Playwright Omcherry N.N. Pillai passes away

Playwright, poet and writer Omchery N.N. Pillai passed away in Delhi on Friday. He was 100. A constant presence in Delhi’s Malayali literary and cultural spheres for decades, his plays highlighted the travails of the marginalised.

Ee Velicham Ningalkkullathakunnu, one of his earliest plays, was written following a request of Communist leader A.K. Gopalan, the then Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, for fundraising for coir workers. The actors in the play included the then Kerala MPs P.T.Punnoose, E.K. Imbichi Bava and others.

His play Pralayam won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award in 1972, while Aakasmikam, his memoir about his life and experiences in Delhi, won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2020. When the Kerala government decided to present civilian awards on the lines of Padma Awards for the first time in 2022, Mr. Pillai was chosen for the Kerala Prabha Award.

Born in Vaikom in 1924, he had his higher education at University College, Thiruvananthapuram, and Government Law College, Ernakulam. He joined All India Radio in Delhi in 1951 and later had stints with the publications division and the publicity divisions of the Union government. Amid his career with the government, he also pursued further studies and research in communication at various universities in the United States.

His partner, classical musician and musicologist Leela Omchery, who was known for her large body of research work related to various streams of Indian classical and folk music, passed away last year.

Kerala’s icon

Condoling his passing, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that Mr. Omcherry was an incomparable cultural figure who retained the spirit of Kerala in every breath despite being away from the State for a long time and radiated the cultural vitality of Malayalam at the national level. He played a historic role in modernising and reforming the State’s theatrical imagination.

Recounting his long friendship with Mr. Omcherry, senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala said that he kept Malayalam literature close to his heart even while serving his long professional life outside Kerala. So, the Kerala government chose him as the head of the Malayalam mission when it decided to spread the mother tongue among the Malayalis living outside Kerala. He also shared a close friendship with former Prime Minister India Gandhi, at whose behest he wrote the book Kuttikalude Nehru.