Chennai: Sahitya Akademi Award-winning Tamil writer and filmmaker Poomani, known for his powerful portrayals of life in Tamil Nadu’s karisal (arid black soil) region, died in Chennai on July 12 due to age-related ailments. He was 79.Poomani, born Manickavasagam, adopted his pen name in 1966 when he began publishing his stories. He credited his mother, Thenammal, for inculcating in him a love for reading and storytelling.Growing up in the arid village of Andipatti near Kovilpatti, a small town in Tuticorin, he would hear stories of the karisal landscape and its people. Karisal literature later emerged as a distinct genre in Tamil writing, mainly through the pioneering work of Sahitya Akademi awardee Ki Rajanarayanan, popularly known as Ki Ra, who chronicled the lives of people from the black soil regions of southern Tamil Nadu.“While Ki Ra’s characters were somewhat polished, Poomani’s came alive with all the rawness, heat and dust of the karisal landscape,” said writer K N Senthil in an obituary post. Writer Bogan Sankar said Poomani’s stories documented how industrialisation changed the “relationship” between caste and occupation.Poomani first tried his hand at poetry before moving to short stories. He wrote 51 short stories which were turned into four collections. From 1979, he began focusing on writing novels. His debut novel ‘Piragu’ published in the early 1980s, shook the Tamil literary world because of its portrayal of caste. The novel showed how Independence had no impact on a village even after a quarter century.Poomani published his four more novels — ‘Vekkai’, ‘Neivedhyam’, ‘Varappugal’ and ‘Vaaikkaal’. His sixth novel ‘Agnaadi’, published in 2012, tracing nearly two centuries of southern Tamil Nadu’s history, is regarded as his magnum opus. With the help of rich archival material, the author had reconstructed 19th-century south Tamil Nadu by weaving historical events — the fall of Pandya kingdom, arrival of Nayaks, Great Madras Famine of 1876-1880, and Sivakasi riots of 1899 — into the plot. In 2014, he was given the Sahitya Akademi award for the novel, which also won the inaugural edition of Gitanjali Literary Prize, a Franco-Indian literary award established in 2012.Poomani was given the Vishnupuram Literary Award in 2011, instituted by writer Jeyamohan. In 2022, the DMK govt allotted a house to him under the ‘Kanavu Illam’ scheme. Poomani’s last novel ‘Gommai’ is a retelling of the Mahabharata.Poomani was also a filmmaker. He directed ‘Karuvelam Pookkal’, which tells the story of people who work in firecracker units. The film was funded by the National Film Development Corporation and won the TN state film award special prize in 1996.Chief minister C Joseph Vijay, former CM M K Stalin and other political leaders condoled Poomani’s death.
