Like the great European novelists of the 19th century, Kalki was a master of striking scenes and episodes. With some of the burning patriotic fervour of a Bankim Chandra and a Hari Narayan Apte, something too of the humour of Dickens and the gift of portraiture of a Thackeray Kalki spread out his novels in impressive sequence. Very often he is compared with Dickens and Thackeray for his sense of humour and his gift of portraiture respectively.
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K.R. Srinivasa Iyangar, in "Kalki", The Indian PEN, Vol. XXI, No. 3 (March 1955), p. 78Kalki Krishnamurthy (R. Krishnamurthy)
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An author that's in now might be out in ten years. And vice-versa. Who knows when the final sifting is done, in the year 2050, say, who will be read of my generation? You'd like to think you will be one. But there has to be a constant weeding that goes on. The Victorians read all kinds of writers who we don't have time for now. Who reads Thackeray? An educated person reads Dickens, or reads some Dickens. But Thackeray?
John Updike
Three reasons can be cited for the phenomenal success of Kalki's novels. First of all, he possessed in abundance the gift of story-telling. Secondly, he introduced healthy humour in his writings. And lastly, he threw light upon the cultural and social aspects of this country as well as the current time.
Kalki (R. Krishnamurthy) Krishnamurthy
Kalki introduced healthy humour as against the dull and the vulgar. His humour does not hurt anybody and so makes everybody laugh.
Kalki (R. Krishnamurthy) Krishnamurthy
Generally, Kalki’s writings are well received by the people. There are two reasons for this. One thing is there will be humour in all his essays. Even in the saddest situation he will find something funny. … There was something very interesting about his writings. Writing the way he did, was something very great at that time, because there were no precedents to his writing style. Neither to his style or genre nor to the way the magazine was written. People talk about it even now. They say there is nothing that Kalki has not done, there is nothing left to be done. There is no scope of starting something new. Because, Kalki had experimented with everything, when it comes to the world of magazines... be it short stories, essays, cartoons, travelogues... he went to Sri Lanka in the 1930s and wrote a travelogue on Sri Lanka. People there were fanatical about Kalki. He was very popular there.
Even when he used to deliver a speech somewhere, it used to be full of humor. So people never used to allow him to speak first at any function. Because once he is through with his talk, the audience will walk away. So he used to invariably deliver only the vote of thanks. Even that used to be so funny, people used to be literally rolling on the floor.Kalki (R. Krishnamurthy) Krishnamurthy
Is it not a pity, Guivric, that this Kalki will not come in our day, and that we shall never behold his complete glory? I cry a lament for that Kalki who will someday bring back to their appointed places high faith and very ardent loves and hatreds; and who will see to it that human passions are in never so poor a way to find expressions in adequate speech and action. Ohé, I cry a loud lament for Kalki! The little silver effigies which his postulants fashion and adore are well enough: but Kalki is a horse of another color.
James Branch Cabell
Krishnamurthy, Kalki (R. Krishnamurthy)
Krishnamurti, Jiddu
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