O N V Kurup, Kerala’s most celebrated contemporary poet and winner of India’s highest literary prize Jnanpith Award died yesterday aged 84.
Popularly known as ONV, he was hospitalised last week and was put on ventilator on Friday as his condition worsened. He died of cardiac arrest at 4.50pm.
He is survived by wife Sarojini, son Rajeevan and daughter Mayadevi. The funeral will be held tomorrow after his granddaughter Aparna arrives from the UK, family sources said.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy remembered ONV as a great humanist who took Malayalam literature to higher plains while former chief minister A K Antony described him as a keeper of Kerala’s conscience.
“I considered him as a guru,” said singer K J Yesudas, who won his first state award as a playback singer for the evergreen hit song Manikyaveenayumayen. “I learnt a lot of things from him.”
“You will be remembered as long as Malayalis are alive,” Oscar-winning sound designer Resul Pookutty wrote on Twitter.
A recipient of Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian honour, the left-leaning poet was one of the leading lyricists in Malayalam film, drama and TV serial industry.
He was part of many dramas staged by the Kerala People’s Arts Club (KPAC), which spread the communist ideology in Kerala villages that elected the world’s first communist government through popular vote.
He also contested parliamentary elections in 1989 as a candidate of the Communist Party of India (CPI) from here, but lost.
Kalam Marunnu (1956) was his first film with composer G Devarajan, also a debutant. He penned over 900 songs in over 200 films, besides numerous songs for plays and albums.
ONV was the fifth recipient of the country’s highest literary honour for Malayalam, after G Sankara Kurup, S K Pottekkatt, Thakazhi Shivashankara Pillai and M T Vasudevan Nair.
Born on May 27, 1931, at Chavara, Kollam, he lost his father when he was just eight. He studied economics and Malayalam literature and retired as a professor of Malayalam.