Background
Varkey was born in Chethipuzha, a small village near Changanassery in Kottayam district, Kerala.
Varkey was born in Chethipuzha, a small village near Changanassery in Kottayam district, Kerala.
Varkey was an exponent of a genre of sentiment-filled romantic fiction known as painkili (janapriya) novel in Malayalam literature. He began his career as a school teacher at Saint Berchmans High School, Changanassery. He then took up the job of an accountant in a timber factory.
Foreign a brief period, Varkey taught in a Tutorial College run by M. P. Paul.
He then joined Deepika newspaper as an associated editor and remained there for next 26 years until his retirement in 1974. Muttathu Varkey emerged as one of the popular writers of Malayalam fiction.
He along with Kanam Economic Journal was prominent in popularizing a genre of sentiment-filled pulp fiction known as painkili novel in Malayalam literature. He was a prolific writer and has penned a total of 132 books, including 65 novels.
Many of his novels were adapted into Malayalam films, including the Prem Nazir starrer Padatha Painkili (1957), (1965), (1968), and (1972) and the Sathyan starrer Karakanakadal (1971) and Akkarapacha (1972).
Muttathu Varkey Foundation has instituted the to be presented yearly to Malayalm writers. The prominent winners of the award include, O. V. Vijayan (1992), Vaikom Muhammad Basheer (1993), M. T. Vasudevan Nair (1994), Kovilan (1995), Kakkanadan (1996), VKN (1997), M. Mukundan (1998), Punathil Kunhabdulla (1999), Anand (2000), North. P. Mohammed (2001), Ponkunnam Varkey (2002), Sethu (2003), C. Radhakrishnan (2004), Zacharia (2005), Kamala Surayya (2006), T. Padmanabhan (2007), M. Sukumaran (2008), North.S. Madhavan (2009), P. Valsala (2010), Sarah Joseph (2011), North Prabhakaran (2012) and C. V. Balakrishnan (2013).