Azhagia Periavan (Aravindhan) is one of the young Dalit writers in Tamil who claim attention for their authentic and honest portrayal of the life of the oppressed classes. The portrayal is, on occasions, too real and raw to be art, and a conscious process of transformation of the raw material into finished product might have made the stories richer and given the writer also a kind of training in critical intelligence. One must, however, quickly add that there is critical intelligence in Azhagia Periavan, but deliberation on questions of choice, repetition, and tone would have definitely carried his work beyond doubt into the realm of creative achievement. A good writer is better because of the exercise of his critical powers.
January 2004, volume 28, No 1