Smarakasilakal
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''Smarakasilaka'' is a
Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...
novel written by
Punathil Kunjabdulla Punathil Kunjabdulla (3 April 1940 – 27 October 2017) was an Indian writer from Kerala. A medical doctor by profession, Kunjabdulla was a practitioner of the avant-garde in Malayalam literature. His work includes more than 45 books, including ...
in 1977. The story of the novel is woven around a mosque and its surroundings. The key figure is Khan Bahadur Pookkoya Thangal of the rich Arakkal family whose character is a rare mixture of dignity, benevolence and insatiable lust. ''Smarakasilakal'' is widely regarded as the author's masterpiece. Punathil said in an interview that it is his only novel and everything else that he has written subsequently is a repetition of it with some changes. The novel won the
Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award is given each year, since 1958, by the Kerala Sahitya Akademi (Kerala Literary Academy), to Malayalam writers for their outstanding books of literary merit. The awards are given in various categories.
in 1978 and
Sahitya Akademi Award The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...
in 1980. As of February 2013, more than 65,000 copies of the novel have been sold.


Background

In his autobiography ''Nashtajathakam'', Kunjabdulla recalls that the seeds of ''Smarakasilakal'' were sown at a screening of
Satyajit Ray Satyajit Ray (; 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian director, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, author, essayist, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher, and music composer. One of the greatest auteurs of fil ...
's ''
Pather Panchali ''Pather Panchali'' (; ) is a 1955 Indian Bengali (language), Bengali-language Drama (film and television), drama film written and directed by Satyajit Ray and produced by the Government of West Bengal. It is an adaptation of Bibhutibhushan Ba ...
'' in
Aligarh Aligarh (; formerly known as Allygarh, and Kol) is a city in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. It is the administrative headquarters of Aligarh district, and lies northwest of state capital Lucknow and approximately southeast of the capita ...
. The novel was conceived on a large canvas and developed from the images he had formed of his hometown and its people as a child in pre-independent Malabar. Most of the characters in this novel were real-life people he knew from his hometown.Anand Kochukudy (29 October 2017)
"Both life and literature were unconventional for Malayalam writer Punathil Kunjabdulla (1940-2017)"
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. Retrieved 29 October 2017.


Plot summary

''Smarakasilakal'' is set in a predominantly Muslim
North Malabar North Malabar refers to the geographic area of southwest India covering the state of Kerala's present day Kasaragod, Kannur, and Wayanad District, Wayanad districts, and the taluks of Vatakara, Koyilandy, and Thamarassery in the Kozhikode Distri ...
village. It is the story of a feudal lord Khan Bahadur Pookkoya Thangal of the rich Arakkal family who could build a world of his own in his village. The mosque and its cemetery weave a background of traditions and legends for the tale. Every character reflects some aspect of the social set up, at the same time lives as a person of individuality. Thangal stands head and shoulders above every other character with his unbounded generosity and insatiable lust. The empire built by this man crumbles as he is killed by one of the young men whose wives he has ravished. The steward of the house grows into a tyrant. Thangal's daughter Pookunjeebi is sacrificed at the altar of wealth; his adopted son Kunjali burning for justice seems to place his trust on revolution as the only remedy for the ills that afflict society.


Main characters

* Khan Bahadur Pookkoya Thangal - a feudal lord * Kunjali - Thangal's adopted son * Pookunjeebi - Thangal's daughter * Attabeevi - Thangal's wife * Kureishi Pathu - the chief maidservant * Eramullan - muezzin in the mosque * Bukhari - the security guard * Buddhan Adraman - the hostler * Pattalam Ibrayi - the caretaker of Arakkal family after Thangal's demise


Translations

* ''Memorial Stones'' (English, Elzy Tharamangalam,
Sahitya Akademi The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India. Founded on 12 March 1954, it is supported by, though independent of, the Indian government. Its of ...
, 2003) * ''Meesan Karkal'' (மீஸான் கற்கள்) (
Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...
, Kulachal M.Yusaf, Kalachuvadu Pathipagam, 2004) * ''Smaraka Silalu'' (స్మారక శిలలు) (
Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...
, Nalimela Bhaskar,
Sahitya Akademi The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India. Founded on 12 March 1954, it is supported by, though independent of, the Indian government. Its of ...
, 2010)


Adaptations

In 2009, a
film adaptation A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dial ...
of the novel was released, starring
Jagathy Sreekumar Sreekumar P. K. (born 5 January 1951), better known by his stage name Jagathy Sreekumar or simply Jagathy, is an Indian actor, director and playback singer, who has appeared in over 1500 Malayalam films in a career spanning almost four decad ...
as Pookkoya Thangal, and directed by M. P. Sukumaran Nair. The film is an entire re-depiction of the novel. Sukumaran Nair told in an interview: "I firmly believe that it is not the work of a director to literally translate a fiction into a film. Fiction should be modified to suit the entirely different medium of cinema." The film was critically acclaimed and won two
Kerala State Film Awards The Kerala State Film Awards are the film awards for a motion picture made in Kerala. The awards started in 1969 by the Department of Cultural Affairs, Government of Kerala and since 1998 the awards have been bestowed by Kerala State Cha ...
: Second Best Film and Special Jury Award (Jagathy Sreekumar). Also,
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broadcast a play based on the novel through the programme ''Arangu'' in 2007.


Awards

* 1978:
Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award is given each year, since 1958, by the Kerala Sahitya Akademi (Kerala Literary Academy), to Malayalam writers for their outstanding books of literary merit. The awards are given in various categories.
(Novel) * 1980:
Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...
* 2013: Kendra Sahitya Puraskar for the Telugu translation by Nalimela Bhaskar titled ''Smaraka Silalu''


References


External links


''Smarakasilakal''
at
DC Books DC Books is a publisher in Kerala publisher of books in Malayalam, and one of the publishers in India . It also operates one of the largest book store chains in India, with a network of over 45 bookshops under the DC Books and Current Books b ...
Official website
''Smarakasilakal''
at Keralaliterature.com {{Malayalam Literature , state=collapsed 1977 novels Malayalam novels Indian novels adapted into films Novels set in Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award-winning works Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award-winning works DC Books books 1977 Indian novels