kochi a good man who hoped and prayed that successive generations imbibed his valuesm v devans struggle was to earn this epitaph even as society viewed him as an outspoken and irreverent yet highly respected critic madathil vasudevan 86 who passed away on tuesday at his home in aluva never pined for a legacy that was disproportionate to his contribution to the creative world as an artist sculptor writer and orator this integrity saw him shooting off a legal notice to chief minister oommen chandy and cultural affairs minister k c joseph for prefixing dr before his name on a memento presented to him on november 1 last at an event organized to honour stalwarts he viewed it as an insult none from the government bothered to respond to his notice but for his poor health we would have filed a case against the government said advocate v v nandagopal nambiar those who knew devan would attest to the fact this was no bid for a headline throughout his life he never auctioned his credentials for any position that he didnt deserve but was quite arrogant in claiming that he richly deserved all honours be it the chairmanship of kerala lalita kala akademi 197477 or the numerous awards that reached him he was ruthless when it came to speaking his mind one such bout being his tirade against m t vasudevan nair when the writer took a stand against his contemporary t padmanabhan his critics attribute this attitude to devans inferiority complex they cite his liberal use of words and phrases accentuating his social background to underline this claim but devan born on january 15 1928 to madathil govindan gurukkal and mulloli madhavi at chockli in kannur was only proud of his lineage the words like keezhaalan or dhaman i use certify who i am and im very proud of it was his stand but this was no rhetoric to score any social points that was devans true perspective chiselled and polished by fellow travellers like m govindan years he spent at chennai training under k c s panicker and debi prasad roy chowdhury also moulded him as an art ambassador it is this influence that saw devan sowing seeds of concepts like the kerala kalapeedom in kochi and malayala kalagramam in mahe he also played a role in establishing the cholamandalam commune devans best contribution is the culture and a sense of aesthetics he inculcated among malayali art lovers this gave many youngsters the courage to experiment said sculptor kanayi kunhiraman the list of artists who benefited from his mentoring is long but devan was more proud in his role as the father of jameela and shalini his daughters beneath the faade of a hard task master and blunt critic devan was a loving family man he was crestfallen when he lost his wife sreedevi a few years back his body will be kept for public homage at aluva municipal town hall from 1 pm to 5