Kurup wrote lyrics for music used in Malayalam cinema. He has written a lot of lyrics for dramas and television serials also. He received the awards Padma Shri in 1998 and Padma Vibhushan in 2011, the fourth and second highest civilian honours from the Government of India. In 2007 he was given an Honorary Doctorate by University of Kerala, Trivandrum. O. N. V. was known for his leftist political views. He was the Left Democratic Front (LDF) candidate in the Thiruvananthapuram constituency for the Lok Sabha elections in 1989.