Role: Music director, Film score composer, singer and actor
Birth
MS Viswanathan was born on 24th June 1928 to Manayagath Subramanian and Narayani in Elappully Village of Malabar District in Madras Presidency.
Earlier life
When he was four, his father died. Then, due to poverty, his mother tried to kill him and his sister. His grandfather came to save him at this event. As his grandfather was a warden and uncle was a jailor, Visawanathan’s family went to stay with them. In his childhood, he used to sell the food packets in the movie theatre without any salary just to hear the film music.
Education
He got his primary education in Pallikannu at Kannur. As a child, he would stand outside the house of Neelakanta Bhagavathar to hear his teaching to the students. Later he got an opportunity to learn the method of playing harmonium. After M.S.Viswanathan gave his singing performance, Neelakanta Bhagavathar understood the talent of him and arranged for a three-hour concert in the Kannur town. This was the first performance for him at his 13th age in Trivandrum.
Personal life
M.S Viswanathan married to Janaki. He had four sons and three daughters.
Music Career of M.S Viswanathan
His first work as an office boy in Jupiter Pictures in the year 1940 paid him Rs.3 every month.M.S Viswanathan had the wish to become an actor and singer, but that did not work. During the 1940s, he got smaller roles in stage dramas. During his stage performance, T.R Papa(the violinist and composer) saw the Viswanathan for the first time. In 1942, T.R Papa used his influence and got the errand boy job for Viswanathan in the S.V Venkataraman’s music troupe. After joining this troupe, M.S Viswanathan found his talent and ability of composing music. For that, he joined as a harmonium player in the troupe of S.M. Subbaiah Naidu. There he came in contact with the two violinists T.K. Ramamoorthy and T.G Lingappa.
After this T.G Lingappa had become the music director and C.R.Subburaman died in 1952. Then the duo Viswanathan and Ramamoorthy got the chance to compose for the Subburaman films. Their duo made the music direction for many of C.R .Subburaman’s films. M.S Viswanathan joined as a third composer for the film “Genova”, in which MGR was the hero. MGR saw the talent of Viswanathan and bonded with him till 1977. From 1952 to 1965, the duo M.S Viswanathan and Ramamoorthy made the compositions for more than 100 films.
This duo music composers had split in 1965, after the Ayirathil Oruvan movie. Their rejoining took place over 29 years, for the movie “Engirundho vanthan”.
Solo Music Director
As a solo music director, he made composing for several films. He used new entertaining factors like whistling and humming in his compositions. He brought in western and disco form of music using the classical ragas. His composition brought him the huge fans that made him to continue his techniques in several movies. Later he made the background music for the political campaigns and other albums.
He made the solo composition for nearly 500 songs. Then he had done the composition for many directors from the period of 1950 to 1990. During 1970’s, the directors like S.P. Muthuraman, Bhagyaraj, C.V Rajendran, Yoganand, P.Madhavan, Vietnam Veedu Sundaram and I.V Sasi has used the music direction of Viswanathan for their films. He had also done composition for the new directors like Visu, Komal Swaminathan, K.Raghunath and Mouli from the year 1980 to 1990.
M.S.Viswanathan had been very loyal. He helped his guru S.M.Subbaiah Naidu to overcome the financial difficulties of Naidu. Similarly, when his dear friend and Comedian of Tamil Cinema J.P.Chandrababu was facing the financial issues, he helped Chandrababu to overcome that situation. After the proper request, Chandrababu spent his later life in M.S Viswanathan’s house till his death. M.S Viswanathan made the arrangement for the rites during the death of Chandrababu in March 1974.
He was the one to introduce many lyricists, musicians and singers. Under his composition, many clasically trained singers like M.Soundararajan and P.Susheela had given their hit number of songs. Under his composition, singers like Seerkazhi Govindharaajan, S.P Balasubrahamaniam, R.Balasaraswathi, , S.Janaki, A.L Raghavan, K.J.Yesudas and Vani Jayaram has got popularity in the Tamil film Industry. He only made Swarnalatha as a playback singer, at her 14th age.
When Vaali had tougher situations, he brought the introduction of lyricist Vaali to the Tamil movie industry.
MSV acting career
MSV (M.S Viswanathan) made his appearance as an actor in the film “Kadhal Mannan” for the first time. Later he had done films like “Kaadhala Kaadhala” of Kamal Haasan and “Rojavanam” of Karthik. Since 1995, he has given his acting in many films and other TV series.
Later life of M.S Viswanathan
From 1996, he made the music composing for the devotional songs. Then he began to judge the music reality shows in Tamil and Malayalam languages. In 2002, he made the comeback to the cinema by singing the song “Vidai Kodu Engal Naadae” in the film “Kannathil Muthamittaal” under the music composition of A.R.Rahman. On 14th May 2012, M.S.Viswanathan’s wife Janaki died at her 77th age.
Next in 2013, he sang the song “Alayae O Alayae” under the music composition of Satish Chakravarthy .In 2013,he made the music composition along with Yuvan Shankar Raaja for the film”Thillu Mullu” . Then the song “Saami Namba saami” written by Snehan for the “Mannar valaiguda” was sung by M.S.Viswanathan.
Honors of M.S Viswanathan
- On 12th August 2012, the Chief Minister of TamilNadu J.Jayalalitha gave him the title “Thirai Isai Chakravarthy” which means The Emperor of Cine music. She also gave him a new car and 60 gold coins.
- At one instance superstar of Tamil cinema Rajnikanth praised M.S Viswanathan that “he lived life as a selfless saint without jealous”.
Awards of M.S Viswanathan
He won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Music Director for the film “Lakshmi Kalyanam”in the year 1968. In the year 1974, for the films Chandrakanthan and Jeevikkan Marannupoya Sthree, he won the Kerala State Film Award for best Music Director. He won the Nandi Award for Best Music Director for the film Naalaga Endara in 1978. In 1978, he won the Kannadasan Award from the Tamil Nadu State Government. He won the honorary state award Kalaimamani from the Government of TamilNadu.
Death
M.S Viswanathan died on 14th July 2015 due to breathing issues age-related ailments at Fortis Malar Hospital in Chennai. He was admitted to Malar hospital to undergo treatment for breathing issue before his death.