Biography
C. L. Jose was born in the Chakkalakal house at Puthukad, Thrissur district of the south Indian state of Kerala to Lonappan and Manjali Mariakutty as the eldest of their nine children.[1] His early education was at St. Mary's Lourde's U.P. School - Thrissur after which he started his career at a Chit fund company in Thrissur as a clerk. He started his literary career as a playwright with Manam Thelinju, which he wrote for a local club in the town when he was 24.[1] This followed a body of work which comprises 36 plays, 75 one-act plays and one children's play.[2] Besides he has documented the story of his life in an autobiography, Ormakalkku Urakkamilla.[3] His plays were popular in the amateur theatre[4] Manalkadu, one of his plays, has been translated into 14 Indian languages and was broadcast through the All India Radio as a part of their Drama Week.[1] The work was later adapted into a film Ariyatha Veethikal by K. S. Sethumadhavan.[5] Subsequently, two more of his plays were made into films viz. Bhoomiyile Malakha in 1965[6] and Agninakshathram in 2004.[7]
Jose has served as a faculty of fine arts at the University of Calicut, has been a member of the Kerala Sahithya Akademi and the Samastha Kerala Sahithya Parishad, has sat in the advisory board of the All India Radio and has presided over the Fine Arts Society of Thrissur. He also chaired the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi for a brief period in the 1990s[2] and serves as a member of the Pastoral council of the Archdiocese of Thrissur.[8] Three of his plays have been included in the academic curriculum; Manalkkad at the University of Calicut, Jwalanam at the University of Kerala and Yugathrushna at Mahatma Gandhi University.[7]
Jose is married to Lissy and the couple has a daughter and two sons.[9] The family lives in Puthukad, in Thrissur.[1]
