Karithundu

இந்தப் பக்கத்தை தமிழில் வாசிக்க: கரித்துண்டு ‎

Karithundu

Karithundu (1953), a novel written by M. Varatharasan. This is a novel that discusses ideas about male-female relationship and virginity. The narrator has a style of presenting the author's ideas directly through dialogue.

Writing, Publication

M. Varatharasan wrote this novel on 1953. It came out from Thayagam Publications found by him.

Synopsis

The novel unfolds when painter Mohan tells his story. A studious painter Mohan falls in love with Nirmala and gets married. Mohan meets with an accident. He doesn't want to live with Nirmala. So Nirmala breaks up with him and goes to Bombay to meet Prof. Kamalakannan. She lives with him without getting married. When she comes to Chennai, she meets her husband Mohan.

In Chennai, painter Mohan accepts poverty and lives as a cripple. Mohan, who paints with colored powders and painting sticks, is finally forced to paint with charcoal. He lives in a small hut with a poor girl, Ponni. His ego as an educated individual is gone. Nirmala breaks up with Kamalakannan.

The novel is made up of spare events. Morality, chastity and the techniques of male-female relations are discussed in both the author's voice and the narrator's voice. "The charcoal painter is my favorite. A living person. I have followed him to all his houses; befriended him. It is my imagination to make him a Bengali" Dr. R. Mohan recalls in his memoir of M. Varatharasan as stated by him.

Literary Place

K.N. Subramaniam has included Karithundu as one of the must read novels in his famous list Padithirukireergala?. Written at a time when Tamil society was beginning to reconsider its traditional views on male-female relations, Karitundu is a popular read as it discusses in detail and lucidly the relationship between men and women in the modern context.

"We can see the novel 'Karitundu' as a novel with a social perspective. There is a close relationship between the family problem and the social trend. A novelty in his style, a novelty not only in the names of the characters but also in the creation, a novelty in his plot these attract me. He has seen the same Chennai that many writers have seen. But his specialty is that he has looked with compassion at the slums and dumps where the poor and the neglected by the society live" says write Akilan (In his article on M. Varatharasan's memorial collection).

"I think both his strength and weakness are his persistence. He leaves nothing to the reader's imagination. He gives us till the last drop" says critic R.V. about this novel.

References

• Kootanchoru - Vimarsanam Karithundu
• Mu.Va. Karithundu novelin samooga sinthanigal - Muthukamalam
• Tamil Inaiya Kalvi Kalagam - Kathaikoppu
• M.V. Ninaivumalar Inaiyanoolagam

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