In the late 1970s, the songs of Maro Charitra, a Telugu movie, became a rage.The music director though was not a Telugu icon but a Tamil legend, the late M S Viswanathan. This movie, directed by K. Balachander and starring Kamal Haasan was remade in Hindi as Ek Duje Ke Liye. M in his name could well stand for Music, Melody or the title given to him, Mellisai Mannar (King of Mellifluous Music). Manayangath Subramanian Viswanathan, popularly known as MSV, set out to become an actor but instead became a legendary composer. He would often say that Sa Ri Ga Ma was his language. And so impactful was his music that greats like Ilayaraja and A R Rahman consider him their Guru. Ilayaraja said on the passing of the legend,“Many films became box-office hits because of the music and songs composed by MSV.” Ilayaraja composed the background music for MSV in a couple of films like Mella Thirandadu Kadavu. Lyricist Vaali has often recounted how during a particularly low phase, the song Mayakkama Kalakkama from Sumaithangi inspired him to try his luck in the film world again..
A Rich Legacy MSV composed music for Kannada films, besides Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and a few Hindi movies. Some gems...
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Film music those days meant setting lyrics to traditional Carnatic ragas. But MSV, along with T K Ramamurthy, violinist and composer, revolutionised music (they parted ways in 1965 after scoring music for the MG Ramachandran film Aayirathil Oruvan). No one understood the importance of lyrics like MSV did. While lyricists Kannadasan, Vaali and Vairamuthu gave memorable words, MSV lent new meaning to them through his music. For instance, in one song, the lyricist Vairamuthu told him that there was a comma at the end of a line. MSV gave a slight pause there in the song. Such was his greatness.
MSV and Kannadasan were a perfect match. Asked if he gave the tunes first or set the words to music, MSV would laughingly say that it would be difficult for people to guess. There is this popular anecdote about them. For the song Vaan Nila... from Pattina Pravesam, MSV sang the tune Na na na na and asked Kannadasan to write the lyrics. But the latter was not happy and said, “What tune is this...some na na na...I can’t write for it.” MSV then sang the same tune...this time singing ‘La la la la’. Kannadasan then had his sweet revenge and quickly came out with the words, all ending with ‘la’. The song goes thus: “Vaan Nila Nilavalla Un Vaalibam Nila...”
MSV’s life was dotted with many such interesting anecdotes. His first composition was in the film Jenova in which MG Ramachandran played the lead. It is said that MGR didn’t want MSV on board as the latter was raw. But the film’s producer backed MSV, who was one of three composers for the film. And when MGR heard the songs, he called MSV to congratulate him. Thus, their long association began.
MSV always had the highest regard for veteran Hindi film composer Naushad and the feelings were mutual. Naushad once told MSV that he was asked to score music for the Hindi remake of Aalayamani (Aadmi with Dilip Kumar, Manoj Kumar and Waheeda Rehman). He said he felt there was little left for him to do as the original score was matchless.
MSV experimented with different styles and genres. In Karnan, for instance, he used Hindustani ragas. For the song Kannukku kulamedu sung by P Susheela, he used raag Pahadi. For the title song Nenjam Marappadillai (sung by P Susheela), MSV felt that he was not getting the feel of the song right.
When he went for a walk and saw the waves rising and falling, he got his music. The song, with its echo effect, is everyone’s favourite.
Times changed, and younger music directors and newer genres took off. Ilayaraja became a household name after the release of Annakili. But this did not perturb MSV. He reinvented himself.
He came up with the monster hit Ninaithale Inikkum. When Kamal Haasan sang Engeyum Eppodum or Rajnikanth danced to Sambho Siva Sambho (MSV sang this number), people went into a frenzy.
K. Balachander made this film about a music band (at a time when Indi-pop and bands were alien to people in the South).
MSV scored music for over 1,500 films. The long list includes Ooty Varai Uravu, Nenjirukkum Varai, Oli Vilakku, Ulagam Suttrum Valiban, Nam Nadu, Kadalikka Neramillai, Server Sundaram, Ramu, Uyarinda Manidan, Kavalkaran, Sivanda Mann, Nenjil Oar Aalayam... While he regaled us with his music, his singing and acting too won people’s hearts.