THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A war of words is brewing in the Malayalam literary field with similarities being drawn in the plots of award-winning author Haritha Savithri’s Zin and Kalachi, written by K R Meera, one of the prominent figures in contemporary Malayalam literature. The issue took shape after a cryptic Facebook post by Haritha, in which she wrote about the machinations behind the theft of literary plots. The entire episode then turned towards the similarities in the plots of her book and Meera’s.
However, K R Meera has strongly rejected the allegations that her novel Kalachi is a plagiarized work. Meera claims the first six chapters of the book were published in an online medium back in 2020, which effectively set the tone of the book, its plot, and its characters. The prominent author questioned how a book serialized in 2020 could be copied from Zin, which was published later in 2022. Taking to Facebook, Meera added that Haritha Savithri had personally called and congratulated her upon reading the novel with great delight in 2026. Meera further stated in her post that she remains completely unaffected by dishonest allegations and insincere appreciation. This sharp response from Meera came closely after Haritha openly stated that the striking similarities between her novel Zin and Meera’s Kalachi had shocked her.
An academic who doesn’t wish to be named added that Meera’s book focuses primarily on power and religious tangles, interspersed with the travails of patriarchy, and how all these elements deeply affect women. The author had also spoken about the two books being entirely different in their contexts—Meera’s work centers on citizenship and the socio-political place of a liberal Muslim woman in our country. Haritha’s protagonist Seetha, however, encounters trying situations as she comes looking for her lover in Diyarbakir in Turkey, amidst the intense crossfire of a regional resistance movement. “While there may be similarities in the basic premise, the overall setting is essentially different with the variations of culture narrating different facets of life,” the academic claims.
Reacting to the raging controversy on a news channel, Haritha Savithri stated that she had already handed over her book to veteran writer N S Madhavan for writing the preface way before Meera published those first six chapters online. “Those chapters are the first part of the book. Her character Fida’s and my character Seetha’s respective journeys begin only after that part, and that is exactly where there are visible similarities,” she claims. Haritha further maintained that she has said all she wants to say in her initial Facebook post. “I do not feel there was any literal ‘copy-pasting’. But the basic threads are very similar and this could have easily been avoided so that such controversies wouldn’t arise in the first place,” she added.
But as online debates heat up rapidly between the readers of both the popular authors, earlier comments of veteran literary critic P K Rajasekharan are also being propped up, in which he allegedly equated Haritha’s work to Rahul Mankoottam. For the time being, the intense war of words remains a hot topic of discussion, mainly across various social media platforms. Zin was published in 2022 and went on to win the prestigious Sahitya Akademi award in 2023. Kalachi, on the other hand, was published in 2025. Both the books revolve around women arriving in highly conflict-ridden areas in search of their missing lovers. While Zin is set against a Kurdish backdrop, Kalachi pans out in Kazakhstan.
ലഘു വിവരണം
എഴുത്തുകാരി ഹരിത സാവിത്രിയുടെ കേന്ദ്ര സാഹിത്യ അക്കാദമി അവാർഡ് നേടിയ ‘സിൻ’ (2022), കെ. ആർ. മീരയുടെ ‘കലാച്ചി’ (2025) എന്നീ നോവലുകൾ തമ്മിലുള്ള കഥാസാമ്യത്തെച്ചൊല്ലി മലയാള സാഹിത്യ ലോകത്ത് തർക്കം മുറുകുന്നു. അന്യദേശങ്ങളിലെ യുദ്ധഭൂമിയിൽ കാമുകനെ തിരഞ്ഞുപോകുന്ന സ്ത്രീകളുടെ കഥ പറയുന്ന ഇരു നോവലുകളിലെയും സാമ്യം തന്നെ ഞെട്ടിച്ചുവെന്ന് ഹരിത പറഞ്ഞപ്പോൾ, കോപ്പി അടി ആരോപണങ്ങൾ കെ. ആർ. മീര പൂർണ്ണമായി തള്ളി. തൻ്റെ നോവൽ 2020 മുതൽ ഓൺലൈനിൽ പ്രസിദ്ധീകരിക്കുന്നുണ്ടെന്നും 2026-ൽ ഹരിത തന്നെ വിളിച്ച് പുസ്തകത്തെ അഭിനന്ദിച്ചിരുന്നുവെന്നും മീര വ്യക്തമാക്കി.
(With inputs from MN)
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