C. V. Balakrishnan
| C. V. Balakrishnan | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | 24 September 1952 Payyannur, Kerala, India |
| Occupation | Writer, teacher, freelance journalist |
| Language | Malayalam |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Ethnicity | Malayali |
| Genre | Novel, novella, short story, essay, screenplay |
| Notable works |
Ayussinte Pusthakam Disa Kamamohitham Atmavinu Sariyennu Thonnunna Karyangal |
| Notable awards |
Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award Kerala State Film Award |
C. V. Balakrishnan (Malayalam: സി. വി. ബാലകൃഷ്ണൻ; born 24 September 1952) is a Malayalam-language novelist, short story writer, essayist and screenplay writer from the south Indian state of Kerala. His novels and short stories encompass the emotional issues related to mass culture, sexual politics, fate of the marginalised and institutionalised religions. An author of more than 40 literary works along with a few film scripts and film criticisms, his best known work is the novel Ayussinte Pusthakam (Book of Life). He received the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award in 2000 for the novel Atmavinu Seriyennu Thonnunna Karyangal and the Kerala State Film Award for Best Book on Cinema in 2002 for Cinemayude Idangal. In 2014, he won the Padmaprabha Literary Award
Balakrishnan was born in Payyannur, Kannur district, Kerala. After completing his school education, he took training in teaching and worked in various schools before shifting to Calcutta in 1979 where he worked as a freelance journalist. It was in Calcutta he began writing Ayussinte Pusthakam.
Balakrishnan is married to Pathmavathi and has two children: Nandan and Nayana. He resides in Kalikkadavu, Kasaragod district, Kerala.
Ayussinte Pusthakam is considered one of the major works in the post-modernist Malayalam literature. Balakrishnan began writing this novel when he moved to Calcutta in late-1970s. An old edition of the Bible at St. Paul's Cathedral in Calcutta triggered the book in him. It took him three years to complete the novel. Says the author: "All the characters and villages of Christian settlers were in my mind long before I began thinking about writing Ayussinte Pusthakam. The characters are based on people I met during my course as a school teacher in a village in Kasaragod. I wrote Ayussinte Pusthakam at a time when I was going through an emotionally difficult period; my relation with my father was strained and I was feeling very lonely. Ayussinte Pusthakam is about loneliness.” The book is also about sin and sadness, written in a style and language that have been judiciously borrowed from The Bible." The novel was successfully adapted for the stage by suveeran in 2008. It won many Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi Awards including one for the best play.
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