Participating perhaps for the first time in an entertainment event after taking charge as Chief Minister last year, J Jayalalithaa conferred the “Thirai Isai Chakravarthy” title on ace composer M S Viswanathan here on Wednesday as part of celebrating Jaya TV’s 14th anniversary.
The title was chosen by the public through voting conducted by the channel. The veteran musician was also presented a purse of 60 gold coins along with T K Ramamurthy, who together once ruled the Tamil film music industry. All top players in Kollywood, including actors Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, producer A V M Saravanan and director K Balachander, participated.
In her address, Jayalalithaa described Viswanathan as the only musician who still reigns supreme in the film music industry after composing music for over 1,000 films in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi.
“MSV has the ability to compose music with just three and also with over 300 instruments. Also, he is the only music director who has sung over 500 songs as well,” she pointed out. Hailing them for giving innovative music to the industry by incorporating more instruments, she said their composition appealed equally to those with music knowledge and laymen.
Jayalalithaa recalled attending a function with her mother way back in 1963 when the title of Mellisai Mannargal was conferred on the musical duo. She wanted to honour them as well expressed delight at Jaya TV providing her that opportunity.
Balachander said, while the film industry forgot to celebrate Viswanathan and Ramamurthy, Jaya TV took the right decision to honour them.
Veteran singers, including T M , P B Srinivas, Susheela and Vani Jayaram, were also honoured at the event. The event also marked a live orchestra presentation of golden melodies of the composers, selected by the CM.