Muttathu Varkey (28 April 1913 – 28 May 1989) was an Indian novelist, short story writer, and poet of Malayalam.[1][2] He was best known for a genre of sentiment-filled romantic fiction known as painkili (janapriya) novelinMalayalam literature.[3]
Varkey was born in Chethipuzha, a small village near ChanganasseryinKottayam district, Kerala. He began his career as a school teacher at Saint Berchmans High School, Changanassery. He then took up the job of an accountant in a timber factory. For a brief period, Varkey taught in a Tutorial College run by M. P. Paul. He then joined Deepika newspaper as an associated editor and remained there for next 26 years until his retirement in 1974.
Muttathu Varkey emerged as one of the popular writers of Malayalam fiction.[4] He along with Kanam EJ was prominent in popularizing a genre of sentiment-filled pulp fiction known as painkili novel in Malayalam literature.[5] He was a prolific writer and has penned a total of 132 books, including 65 novels. The rest of his works include collections of short stories, plays, and poetry. Many of his novels were adapted into Malayalam films,[6] including the Prem Nazir starrer Padatha Painkili (1957), Inapravukal (1965), Velutha Kathreena (1968), Mayiladum Kunnu (1972) and the Sathyan starrer Karakanakadal (1971).
^Ancy Bay 2015. "At the End of the Story: Popular Fiction, Readership and Modernity in Literary Malayalam", in Satheese Chandra Bose and Shiju Sam Varughese (eds.). Kerala Modernity: Ideas, Spaces and Practices in Transition, Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan, pp. 92-108.
