KOCHI: The award winning novel ‘Aarachar’ penned by K R Meera is a facsimile from several literary works and a documentary, P M Shukur, a literary critic, has alleged.
Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, he said that he would pen a book soon called ‘Aarachar Oru Pakalkollayude Kadha’ on the alleged plagiarism of K R Meera.
Shukur also indicated that he would stage a sit-in protest before the residence of the judging committee of the Vayalar award, including M K Sanu and Prabhavarma.
“The book never deserves an award as it is an out and out copy from several books and a documentary. There is not much of value addition in the literature that even some wordings are exactly similar from the other books,” he alleged.
“The origin of the ‘Aarachar’ is from the documentary made by Joshy Joseph called ‘One day from the hangman’s life.’ The novel follows each incident and drama from the documentary. Similarly, the novels of Sumantha Banerjee ‘The Wicked city crime and punishment in colonial Calcutta’ and ‘Dangerous outcast: Prostitution in 19th century Bengal’. Besides, Meera had taken some references from the novel ‘Hangwomen’ and copied the historic references from certain websites,” Shukur added.
“Above all these, the book has some major errors. I wonder how the judging committee evaluated the book as a front-runner for the Vayalar award. As she is a self-proclaimed feminist, she actually tarnished the women characters in the novel,” he added.
Meanwhile, K R Meera told ‘Express’ that she is not willing to comment on the issue. “Anyone can be a critic, so it is better to consult the matter with the experts including M K Sanu and others,” she said.