Thunchanparamba at Tirur witnessed the beginning of a unique festival on Tuesday in celebration of its current head and Jnanpith laureate M.T. Vasudevan Nair. The festival named ‘Sadaram MT’ will celebrate the 90th birthday of the writer, popularly known as MT.
Inaugurating the festival, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan described MT as a writer who stood for secular values. He said MT keenly observed the era in which he lived, and reflected his observations in strong emotions.
The Chief Minister said the secular ideals propounded by MT had more value at a time when politics of hate was being spread. “Some people are trying to spread the message that Hindus and Muslims have been enemies for long. But MT’s works expose those people,” he said.
Actor Mammootty, who was the chief guest at the function, said he owed it to MT for creating characters that catapulted him to fame as an actor. Mr. Mammootty said there would be no Malayalam language without MT, and MT would stand high as long as the Malayalam language existed.
The actor said many more characters created by MT still remained unexploited. He expressed interest to give life to those characters. “I have been to Tirur only on a couple of occasions. I wanted to come, but couldn’t. I don’t think I would get a better opportunity to meet you all,” he said.
Mr. Mammootty said he had a very personal relation with MT. He said he visualized many characters created by the writer. “MT nurtured the actor in me,” he said.
A huge crowd greeted Mr. Mammootty at Thunchanparamba.
Culture Minister Saji Cherian presided over the function. P. Nandakumar, MLA, and novelist C. Radhakrishnan spoke.
