Kannadi Viswanathan, creator of 'CID Moosa' and 'Irumbukayi Mayavi', passes away at 93

Long before Hollywood audiences were introduced to the spectacle of Jurassic Park, Malayalam readers were already encountering their own version of monstrous reptiles on the pages of comic-strip stories. At the centre of that imaginative world was Kannadi Viswanathan, the creator of some of the most enduring detective and fantasy characters in Malayalam popular fiction, including CID Moosa and Irumbukayi Mayavi. Viswanathan, who was 93, passed away, marking the end of an era in Malayalam comic literature.

His cremation was held today at 10 am at the Chandranagar electric crematorium. He is survived by his wife Sharada, daughters Renuka and Shobha, and sons-in-law Aravindan and Hariprasad.

Viswanathan’s journey into Malayalam publishing was anything but conventional. Known as Kannadi Viswanathan Nair from Kannadi Prabha Mandiram, he spent two decades working as a tailor in Chennai before returning to Palakkad in the 1970s. That return would quietly reshape the landscape of Malayalam comic storytelling.

Back in Palakkad, he set up a tailoring shop near Achyuthan Book House in Kunnathurmedu. The bookshop, run by E. Achyuthan, was already known for its popular one-rupee novels. It was here that Viswanathan found the creative push that would define his legacy. Encouraged by discussions around the possibility of detective fiction in Malayalam comics, he began to explore storytelling with a renewed sense of imagination and purpose.

What followed was a remarkably prolific decade. Viswanathan went on to publish 125 books in just ten years, with each title printed in runs of around 10,000 copies. His stories combined fantasy, science fiction, and detective elements in a style that was accessible and wildly popular among readers of the time.

One of his most remembered works, “Manthrikavaalum Vichithrapambukalum”, reflected the imaginative scale of his writing. In it, he envisioned thieves engineering monstrous lizards in a bid to loot precious gemstones and mineral wealth, a storyline that predated similar global cinematic ideas by years.

Among his lasting contributions was the character CID Moosa, later brought to wider fame through cinema and embraced by younger audiences. Long before the film version became popular, the character first appeared in Viswanathan’s stories. At one point, when CID Moosa was removed from the storyline, readers reacted strongly enough that the editor reportedly received threatening letters demanding the character’s return.

From a tailor’s shop in Palakkad to the pages that shaped Malayalam comic imagination, Kannadi Viswanathan’s work carved out a unique space in popular culture. His stories did more than entertain; they built a world that readers refused to let go of.