When the West was experiencing a new wave in science fiction in the 1960s and ‘70s, Tamil literature saw the rise of a new, promising writer. Many did not (and still do not) know him by his original name, but he became quite popular with the masses in a few years with his spellbinding short stories that carried a magical touch of science and technology.
S. Rangarajan, popularly known by his pseudonym Sujatha, took the world of Tamil literature by storm with hundreds of short stories and a handful of novels in the last decades of the 20th century. He also published many non-fiction essays and books and was a screenwriter for many popular films, including Enthiran (2010).
Finding Sujatha was not a hard task for me. In fact, I never had to search for him—I grew up hearing about his excellent writing and world-building. Recently, thanks to my science fiction classes, I have been thinking about the genre’s evolution across the world, and it made sense to explore the genre’s presence in regional language literature. And who else fits this better than our very own Sujatha?
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Before we talk about Sujatha and his influence on Sci-Fi in Tamil, let us take a broader look at the literature scene of the late 20th century in Tamil Nadu and how science fiction emerged as a prominent genre.
Late 20th Century Literature in Tamil: The Emergence of New Genres
Tamil literature has always had an abundance of fiction throughout the centuries. In the latter part of the 1900s, there was a surge in romantic fiction, along with crime thrillers and family dramas. Slice-of-life stories were also quite popular, offering people a slice of their own reality decorated with the beauty of fiction.
In the late 1960s, Sujatha began publishing short stories that could be considered ‘soft science fiction,’ a name for a style of science fiction that does not delve too deep into the technicalities of the technologies introduced in the fictional form. Soft science fiction focuses more on human emotional experiences and their influences rather than the impact of the scientific elements present in the story.
The growth of this new genre in Tamil literature garnered a wide range of audience, especially the youth. For people who were interested in new varieties of literature other than romance and thrillers, science fiction was an entirely new world to be explored. After all, the rise of a new genre in a regional language literary scene can pave the way for new and exciting possibilities. And Sujatha, undoubtedly, was a pioneer in the new wave of literature flooding the Tamil literary scene.
Getting to Know Sujatha and His Works
Sujatha’s pen name was none other than his wife’s name. Under this pseudonym, he has published hundreds of short stories, multiple novels and dramas, and a wide collection of essays. He started writing when he was in college and published a few short stories in a local magazine in Trichy while pursuing his bachelor’s (he was friends with Abdul Kalam, former President of India; the world can sometimes be very narrow and fascinating). He went to Chennai to pursue Engineering at Madras Institute of Technology, where his writing interests blossomed into something bigger and better.
Soon, Sujatha started contributing to many weeklies, like Kumudam, Anandha Vikatan, and, most importantly, Kalki, both fiction and nonfiction. Some of his famous nonfiction columns include ‘Yen, Yedharku, Yeppadi’ (Why, What for, and How) in Junior Vikatan and ‘Silicon Chip’ in Dinamani Kadhir.
Sujatha’s Most Famous Works
The wonder with Sujatha is that almost all of his works were well-known during his time in Tamil Nadu. This was mostly because his works were often published in weeklies, making him wildly popular among the masses. One of his most popular science fiction works, ‘En Iniya Iyanthira’ (My Dear Robot), was published as a series in Anandha Vikatan in the 1980s. The novel describes a dystopian future set in 2021 with the Indian subcontinent under autocracy.
In this work, he captures the everyday lives of people and the extent to which automation and autocracy have controlled them, including the number of children families are allowed to have. The novel went on to inspire the blockbuster 2010 hit film by S. Shankar, Enthiran (Robot). Sujatha was also one of the writers of the movie, but he couldn’t continue his work as he sadly passed away in 2008.
One of the main characters of the novel ‘En Iniya Iyanthira’ is Jeeno, a robot dog that eventually begins to develop human-like emotions. It is interesting to note that even back in the 1980s, posthumanist themes and ideas involving artificial intelligence were prevalent in regional literature. While it is possible that Sujatha took inspiration from authors of the West, it’s undeniable that he added his distinct flavours to the plot to make it more regional and more relatable.
Sujatha also authored multiple short story collections, dramas, and essay collections. His famous short stories include ‘Kaala Enthiram’ (Time Machine), ‘Sooriyan’ (Sun), and ‘Tamizhaasiriyar’ (Tamil Teacher), among others. While he explored concepts revolving around time travel and dystopian worlds destroyed due to nuclear wars, his stories always ended with questions on human emotions and love. To Sujatha, most questions about destructive pasts and futures could be answered by love. His writing reflected the everyday lives of the people around him, and this eventually became the reason why people loved his works- they could find a piece of themselves even in imaginary futures filled with technological advancements.
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Science fiction was not Sujatha’s only literary forte. He was also the author of a series of crime thriller novels that are better known as Ganesh-Vasanth novels. Ganesh is a senior advocate, and Vasanth is his witty young assistant lawyer. A series of novels feature this duo and their involvement in untangling various crimes across cities. Some of Sujatha’s most popular works, such as ‘Kolaiyuthir Kaalam’ (The Season of Murder) and ‘Aah’, are mystery crime thrillers.
Sujatha’s Role in the Rise of Sci-Fi in Tamil Literature
Simply put, Sujatha was the pioneer of sci-fi in the Tamil literature scene. Many popular writers followed later, like Tamilmagan, but most of them took inspiration from Sujatha. Rajesh Kumar is also a notable mention here, a writer who blended crime thrillers with subtle elements of science fiction in the same period as Sujatha.
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One thing that stands out about Sujatha is his ease of using technical terms in his stories. An engineer by profession, he seamlessly incorporated the technicalities of his profession into the fictitious worlds he created. Thanks to Sujatha, many tech-heavy words, including ‘robot’ and ‘silicon chips’, entered the everyday vocabulary of the Tamil people.
Blogger RV, in his blog on Sujatha’s science fiction short stories, comments that his stories were eye-opening for teenagers and youngsters of his time and that they developed a sense of technology in Tamil readers across the subcontinent.
Sujatha’s Other Writings
However, don’t let my biased writing convince you that Sujatha was primarily a sci-fi writer! While known for his sci-fi works, he also authored numerous crime thriller novels and novellas, as well as multiple collections of short stories.
Sujatha has also written a how-to manual on writing for the silver screen. This makes sense, given that many of his works were converted to movies and that he worked as a screenwriter for many famous movies, including Vikram and Boys. He also penned an ‘Eliya Arimugam’ series (A Simple Introduction) for some classic Tamil texts, such as Purananooru and Silappadhikaram.
Conclusion
Finding Sujatha’s works online is almost impossible, and the lack of regional literature archives is to blame for this sad turn of events. However, you can still find his works in many bookshops across Tamil Nadu, and some copies are also available on sites such as Amazon. Recently, Vimala Balakrishnan translated some of Sujatha’s most popular stories and works into English, and they are available to buy online as well.
If you are someone looking for a retro shot of science fiction conceptualised in the realistic setting of Tamil Nadu, Sujatha will not disappoint you.
One Response
Wonderful article keep it coming!