It was the year
1972. Our school had organised a musical concert as part of a fund collection
initiative. The function was at the University Centenary Hall. A ticket had
been thrust upon me; and so as not to waste it, I decided to go along with a
few friends. We were all prepared for a boring evening and we had informed our
parents that we would be back early...
6 PM, and the show
began with a bang. A diminutive middle-aged man in white dhoti and white shirt,
with sacred ash across his forehead stood behind a harmonium at the centre of
an 80-piece orchestra. He was a literal live-wire. Banging away on the keys of
his harmonium one minute, gesticulating to the violinists, punching rhythm with
the percussionists, encouraging the singers... He was there all over and the
overall impact of the concert was mind-boggling. T M Soundararajan was there.
So was L R Eswari. A younger and slimmer S P Balasubramaniam. The mellifluous P
B Srinivas... I never realised till that day that a light music concert
featuring Tamil songs could electrify a packed auditorium of juvenile school
students. The crowd went into raptures. Men climbed on the chairs for better
view of the stage as every vacant space was taken up by frenzied youngsters
gyrating, banging their heads and dancing away. The climax was the song Ennadi Rakamma...
It was Mellisai
Mannar M S Viswanathan all the way. In one evening he
became my idol. I decided that some time in life, I should meet him...
August 29, 2012.
It was the 13th Anniversary of Jaya TV. It was an evening of song
and dance. And orchestrating the event was none other than Melissai Mannar MSV.
As the Vice President of Jaya TV, I had the honour of organising the show. On
the occasion, we were presenting MSV with 60 Gold Coins (one coin for every
year of music he had generated for Tamil cinema). We presented him with a Ford
Ikon car. And we conferred on him the title of Thirai Isai Chakravarthy (the
Emperor of Film Music). The honours were done by none other than the Chief
Minister of Tamilnadu, Ms J Jayalalithaa, who was the Chief Guest. And present
on the dais were the giants of the Tamil film industry – Illaya Raja, K Balachander,
AVM Saravanan, Rajnikanth, Kamal Hasan... For me, it was a day of fulfilment. A
day on which, in my own small way, I was able to place a small feather in the
cap of the Genius.
Between these two events spanning more than four decades, MSV
had become a sort of a father figure for me. In 1992-93, after bidding adieu to
The
Illustrated Weekly of India, I had launched Telly Zoom, a company that was to make a mark on the small screen
as one of the best producers of TV software in Tamil (including the hugely
successful JACKPOT, that was aired for a decade on Jaya TV). One of my partners
in the venture was my friend Prakash, one of MSV’s sons. Through him I got to
meet the Legend and to interact with him. I too referred to MSV as Acha (Dad)
as Prakash used to address him.
In
1995, Telly Zoom took the TV rights of the programme Kannadasan Ninaivalaigal – a programme organised by MSV to collect
funds for erecting a statue for his bosom friend of many decades, Kaviarasar
Kannadasan. The twin shows in Salem and Coimbatore, which featured MSV on stage
with a galaxy of legends like K V Mahadevan, Illaya Raja and Shankar-Ganesh
together for the first time, were roaring successes. The venues were choking
with people. The tickets were all sold out. There were thousands of gate
crashers as well... MSV was a great musician, but a bad businessman. The amount
we paid for the TV rights was probably the only money that he finally got for
the statue. Most of those who were with him in organising the shows ended up
duping him! But he persisted with his efforts and with Chief Minister
Jayalalithaa lending a helping hand, the statue today stands proudly on G N
Chetty Road in Chennai – a tribute to an enduring friendship between two
legends.
Music
flowed in MSV’s veins. Coming from very humble origins from Elapulli village in
Palghat in Kerala, he learned Carnatic music by listening to the strains coming
from the home of a neighbouring vidwan, teaching other students. Whether any of the
regular students attained any degree of proficiency, one may never know. But by
the time he was 13, the young Viswanathan was proficient enough to perform on
stage. But poverty forced him to look for a job. He tried his hand at acting in
small roles as a child artiste. But with none to promote his case, made little
headway. Finally, he ended up as an odd-jobs boy in the recording studio of
Jupiter Studios in Coimbatore. His job : serving tea to the musicians, running
errands, sweeping the recording hall and wiping clean all the musical
instruments...
The young Viswanathan loved the musical instruments. And whenever he was alone, he
played with them. Very soon he became an adept with the harmonium. And very
often, he created his own tunes. One day, the renowned composer of the time, S
M Subbiah Naidu, who was using the recording studio for composing, was taking a
midnight stroll in the gardens. He had been given some particularly difficult lyrics to put to tune
that day. The words were just not fitting into any tune he thought of. And Naidu was lost in thought. Suddenly he
heard a tune being played on the harmonium. A tune that exactly suited the
lyrics. Naidu went running into the studio, only to see the “tea-boy”
Viswanathan pumping at the keys. When Naidu burst into the studio, Viswanathan
froze. He expected a dressing-down for meddling with the musical instruments.
But instead, Subbiah Naidu hugged him. “This will be the tune for this song”, he said. “But
don’t tell anyone that you composed the tune. Then the producers will not
accept it. So history recorded the song as one composed by Subbiah Naidu... The
film Abhimanyu turned out to be a big
hit. And the talking point of the film was the song Puthu Vasanthamaana Vaazhvile, the first ever composition of MSV!
A
couple of months later, Jupiter Studios decided to relocate to Madras (now
Chennai). Most of the menial staff were thrown out. Amongst them was
Viswanathan. But Subbiah Naidu stormed into the chambers of the studio owner,
Somu. “If you want me to compose music in Jupiter Studios in Madras,
Viswanathan comes with me”, he shouted. “Do you know, he was the one who
actually composed the song Puthu
Vasanthamaana Vaazhvile? But for that song, the film would have flopped!”
Somu relented and Viswanathan went to Chennai, which was to be his home for all of 7 decades
till his death on the 14th of July, 2015.
Jupiter
Studios downed shutters several decades ago. Today, it is an almost forgotten chapter in the history of Tamil cinema. But its illustrious son MS
Viswanathan went on to compose for more than 1700 films... More than 25,000
songs... For legends like MGR, Sivaji Ganesan, Jayalalithaa, Vijayanthimala,
Gemini Ganesan, Rajnikanth, Kamal Hasan.... Using legends like P B Srinivas, T
M Soundararajan, Seergazhi Govindarajan, P Susheela, S Janaki, K J Yesudas, S P
Balasubramaniam... In building up the larger-than-life political image of MGR,
the first person to rule the state of Tamilnadu for three terms in succession,
MSV had a major role to play. He composed music in Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada. He worked
with four Chief Ministers — N T Rama Rao, M G Ramachandran, M Karunanidhi and
Jayalalithaa. But MSV himself always remained apolitical,
composing for films featuring MGR and Sivaji Ganesan even at the time when the
rivalry between the two was at its peak.
Throughout
life, MSV always remained humble. He never forgot his simple origins. He never
looked down on others. He never portrayed himself as a genius. Rather, he liked
to project himself, even at 87, as an ordinary student of music. He firmly
believed that man was mortal, while his melodies were immortal. When he sang, his
voice had a timbre and range that was unparalleled.
He never hesitated to join hands with “juniors”
in the field. For the film Melle
Thiranthadhu Kadhavu, he partnered Illaya Raja to compose music. The songs
were a runaway hit.
For
the film Sangamam, he sang to the
composition of A R Rahman, who once used to play the Keyboard in MSV’s troupe.
He
was a team man and one of the architects of the Tamilnadu Cine Musicians Union. He
was instrumental in setting up the Indian Performing Right Society in Tamilnadu
for safeguarding the intellectual property rights of musicians. In the Tamil film music world, no other composer was as
diverse as MSV was. It is not just for many of his evergreen songs, but also
for the State song of the Government of Tamil Nadu — Neerarum
Kadalodutha —
that MSV will for ever be remembered.
For
all his achievements, official honours and recognitions eluded him. Though a
fit candidate for the Padma awards and the Dadsaheb Phalke Award, he was never
ever considered for these. Probably underlining the fact that he was no
lobbyist nor did he employ anyone to lobby for himself.
This
blog I dedicate to this unsung genius who took film music to dizzying heights
by his sheer brilliance. May he rest in peace.
