| Author | M. T. Vasudevan Nair |
|---|---|
| Language | Malayalam |
| Genre | Novel |
| Publisher | DC Books |
Publication date | 1964 (1964) |
| Publication place | India |
| Media type |
Manju (Mist) is a novel byM. T. Vasudevan Nair published in 1964. With few conversations and minimal characters, it narrates the story of a school teacher. The novel is set in the mountains and valleys ofNainital where Vimala Devi, a teacher in a boarding school, waits in hope for the winter of her discontent to vanish. Despite having a family comprising a father, mother, sister, and brother, Vimala is kept aloof from them. She hates the company of her family and enjoys solitude. The eco-feminist theme of patriarchal domination and exploitation gains more prominence inManju, MT's only novel with a female protagonist. The novel stands apart as it is set in a milieu different from the usual one, the Valluvanadan village.
The plot of the novel is allegedly similar to aHindi storyParinde (Birds, 1956), byNirmal Verma.[1] However both MT and Verma have rejected these claims. MT said in an interview withIndia Today, "I don't remember having ever read Verma's story although we are very close friends. I wroteManju immediately after I returned from a visit to Nainital."[1] Verma himself says it is ridiculous to accuse an author of MT's calibre of plagiarism. "My story's English translation was published only five or six years ago by HarperCollins. I don't think MT reads Hindi works in original. So there is no substance to the charge that MT had read it before he wrote his novel," says Verma.[1]
MT also directed and scripted afilm with the same name based on the novel in 1983. The film stars Sangeeta Naik, Sankar Mohan, Sankara Pillai, and Nanditha Bose.[2] The novel also had aHindi-language film adaptation titledSharad Sandhya which went completely unnoticed.
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