Mavelikkara Achuthan

Mavelikkara Achuthan (1930–2017), also known as M. Achuthan, was a distinguished Indian academic, orator, and literary critic of Malayalam literature. He challenged established literary views and was the first critic to extensively analyze the poetry of Edasseri Govindan Nair. Achuthan's influential work, 'Cherukadha Innale Innu', traces the history of Malayalam short stories. He also undertook the Malayalam translation of One Thousand and One Nights. His contributions were recognized with the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Literary Criticism in 1976, the Padmaprabha Literary Award in 1998, and the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for overall contributions in 2001. In addition to his literary criticism, Achuthan is the author of `പ്രസംഗകല` (Prasangakala), a guide to the art of public speaking, and has compiled significant multilingual reference works, including an `Illustrated Dictionary: Hindi- Hindi- English- Malayalam` and an `Encyclopedia: English- Hindi- Malayalam`.