Jnanpith to ONV

Malayalam’s own writer and poet par excellence ONV Kurup has been chosen for the 2007 Jnanapith award for his contribution to literature. It is true to his spirit who sang ‘being a human being was much greater than being anything else, even a poet’.

ONV with Better half

The country’s highest literary honour was announced on 24 September 2010 after a meeting of the Jnanpith Selection Board chaired by Oriya writer and Jnanpith award winner Sitakant Mahapatra. According to a statement by the Bharatiya Jnanpith, the Trust which presents the award, Kurup began his career as a progressive writer and matured into a humanist though he never gave up his commitment to socialist ideology.
ONV is the second Malayali to get the prestigious award for poetry after G. Sankara Kurup(1965). The other Jnanpith award winners from Kerala are S.K. Pottekad (1980), Thakazhi Siva Sankara Pillai (1984) and M.T. Vasudevan Nair (1995).
Born May 27, 1931 at Chavara, Kollam in Kerala, he graduated in economics from S.N. College, Kollam and completed his post-graduate degree in Malayalam literature. His first published poem was 'Munnottu', which appeared in a local weekly in 1946 and since then, he has not looked back.
During his seven-decade-long career, the winner of the country’s highest literary honour bagged several state and national awards, including the Padmashree in 1998. Kurup, now 79, began his illustrious poetic career during his school days. His first work, Poruthunna Soundaryam, was published in 1949. He became a college lecturer in 1957 and continued as an academician for the next 30 years. He started writing lyrics for films in 1955 and over the years has bagged state awards for the best lyricist 12 times. ONV also won the National Award in 1989 for best lyricist for the film 'Vaishali'.

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