Born in Chemancheri, Calicut as the son of M. R. Vijayaraghavan and K. P. Bhavani, Bharadwaj studied at Poyilkavu High School and Malabar Christian College, Calicut and Government Engineering College, Trichur.

[1] Bharadwaj started his journalistic career with the left-leaning Malayalam magazine Chintha.

[1] A civil engineer by profession, he worked in Saudi Arabia for a long time and many of his literary works focused on the lives of Indian expatriates in the Persian Gulf region.

[2] He won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Novel for Kalapangalkkoru Grihapadam (2006).

He also produced the Malayalam film Iniyum Marichittillatha Nammal (1980) directed by Chintha Ravi.