The King of Melody (1928-2015)
Manayangath Subramanian Viswanathan who passed away recently was known to the film industry as M.S. Viswanathan or simply by his initials MSV, and was hailed as ‘Mellisai Mannar’ (King of Light Music). He held sway over the world of film music and worked as a composer in over a thousand Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Hindi films, though most of his compositions were for Kollywood, as Tamil cinema is often called. A self-taught musician who had a keen ear for music right from birth, MSV gave his first performance on the harmonium at the age of thirteen and due to the strained financial circumstances of his family, later joined music troupes as an errand boy.
His talent and flair for music however caught the attention of veterans like S.M. Subbiah Naidu and C.R. Subburaman, famous composers of the time, and they soon took him under their wing. MSV who had by then become an expert at playing the harmonium soon picked up the nuances of music, both light and classical from the masters, and his acquaintance with his orchestra mate and violinist T.K. Ramamurthy resulted in their coming together as a duo, christening their partnership as Viswanathan-Ramamurthy.
A spate of films directed by veteran director Bhimsingh for which the poet laureate Kannadasan penned the lyrics, received a marked fillip thanks to the melodious tunes set by Viswanathan-Ramamurthy with the numbers sung by playback singers T.M. Soundararajan and P. Susheela turning out to be chartbusters. The pair had an unblemished record of scoring hits with every single film they signed and faced little competition from their contemporaries. The sensational music in the film Aayirathil Oruvan starring M.G. Ramachandran and a teenaged Jayalalithaa was the last film that they scored music for, and after that they went their separate ways.
Although T.K. Ramamurthy too was not short on talent, it was Viswanathan who emerged more successful after the split and from 1965 to 2014, when he finally bid adieu to films, his compositions continued to rule the roost in Tamil cinema. And as superstar Rajanikanth observed in a tribute on his demise, MSV’s music was instrumental in ensuring the success of actors like MGR and Sivaji Ganesan and even highly successful directors like Sridhar and Balachander.
Viswanathan worked with almost all the major producers and directors of his time and also shaped the careers of a host of playback singers right from T.M. Soundararajan, Seerkazhi Govindararajan, P.B. Srinivas, Yesudas, S.P. Balasubramaniam and the supremely talented female singers like P. Susheela, S. Janaki, L. R. Eswari and Vani Jairam.
One of his most illustrious contemporaries K.V. Mahadevan had earned a reputation for his prowess in scoring music for mythologies, a rage during the olden days and critics of MSV felt that this was one genre that the latter could not get the measure of. MSV silenced the Doubting Thomases with his brilliant compositions in the B.R. Panthulu directed Karnan. Although the arrival of music marvel Ilayaraja on the scene all but eclipsed MSV’s career towards the fag end, Raja who considered MSV as his mentor, joined forces with him to score the music for the film Mella Thiranthathu Kanavu.
Viswanathan was also a highly rated singer. Sollathan Ninaikiren Allah Allah, Inbathilum Thunbathilum, Vidai Kodu Engal Naade were some numbers that he crooned with consummate ease and great finesse with the rich timbre of his voice adding a lot of pep to the songs. Not many know that the maestro had aimed for a career as an actor before he found his true calling in music and MSV could fulfill this desire by doing cameos in a number of films like Kadhal Mannan, Kadhala Kadhala, and Rojavanam. Although MSV won a number of state awards in his long and eventful career, national honours eluded him but that hardly troubled the musical genius. However, there is not even an iota of doubt that his music will forever reign in the hearts of his fans all over the world for all times to come.