''Arabi Ponnu'' is a

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...

jointly written by

M. T. Vasudevan Nair Madath Thekkepaattu Vasudevan Narayanan Nair (15 July 1933 – 25 December 2024) was an Indian author, lecturer, Screenwriter, screenplay writer and film director. He was a prolific and versatile writer in modern Malayalam literature, and was o ...

and

N. P. Mohammed N. P. Mohammed (1 July 1928 – 3 January 2003), popularly known by his initials N. P., was an Indian novelist, short story writer and screenwriter of Malayalam language. Along with his contemporaries like M. T. Vasudevan Nair, O. V. Vijayan, K ...

. The theme is the smuggling of gold from Arab countries, especially

Arab states of the Persian Gulf The Arab states of the Persian Gulf, also known as the Gulf Arab states (), refers to a group of Arab states bordering the Persian Gulf. There are seven member states of the Arab League in the region: Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Saudi ...

, in its early period.

Background

The novel is unique in the aspect that it was written jointly by two writers-M. T. Vasudevan Nair and N. P. Mohammed. The two had maintained a very close personal relationship right from their first meeting in 1954. At the time, NP was 25 but already a recognized author while MT was still a budding writer, having published a few short stories. About the meeting, MT said in an interview to ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...

'', "I had only admired him from a distance till then. I was thrilled when he said he had also read some of my stories. We had tea together that evening." Later, in 1956, MT moved to Calicut where NP was residing and they became very close friends. MT would later recall that it was NP who always first read the draft of his novels. The idea of co-authoring a novel struck the writers after they came across ''

The Ugly American ''The Ugly American'' is a 1958 political novel by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer that depicts the failures of the U.S. diplomatic corps in Southeast Asia. The book caused a sensation in diplomatic circles and had major political impli ...

'', a novel penned by

Eugene Burdick Eugene Leonard Burdick (December 12, 1918 – July 26, 1965) was an American political scientist, novelist, and non-fiction writer, co-author of '' The Ugly American'' (1958), ''Fail-Safe'' (1962), and author of '' The 480'' (1965). Early life H ...

and

William J. Lederer William Julius Lederer, Jr. (March 31, 1912 – December 5, 2009) was an American author and naval officer. Biography U.S. Navy service After dropping out of high school, Lederer enlisted in the United States Navy in 1930. He graduated from ...

."N.P. Mohammed remembered"
''

''. 4 January 2005. Retrieved 10 September 2017. For writing ''Arabi Ponnu'', the duo stayed at a rented house in Karuvarakkundu village, Malappuram for about two weeks.

Plot summary

The Arabs came in their

dhow Dhow (; ) is the generic name of a number of traditional sailing vessels with one or more masts with settee or sometimes lateen sails, used in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean region. Typically sporting long thin hulls, dhows are trading vessels ...

s laden with dates to

Calicut Kozhikode (), also known as Calicut, is a city along the Malabar Coast in the state of Kerala in India. Known as the City of Spices, Kozhikode is listed among the City of Literature, UNESCO's Cities of Literature. It is the nineteenth large ...

, the Port of Truth, and through the dates smuggled in gold. The Port of Truth became the Port of Treachery. Koya, the protagonist, saw his hands smeared with the stink of Arab gold, opium, smuggled liquor and women. He saw them, he lived with them. He loaded opium on a Chinese vessel anchored off

Beypore Beypore or Beypur (, formerly Beypoor) is an ancient port town and a locality town in Kozhikode district in the state of Kerala, India. It is located opposite to Chaliyam, the estuary where the river Chaliyar empties into the Arabian Sea. Beyp ...

. But he emerged as a new man from the world of treachery and robbery, deceit and betrayal.

Planned film adaptation

Hariharan wanted to adapt the novel into a film. After the success of ''

Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha ''Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha'' (), credited internationally as ''A Northern Story of Valor'', is a subplot of Vadakkan Pattukal, a medieval ballad from North Malabar and is often regarded as a classic in Malayalam cinema. The film won four Nation ...

'', MT and Hariharan approached

Padmarajan Padmarajan Padmanabhan Pillai, better known as P. Padmarajan (23 May 1945 – 23 January 1991) was an Indian film maker, screenwriter and author who was known for his works in Malayalam literature and Malayalam cinema. He was the founder of a ...

to write the screenplay but Padmarajan was busy with the works of the film ''

Innale ''Innale'' () is a 1990 Malayalam-language psychological drama film written and directed by P. Padmarajan. The film was produced by Ashraf and Rasheed under the banner A. B. R. Productions. The film stars Jayaram, Suresh Gopi, Shobhana, and Sri ...

''. The project never took off.

References

{{Malayalam Literature , state=collapsed Malayalam novels Novels set in Kerala Novels by M. T. Vasudevan Nair DC Books books 1960 Indian novels