C. Radhakrishnan (born 15 February 1939) is an Indian novelist, short story writer, film director and physicist who writes in Malayalam. He is one of the most widely read Malayalam writers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and has received nearly every major literary recognition in Kerala, including the Ezhuthachan Puraskaram, the Moortidevi Award of the Bharatiya Jnanpith, and the Sahitya Akademi Award. He was conferred the status of Eminent Member by the Sahitya Akademi in 2022, becoming only the second Malayalam writer after M. T. Vasudevan Nair to receive that distinction.
Chakkupurayil Radhakrishnan was born on 15 February 1939 in Chamravattam (a village in Tirur) in Malappuram district, which was then a part of the Madras Presidency of British India, to Parappur Madathil Madhavan Nair â a veteran freedom fighter â and Chakkupurayil Janaki Amma. He heard from his grandparents that Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan was an ancestor in his lineage; this family tradition later provided the basis for his biographical novel on Ezhuthachan titled Theekkadal Kadanhu Thirumadhuram.
He completed his secondary schooling at Achutha Varier High School, Ponnani, where he won the Best Student Gold Medal. He then attended Zamorin's College, Calicut, winning the Madras University Sharpe Scholarship at the intermediate level and a top-rank gold medal on graduating with a degree in physics. He subsequently enrolled for a postgraduate degree in applied physics at Government Victoria College, Palakkad, though he did not complete the programme.
Radhakrishnan began his professional career as a Scientific Assistant at the Astrophysical Observatory, Kodaikanal, in 1960. He then served as Officer-in-Charge of the World-Wide Seismology Centre, Pune, under the Indian Meteorological Department from 1962 to 1964.
In 1964 he joined the launch team of Science Today, the popular science monthly of the Times of India, Bombay, and is credited with helping establish it as India's first successful popular science magazine. He subsequently worked as Science Editor of Link magazine and the Patriot daily in Delhi from 1968 to 1972. On returning to Kerala he edited Porul monthly (1972âÂÂ76) and later Veekshanam daily (1980âÂÂ84). He served as Editor-in-Charge of the yearbooks and Bhashaposhini supplement at Malayala Manorama from 1994 to 1997, and as Design and Packaging Consultant for Madhyamam Publications from 1997 to 2000. He was the chief editor of Madhyamam Daily from 16 August 1999 to 1 September 2001. He also edited the Malayalam magazine Piravi published by the School of Bhagavad Gita.
Radhakrishnan wrote his first novel Nizhalppadukal at the age of nineteen, topping 120 entries in a novel-writing competition organised by the Mathrubhumi Weekly. The work was serialised in the magazine and later published by Current Books in 1962, winning the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award that year.
His 1986 novel Spandamapinikale Nandi (Thank You, Seismographs) received the Sahitya Akademi Award for Malayalam in 1988. In July 2014 he was awarded the Moortidevi Award for the year 2013 for his biographical novel Theekkadal Kadanhu Thirumadhuram. He was conferred the Ezhuthachan Puraskaram for the year 2016.
Other literary recognitions include the Mathrubhumi Literary Award (2015), the K. P. Kesava Menon Memorial Award (2016), the Vayalar Award (1990), the Madhava Mudra, the Nalappadan Award (2016) from the Nalappadan Memorial Cultural Society for holistic contributions to Malayalam literature, and the Thrikkavu Devi Puraskaram.
Radhakrishnan has been a member of the General Council of the Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, served as Chairperson of its Malayalam Advisory Board and as a member of its Executive Council. He was twice elected to the Board of Directors of the Writers' Co-operative of Kerala, heading the Board for one term. He served on the jury panel of the National Film Awards on three occasions and was twice a member of the jury to select Indian Panorama films. He was a member of the first Board of Directors of the Kerala State Film Development Corporation.
Between 1972 and 1997, Radhakrishnan wrote a sequence of nine interconnected novels collectively known as the Novel Navakam (Novel Nonet). The series is structured as a trilogy of trilogies, with the three groups addressing Kerala, India, and the wider world respectively. In order, the nine novels are: Ellam Maykkunna Kadal (1972), Puzha Muthal Puzha Vare (1974), Pullipulikalum Vellinakshatrangalum (1984), Spandamapinikale Nandi (1986), Ivide Ellavarkkum Sukham Thanne (1988), Verpadukalude Viralpadukal (1992), Munpe Parakkunna Pakshikal (1989), Karal Pilarum Kalam (1994), and Iniyoru Nirakanchiri (1997).
Radhakrishnan directed four Malayalam feature films. His debut, Agni (1978), based on his own 1963 novella, was the first film from South India to be included in the Indian Panorama of feature films and was screened at international festivals including Mannheim, Istanbul, Moscow and Locarno. His third directorial work, Ottayadipathakal (1993), also formed part of the Indian Panorama and received critical acclaim at the Mannheim and Tashkent festivals.
He also wrote the story for several films based on his own novels, including Priya (1975, based on Thevidissi), Pin Nilavu (1983), and Avidathepole Ivideyum (1985).
Alongside his literary career, Radhakrishnan has maintained a long-standing personal interest in theoretical physics, rooted in his background as a trained physicist. He formulated a speculative cosmological framework he called the "Fabric of Space," and in 1988 circulated a privately published monograph titled Unity of SpaceâÂÂMatter Manifestations to researchers in the field. A popular-science book elaborating these ideas, Stuff and Style of the Universe, was published in 2002, and a further volume, The Secret Behind the Universe (co-authored with his son Dr. Gopal K. R.), appeared in 2016. A condensed version of the framework appeared in 2017 in the Prespacetime Journal, a niche open-access publication. These works have not been reviewed or cited in mainstream physics literature.
Other honours include the Odakkuzhal Award, Lalithambika Award, Olappamanna Award, Balamani Amma Award, Achutha Menon Award, Abu Dhabi Sakthi Award, C. P. Menon Award, Muttathu Varkey Award, Devi Prasadam Award, Mahakavi G Award, Pandit Karuppan Award, Mulur Award, Padmaprabha Puraskaram, Sanjayan Puraskaram, O. N. V. Memorial Award, Amritakeerti Puraskaram, Chandu Menon Award, Bahrain Malayali Samajam Award, Oman Prathibha Puraskar, Vallathol Samman, Fellowship of Kerala Sahitya Akademi, Jnanappana Award, Nadabrahma Award, Thakazhi Award, Kaumudi Award, V. T. Award, Madhava Mudra, Nalappadan Award, Mayilppeeli Puraskaram, Thrikkavu Devi Puraskaram, O. V. Vijayan Sahitya Puraskaram, Kaliyachan Award, and Chattambiswami Award.