KOCHI:The bond musician M S Viswanathan and filmmaker Sreekumaran Thampi shared was beyond the 100 songs they gifted Malayalam cinema.
“My first venture with ‘Viswettan’ was ‘Lankadahanam’ in 1971. The first song we created together was ‘Eeshwaranorikkal Virunninu Poyi’,” Thampi told ‘Express’. Posters featuring three of us - music created by M S Viswanathan , K J Yesudas, and Sreekumaran Thampi - were pasted all over the State as all the seven songs of the film went on to become all-time hits. Within two decades, the team created 100 songs for 18 films, including the one that was never released. The songs include the evergreen super hits from Divyadarsanam, Chandrakantham, Venalil Oru Mazha, Simhasanam and Jeevitham oru Ganam.
“At least nine of them were either produced or directed by me. I could tap his potential easily as we could share our thoughts easily. Except for multi-lingual film ‘Sabarimalayil Thanka Sooryodayam’ (1992), the last film in which we worked together, I wrote the lyrics first and then he tuned it. Verity and speed were Vswettan’s strengths,” he said.
“Thampi’s lyrics are laced with music and my job is to find it,” MSV once commented on the bonhomie they shared as a team. “He found my lyrics as ‘simple with deep philosophy’. He cared for me as an elder brother. I cannot forget the incident when he hugged me when I lost my son. He even inquired about my financial condition when he heard the unpleasant news,” Sreekumaran Thampi recalled emotionally.
Many masters worked with MSV, including music director Shyam as keyboard player; K J Joy as accordion player; Ilayaraja as guitarist for a few films; and even A R Rahman. “Renowned drummer Shivamani started off with him. Rahman himself acknowledged that his melodies had a shade of MSV. Literally, Viswettan was a university of popular music and I am going to miss him,” Sreekumaran Thampi concluded.