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{{Short description|1958 novel by M.T. Vasudevan Nair}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2019}}
{{Use Indian English|date=February 2019}}
{{Infobox book

| name = Naalukettu
| image = Naalukettu MT.jpg
| image_size =
| caption =
| alt =
| author = [[M. T. Vasudevan Nair]]
| title_orig =
| translator =
| illustrator =
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| country = India
| language = [[Malayalam]]
| series =
| subject =
| genre = Novel
| publisher = Current Books
| publisher2 = [[DC Books]]
| pub_date = {{Start date|1958|||}}
| english_pub_date = 1975
| media_type = Print
| pages = 204
| awards = 1959: [[Kerala Sahitya Akademi|Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award]]
| isbn = 978-81-226-0727-7
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}}

'''''Naalukettu''''' is a [[Malayalam]] [[novel]] written by [[M. T. Vasudevan Nair]]. Published in 1958, it was MT's first major novel.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Indian Encyclopaedia|volume=15|isbn=81-7755-257-0|editor=Subodh Kapoor|publisher=Genesis Publishing Pvt Ltd|year=2002|page=4544}}</ref> The title attributes to [[Nālukettu]], a traditional ancestral home (''[[Tharavad|Taravad]]'') of a [[Nair]] joint family. Like many other novels written by MT, ''Naalukettu'' is also set against the backdrop of the declining traditional joint family structure of Kerala in a newly independent India.

''Naalukettu'' remains a classic in Malayalam fiction. It contributed to the renewal of a literary tradition initiated by [[S. K. Pottekkatt]], [[Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai]], and [[Uroob]] in the 1950s.<ref>{{cite book|title=Encyclopaedia of Indian cinema|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopaediaofi0000raja|url-access=registration|author=Ashish Rajadhyaksha, Paul Willemen|publisher=[[British Film Institute]]|date=26 June 1999|page=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopaediaofi0000raja/page/159 159]|isbn=978-0-85170-669-6 }}</ref> It was given the [[Kerala Sahitya Akademi]] Award in 1959.<ref>{{cite book|title=Indian Short Stories: 1900–2000|editor=E. V. Ramakrishnan|publisher=[[Sahitya Akademi]]|date=1 Jan 2005|page=377}}</ref> It has had 66 reprints (as of 2025), was translated into 14 languages, had a record sale of half a million copies (as of 2008), and still features in the best-seller lists.<ref name="The Hindu Review">K. Kunhikrishnan (6 January 2008). [https://web.archive.org/web/20080107014821/http://www.hindu.com/lr/2008/01/06/stories/2008010650100300.htm "Caught in the cusp of change"]. ''[[The Hindu]]''. Retrieved 6 July 2013.</ref><ref name="Golden Jubilee">[http://www.hindu.com/br/2003/01/21/stories/2003012100070301.htm "'Nalukettu' a landmark work, says Baby"]. (in Malayalam). ''[[The Hindu]]''. 14 January 2008. Retrieved 6 July 2013.</ref>

[[Doordarshan]] adapted the novel into a [[television film]] in 1995 with Malayalam actor, Krishnaprasad, as the protagonist.<ref name=DCB/> It won the Kerala State Television Award for the year 1996.<ref name=DCB/> A screenplay based on the novel was released on 8 December 2012 as part of the DC International Book Festival, [[Thiruvananthapuram]].<ref name=DCB>[http://www.dcbooks.com/publishing-screenplay-of-m-t-vasudevan-nairs-nalukett.html "നാലുകെട്ടിന്റെ തിരക്കഥ വരുന്നു"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140518224345/http://www.dcbooks.com/publishing-screenplay-of-m-t-vasudevan-nairs-nalukett.html |date=2014-05-18 }}. (in Malayalam). [[DC Books]]. 8 December 2012. Retrieved 2 June 2013.</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://onlinestore.dcbooks.com/books/naalukettu-screenplay | title=Naalukettu Screenplay | publisher=[[DC Books]] | date=2 June 2013 | access-date=25 February 2019 }}</ref>

==Plot==
'The story takes place in a traditional tharavadu of Kerala's [[Nair]] community in its final gasp for life. The hero, Appunni, is a scion of a once rich and powerful family. Appunni is the son of a woman who married a man of her own choice and refused to marry the man whom her [[Karnavar]] suggested. So, she has to leave the family with her son. Appunni grows up without a father. The novel captures the traumas and psychological graph of Appunni, an introvert and angry youth, aspiring to avenge the insult meted out to him in a matrilineal family by building a new edifice on the ruins of his ancestral home.

==Reception==
''[[The Hindu]]'''s critic K. Kunhikrishnan comments: "''Naalukettu'' was significant in that it fascinatingly portrayed the degeneration of the matrilineal system of joint families (tharawad), where large numbers of relatives lived together. The decline and collapse of the system resulted in nuclear families and consequential social, traditional, and economic changes. But apart from the historical angle, ''Naalukettu'' has a lasting literary value, as one of the best in Malayalam fiction."<ref name="The Hindu Review"/>

==Translations==
The novel has been translated into various Indian and foreign languages. The English translation is by:
* {{cite book|title=Naalukettu: The House Around the Courtyard|author=[[Gita Krishnankutty]]|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2008}}
The Arabic translation is by:
* Musthafa Wafy and Anas Wafy with the same title and published by Al-Madarek- Jeddha
The [[Konkani language|Konkani]] translation is by:
* Gokuldas Prabhu with the title ''Chavki''. This translation won the [[Sahitya Akademi Translation Prize]] in 2002. {{citation needed|date=June 2022}}

==References==
<references />

==External links==
* [http://onlinestore.dcbooks.com/books/naalukettu ''Naalukettu''] at [[DC Books|dcbooks.com]]

{{Malayalam Literature |state=collapsed}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Malayalam novels]]
[[Category:Indian novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:Novels set in Kerala]]
[[Category:Novels by M. T. Vasudevan Nair]]
[[Category:Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award–winning works]]
[[Category:DC Books books]]
[[Category:1958 Indian novels]]

Naalukettu (novel) - Revision history

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