Book Review: "Chakkara Kutty Paru" Matambu KunjuKuttan

Lexmipapan

3 July 2008, 11:36

Matambu KunjuKuttan: Malayalam novelist and author of fourteen books. Ex-Marxist, tentative Hindu likely to convert and revert (This bit is not fact. Added only for fun). An elephant aficionado and pundit, is behind the creation of ‘E for Elephant’ telecast on Kairali T.V., has learned priest craft, scripted successful movies with incredible themes, acted in some of them, and is generally impossible.

Fresh proof of it, in a way, is his latest novel, Chakkara Kutty Paru, a very alluring title that. (Lemme explain it for the non-Malayalee reader. Chakkara is a jaggery like sweetener, Kutty means the little one, and Paru is the colloquial pet form of Parvathy, Goddess, Daughter of Parvatha ( Mount Himavan), consort of Shiva). One of the most endearing pet names, Chakkara could be your little daughter, your kid sister, your beloved, betrothed, or your wife.

In the novel, she is the beloved and betrothed of KunjuKuttan, greying, two-legged human. Chakkara has no legs. She is rooted and cannot move. She is a tree, a thorny tree!! In the autumn of his life, KunjuKuttan’s awakened self does not see the thorns, experiences only the overwhelming ecstasy of her embrace, only the soothing balm of her divinity.

As the intimate scenes of this inter species amour unfold, all the other non-human inhabitants, trees, plants, climbers, animals, birds, reptiles of the landscape, wind, water and clouds stand aghast, alarmed. Chakkara has disturbed the universe!! One after another they caution her against the fatal attraction to Man whose axe is always ready to destroy every thing beautiful on earth. Particularly this man, K.K. whom she has chosen. He has a past of desertions and betrayals. He has legs, can walk away from her, had, in fact, walked away from more than one woman.

Unlike Chakkara’s tribe who remain faithful and constant, rooted in their vows. The greatest examples of true/tree love are her Uncle Dandy Sour Mango and Aunty Hot Spice Pepper. Hot spice has been growing on and clinging to Dandy ever since she was born. They do not get bored with each other. They do not need what humans call ‘spaces’ in their togetherness. Man, Earth Mother’s last child has been pampered, bestowed with unique talents. But he has misused it all. In his arrogance and stupidity he has become matricidal and suicidal, thus runs the diatribe against K.K.’s clan.

But Chakkara won’t be dissuaded. Her love is blind or too insightful, seeing far into the future. Her fellow beings are moved by it and decide to go along with her wish. They start preparations for the great wedding. This union may augur well, after all. The universe may be at the cusp of the next evolution. Their Chakkara could be the Chosen One to give birth to the new Super Being, greater than demons, humans and gods! From far and near they assemble in all their variety to shower their blessings on Chakkara and her human lover.

Just when the narrative takes wing, buoyed up by the spirit of jubilation, celebration, prophecy, comes the crash on page 98! A few of K.K.’s two-legged kin led by a bearded character, the shrink apparently, are approaching. They draw his attention to the bizarre sight of K.K. clinging to a tree and report the early signs. K.K. would apply sindoor on her as on a bride, drape her in silk and so on but otherwise went about his tasks quite normally. It looked a harmless craze until this constant clinging started.

‘Schizophrenia’- Pronounced the Beard. And ‘Paranoid’ on elaboration of further details of KunjuKuttan’s condition, like refusal to eat, ingesting nutrition directly from the sun like trees, trying to morph legs into roots. K.K. has gone nuts. ‘Nosse’!!!

In popular parlance, Matambu is just mind blowing in this deeply sympathetic, intensely poetic, romantic, mystical portrayal of a man journeying on the other side of sense as we know it. His language cocktail works wonders for the theme. The sonorous, grandiloquent Sanskrit sustains the hallucination. The flight of delusion is grounded at apt intervals by colloquial Malayalam. Eruption of laughter is ensured by Namboori slang. And the five English words – apothecary, schizophrenia, paranoid,hallucination and treat – bring in the daylight, thank you.

Alternatively, a doubt arises: Is Chakkara Kutty Paru a satire? Is K.K. a Chipko, genuine or fake, an environmental extremist who is seen as another kind of lunatic by the opposition?

What is beyond doubt is that this 112 page print matter is vintage Matambu. It is absurd and its opposite. It is nonsense and supreme sense. It is profound and it punctures all profundities.

Comment

  1. lovely review ammayi… :) have not read the book but my late mutachan used to narrate this story to me often on request.

    — apoorvah · Jul 28, 20:06 · #

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