Chennai: DURING the World War times of scarcity and scare in Madras, it was a tough job being a humour writer. Despite the blackouts and bomb shelters, writers who could make their readers laugh had to be extremely talented in exhibiting wit. It was tougher to inject optimism in literature with the dark clouds of wars hanging overhead.

Tiruvidaimarudur R Mahadevan, popularly known as Devan, who for most of his career was the managing editor of Tamil magazine Ananda Vikatan was prominent amongst them. His writings were a mirror to the social history of Madras in the 1940s and 1950s, especially the middle-class.

Devan wrote in a plethora of genres such as short stories, novels, temple travelogues, historical fiction and even comics. Like his boss Kalki, he also wrote under many pseudonyms to fulfil his prolific writing, like Arem (his initials), Sambadhi, Dasarathi, Chinnakkannan etc.

In the days when novel heroes were portrayed as mountains of muscle, ordinary middle-class men led the storyline in Devan’s books. The classic example being the most popular character he ever created, Thuppariyum Sambu (Sambu who read the clues). Sporting a hairless scalp and a hook-like nose, Sambu was an amateur detective who stumbled on solutions to whodunit crimes which even the police overlooked. Though there were latter-day whisperings that all his story scapes were from one community, Devan was just writing what he was sure about.

Born in Thiruvidaimaruthur, Mahadevan was educated at Government College, Kumbakonam, then known for its turbaned English professors who spoke better English than the Englishmen themselves. Devan wrote equally well in English and Tamil. His first published works were in English.

His first foray into the world of mainstream magazines was ‘Mister Rajamani’, published in Ananda Vikatan. Its editor Kalki Krishnamurthy was talent scouting at that very moment and was shocked to learn that the writer was just 20 years old. But Devan was still offered a job at the magazine. Ananda Vikatan would be the only job he took and served for 24 long years, first as sub-editor under Kalki and then as managing editor.

It was a tough job with very dominant personalities like Kalki and owner SS Vasan spreading their influence on his uniqueness. Devan managed 20 serialised stories and 400 plus odd short stories, other than detailed travelogues, but most of them were after Kalki left the magazine in a huff.

His remarkable achievement was a weekly war diary he printed on the status of World War raging across the globe. The article contained war maps to illustrate the progress of military action. It’s surprising how it came to be published without too much interference from the British authorities.

Most of Devan’s stories had humour injected at every level. Some were sad storylines but most ended on an optimistic note, very important in wartime. But then there was a pitfall. Devan’s stories became so predictable that whatever happened, the climax would be only shubham (happy ending).

Tragedy struck at the homefront and his wife Raji passed away. In a tribute to her, he would write a hazy story tugging between reality and hallucinations. He would also refuse to remarry for a decade.

At one point, feeling suffocated under Kalki’s prolific filling of the Ananda Vikatan pages, Devan decided to join the only other institution that could rival it in popularity, which was the radio. Kalki himself gave him a recommendation that worked. Devan was awaiting his appointment when Kalki was fired by boss Vasan for wanting to participate in the individual satyagraha movement. (Vasan, at that point a Congressman, didn’t want his magazine to be closed down by the British.)

Devan seamlessly took over from Kalki but Vasan must have been disappointed in his choice because Ananda Vikatan was very soon fined Rs 500 by the government for an offensive cartoon.

The paper scarcity encouraged him to do one-page novels. Such precise writing had never been seen before and are still popular in Tamil weeklies. In Devan’s novels, the urban middle class identified the characters as their own.

He churned out well-researched novels with the backgrounds, whether legal or political, homework was markedly well done. His ‘Justice Jagannathan’ gave the readers a flavour of the erstwhile judicial system in India and the court proceedings. It was about unravelling a murder mystery through the law system.

Devan was versatile when choosing the genre of his stories. He even did a series of historical fiction but with his unique style based it on the Marathi history of Tamil Nadu. The inspiration was the Mallari Rao stories he learnt from the Marathi landlords of his house in Thiruvidamarudur.

Devan documented the temples of Tamil Nadu in coordination with artist Shilpi in the form of serialised essays on popular temples under the title Thennattu Selvangal. His other books were aptly illustrated by Gopulu and it added to the brand image of the characters.

Not one of Devan’s books was published during his lifetime as Vasan was very possessive and particular on stressing ownership on what was written by his staff. Devan’s ‘Gomathiyin Kathalan’, a comedy of mistaken identities with the background of the zamindars of Tamil Nadu and their petty infighting, was made into a movie with TR Ramachandran in the lead.

—The author is a historian (With inputs from Jayaraman Raghunathan)