The loss of a stylist
With the recent death of Sujatha, Tamilians lost one of their most beloved authors.
Sujatha, whose real name was Rangarajan, brought a style into Tamil writing which can be variously categorized in modern terminology as 'hip', 'hep', 'cool' etc. Even those who would turn up their noses and say, "I read only English novels", didn't mind reading Sujatha (and letting others know). If it was 'hep' to read him in those days, it was 'cool' to read him in the 21st century.
The fluency of thought, which made reading him so much fun, the conciseness of his descriptions, an experimental bent of mind with respect to language, his way with words which sprung up pleasant surprises, a keen sense of observation and an ever present sense of humor contributed to his unique style of writing.
Sujatha's prose can be compared to some of S.D.Burman's best tunes. They remain very fresh and contemporary decades after they were written / tuned. Reading Sujatha's work of 80s delights us even now and the prose is mint fresh. The same cannot be said of many authors who were famous during those times.
Short story, Novels, Criticism, Essays, Science Fiction, Drama, Movies, Magazine Columns and Popular Science were some of the terrains that he flew over. It can be safely said that no one in Tamil succeeded in doing some many things with so much grace as Sujatha.
I personally like Sujatha, the short story writer. He has written quite a few stories which are top class. In novels his mystery / detective fiction was very famous and he created the popular detective duo of Ganesh and Vasanth. He wrote some good dramas which were staged by Poornam Vishwanathan and his troupe. I have seen the drama(s) 'Our Kolai - Oru Payanam' (I think that was the title.) It was two dramas in two hours time. One drama before the interval and one after the interval. Both the dramas were weighty ones and had the seriousness which ensured their oblivion in the face of assault by the 'joke' dramas. The inability of dramas like those of Sujatha to succeed in the Tamil drama milieu is a huge tragedy and provides a not-so-flattering reflection of Tamilian taste.
As an essayist, critic and columnist he wrote about various subjects and made all of them interesting. Even a normal morning walk on the Marina beach, when touched by his words, will acquire a distinct glow. As a critic he was very kind to young and new writers and held them up for attention. His magnanimity in this area helped lot of young talent. In his columns, he used to regularly quote the new poems and books that he liked. (I still remember his glowing review for Illayaraja's 'Poonkadhave Thaltiravai' in Mayamalavagowla and explained the nuances of how Illayarja has seamlessly mixed Mayamalagowla with Bach. ). Not only the were new writers encouraged, Sujatha also pointed to ancient Tamil texts and explained their beauty. He has written about Sangam poetry, Nalayira Divya Prabandham etc. In this way he was responsible for propagating his aesthetics and molding the taste of different generations.
Sujatha was a pioneer of Science Fiction in Tamil and has written some very nice stories. (His story about all people going to see God is a profound one.) He also wrote a lot of popular science pieces wherein he explained about various aspects of science and about new technologies in a simple fashion. Though I have not read many of his popular science pieces, I can vouch for their reach and effectiveness. I see evidence of it whenever my mother tells me details of some new technology in my own field!! More than 90% of the time she would have got the information from Sujatha's writing.
Sujatha was involved in movies, but truth be told, his contribution in movies was very negligible and weak compared to his contribution to literature. His last involvement was probably in that movie without any semblance of taste, titled 'Sivaji'.
Humor was like breathing to Sujatha and humor was a constantly running thread in everything he did, be it his short stories, novels, essays or science articles. His humor was of the gentle variety and never turned into a barb. (You can compare it to the cartoons of R K Laxman which make people laugh and don't hurt anyone.) Consequently, he was never an iconoclast and everyone loved his gentle nature.
Humor was used to engage, instruct, amuse and educate his audience. It did not combine with deep humanity to create world class literature like the humor of Vaikom Mohammed Basheer did. Sujatha's gentle humor and good nature did not let him become a satirist or iconoclast and create some outstanding works like Paul Zacariah. In case of crime writing as well, Sujatha wrote stories which kept you engaged but did not expand the boundaries of crime fiction as Raymond Chandler or Georges Simenon did. It is maybe due to these reasons (and probably due to the difficulty in translating his style) that Sujatha remained a quintessential Tamil author and his fame was limited to the Tamil reading public. (In case of crime fiction, I have to take recourse to foreign names as I have not read any great crime fiction work from Indian authors. Maybe it is my limited reading but I have a suspicion that 'Great Indian crime fiction writer' may be an oxymoron.)
Many more generation of readers will be delighted by the works of this great man and will find it hard to believe that one person alone had creatively engaged in so many activities. Sujatha has left behind a huge treasure for all Tamil readers and his place in the hearts of Tamils is assured.
Sujatha, whose real name was Rangarajan, brought a style into Tamil writing which can be variously categorized in modern terminology as 'hip', 'hep', 'cool' etc. Even those who would turn up their noses and say, "I read only English novels", didn't mind reading Sujatha (and letting others know). If it was 'hep' to read him in those days, it was 'cool' to read him in the 21st century.
The fluency of thought, which made reading him so much fun, the conciseness of his descriptions, an experimental bent of mind with respect to language, his way with words which sprung up pleasant surprises, a keen sense of observation and an ever present sense of humor contributed to his unique style of writing.
Sujatha's prose can be compared to some of S.D.Burman's best tunes. They remain very fresh and contemporary decades after they were written / tuned. Reading Sujatha's work of 80s delights us even now and the prose is mint fresh. The same cannot be said of many authors who were famous during those times.
Short story, Novels, Criticism, Essays, Science Fiction, Drama, Movies, Magazine Columns and Popular Science were some of the terrains that he flew over. It can be safely said that no one in Tamil succeeded in doing some many things with so much grace as Sujatha.
I personally like Sujatha, the short story writer. He has written quite a few stories which are top class. In novels his mystery / detective fiction was very famous and he created the popular detective duo of Ganesh and Vasanth. He wrote some good dramas which were staged by Poornam Vishwanathan and his troupe. I have seen the drama(s) 'Our Kolai - Oru Payanam' (I think that was the title.) It was two dramas in two hours time. One drama before the interval and one after the interval. Both the dramas were weighty ones and had the seriousness which ensured their oblivion in the face of assault by the 'joke' dramas. The inability of dramas like those of Sujatha to succeed in the Tamil drama milieu is a huge tragedy and provides a not-so-flattering reflection of Tamilian taste.
As an essayist, critic and columnist he wrote about various subjects and made all of them interesting. Even a normal morning walk on the Marina beach, when touched by his words, will acquire a distinct glow. As a critic he was very kind to young and new writers and held them up for attention. His magnanimity in this area helped lot of young talent. In his columns, he used to regularly quote the new poems and books that he liked. (I still remember his glowing review for Illayaraja's 'Poonkadhave Thaltiravai' in Mayamalavagowla and explained the nuances of how Illayarja has seamlessly mixed Mayamalagowla with Bach. ). Not only the were new writers encouraged, Sujatha also pointed to ancient Tamil texts and explained their beauty. He has written about Sangam poetry, Nalayira Divya Prabandham etc. In this way he was responsible for propagating his aesthetics and molding the taste of different generations.
Sujatha was a pioneer of Science Fiction in Tamil and has written some very nice stories. (His story about all people going to see God is a profound one.) He also wrote a lot of popular science pieces wherein he explained about various aspects of science and about new technologies in a simple fashion. Though I have not read many of his popular science pieces, I can vouch for their reach and effectiveness. I see evidence of it whenever my mother tells me details of some new technology in my own field!! More than 90% of the time she would have got the information from Sujatha's writing.
Sujatha was involved in movies, but truth be told, his contribution in movies was very negligible and weak compared to his contribution to literature. His last involvement was probably in that movie without any semblance of taste, titled 'Sivaji'.
Humor was like breathing to Sujatha and humor was a constantly running thread in everything he did, be it his short stories, novels, essays or science articles. His humor was of the gentle variety and never turned into a barb. (You can compare it to the cartoons of R K Laxman which make people laugh and don't hurt anyone.) Consequently, he was never an iconoclast and everyone loved his gentle nature.
Humor was used to engage, instruct, amuse and educate his audience. It did not combine with deep humanity to create world class literature like the humor of Vaikom Mohammed Basheer did. Sujatha's gentle humor and good nature did not let him become a satirist or iconoclast and create some outstanding works like Paul Zacariah. In case of crime writing as well, Sujatha wrote stories which kept you engaged but did not expand the boundaries of crime fiction as Raymond Chandler or Georges Simenon did. It is maybe due to these reasons (and probably due to the difficulty in translating his style) that Sujatha remained a quintessential Tamil author and his fame was limited to the Tamil reading public. (In case of crime fiction, I have to take recourse to foreign names as I have not read any great crime fiction work from Indian authors. Maybe it is my limited reading but I have a suspicion that 'Great Indian crime fiction writer' may be an oxymoron.)
Many more generation of readers will be delighted by the works of this great man and will find it hard to believe that one person alone had creatively engaged in so many activities. Sujatha has left behind a huge treasure for all Tamil readers and his place in the hearts of Tamils is assured.
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