellissery to make the film. Satire was the focus within the story, whereas in the film, the emphasis is on mob mentality. Sanju Surendran’s ‘Aedan’ is based on three of my short stories. The film won several state awards including one for screenplay. I have also written the screenplay for Lijo Jose Pellissery’s film ‘Churuli’, which has just completed shooting. The story of the film is by one of Malayalam’s prominent writers, Vinoy Thomas.

As the second Malayalam writer to win the JCB prize, what does it mean to you?

I am very proud that, in the three years of the JCB Prize, Malayali writers have won it twice. Malayalam has a wealth of works that could garner international attention if they find good translators.