Yakshi (novel)


Yakshi is a Malayalam novel written by Malayattoor Ramakrishnan in 1967. This novel is about a college lecturer, Srinivasan, who is disfigured in an accident in his college lab. He meets a beautiful woman who is willing to accept him despite his disfigurement. But after a while, Srinivasan has doubts about the identity of this woman; he doubts that this woman is human. The novel was adapted into a film with same name starring Sathyan in 1968. In 1993, Yakshi was shown in BBC's Off the Shelf program as 12 episodes. In 1995, Hemamalini directed a telefilm in Hindi for Zee TV titled Mohini with Sudesh Berry and Madhoo. In 2013, a contemporary retelling of the novel titled Akam was released.

Plot Summary

Yakshi narrates the story of a young handsome scientist and lecturer, Sreenivasan who is working in a college in Kerala. Sreenivasan is doing research on the Yakshis. He is in love with one of the one student in college Vijayalakshmi.
In the chemistry laboratory, he met with an unexpected accident, almost half of his face is damaged. Everyone who used to adore him started to hate him and keep away from him for his looks. Even Vijayalakshmi deserts him. He is thus infected by intense inferiority complex and dragged into a mental trauma.
It is at this juncture a mysterious women befriends Sreeni and despite his damaged face, she starts loving him. Sreeni marries Ragini. But soon he becomes doubtful regarding the intention of this woman and he starts doubting whether this woman is in fact human as she proclaims to be or a vampire in human form.

Main characters