''Naadan Premam'' ( en, Love in the Countryside) is a

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 2 ...

novel written by

S. K. Pottekkatt Sankarankutty Kunjiraman Pottekkatt (14 March 1913 – 6 August 1982) was an Indian writer of Malayalam literature and a politician from Kerala, India. He was also a great traveller among the Keralites, who wrote many travelogues for the peopl ...

in 1941. It is a short novel written when the author was in

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-m ...

and tells the story of an innocent village belle jilted by a modern man-about-town. It is set entirely in

Mukkam Mukkam is a major municipality town in Kozhikode, state of Kerala, India. Mukkam is one of the major regional suburb of the Kozhikode district. Mukkam is located about 27 km east of Calicut city on the bank of river Iruvanjippuzha, one of th ...

, a rustic village on the banks of

Iruvanjippuzha Iruvazhanjippuzha, or Iruvanjipuzha, is a major tributary of River Chaliyar and joining to Chaliyar at Koolimadu near Cheruvadi. Its major tributary is Chalippuzha, which joins with it about 3 km north of Thiruvambady town. Other tributaries ...

, a major tributary of River

Chaliyar Chaliyar River is the fourth longest river in Kerala at 169 km in length. The Chaliyar is also known as Chulika River, Nilambur River or Beypore River as it nears the sea. Pothukal, Chungathara, Nilambur, Mampad, Edavanna, Kavanoor, P ...

. Written initially as a

film treatment A film treatment (or simply treatment) is a piece of prose, typically the step between scene cards (index cards) and the first draft of a screenplay for a motion picture, television program, or radio play. It is generally longer and more detail ...

and later converted into a novel, it was serialised in ''

Kerala Kaumudi ''Kerala Kaumudi'' is a Malayalam language daily newspaper published from Kerala, India. It was founded in 1911 by C. V. Kunhiraman as a periodical. His son K. Sukumaran later served as the newspaper's editor. Kerala Kaumudi Daily is among th ...

'' newspaper and released as a book in August 1941. It was adapted into a film of the same name in 1972 but was not a success on the screen. The novel is an important chapter in the history of Mukkam. The writer resided on the banks of Iruvanjippuzha for some time before he left for Bombay to write the novel. In 2005, a memorial was built at the heart of Mukkam, on the banks of the Iruvanjippuzha, as a tribute to the writer.

Plot summary

Ravindran, a young rich man from

Kozhikode Kozhikode (), also known in English as Calicut, is a city along the Malabar Coast in the state of Kerala in India. It has a corporation limit population of 609,224 and a metropolitan population of more than 2 million, making it the second l ...

, is living anonymously in

, a small village on the banks of

. There he falls in love with a young village girl by the name Maalu. Ravi decides to leave after staying for two months and assures Maalu that he will return. Maalu does not inform him that she's pregnant. Few days later, Maalu receives a letter from him saying that he will be going for a Europe tour and will return after six months. Fearing the social stigma if she gives birth to a fatherless child, Maalu is forced to marry Ikkoran, who is compassionate and agrees to nurture the child as his own. Years later, Ravi, who is living with grief over childlessness, returns to the village with his wife Padmini. He meets a young lad there whom he identifies as his own son (Raghavan). He pleads to Maalu and Ikkoran to take Raghavan along with him. Ikkoran waves him off saying he is a lunatic and that it is their child. Ravi returns heartbroken and falls ill. He sends a letter to Maalu saying that he wishes to see his son once more before he dies. She complies and takes the child to Ravi's house. Seeing Ravi's condition, Ikkoran decides to leave the child there. Later, Ravi gets a letter from his friend Mr. Burton saying that Ikkoran and Maalu drowned themselves in the river. The final chapter shows Ravi living happily with Raghavan in the estate he has newly purchased in Mukkam.

References

Malayalam novels 1941 novels Novels set in India Novels by S. K. Pottekkatt Indian romance novels {{1940s-romance-novel-stub