From classical melodies to disco generation: 'King of Music' MS Viswanathan's legend will live on

South Indian music director MS Viswanathan, who died early this morning, was a legend who straddled multiple genres of music and inspired several generations of composers, singers, actors and film-makers. No other film composer would have had such a passionate fan-following – not just in Tamil, which was his mainstay, but in all south Indian languages, even in the sixth decade of his career.

He leaves behind a repertoire of some evergreen compositions, most of them endearing melodies, in about 1200 films. Not a single TV music reality show in the south is complete without his songs - whether in the classical rounds or the modern genre - and his presence as an encouraging judge.

Till his last day, he was extremely generous in promoting new talent, a trait that he embodied ever since he began composing for films in 1950s with a violinist-friend TK Ramamoorthy. They worked together for a decade, before MSV, as he was fondly called, branched out on his own.

It’s pointless to list the singers and actors who made it big because of MSV because it will be a veritable who’s who of the south Indian film industry. He made music for the most popular actors such as MG Ramachandran (MGR), NT Ramarao (NTR), Jayalalithaa, Kamal Haasan, Rajinikanth, Sivakumar and Shivaji Ganesan and contributed immensely to the music careers of P Susheela, Vani Jayaram, SP Balasubramaniam, KJ Yesudas and P Jayachandran. In fact, it was he who introduced Jayachandran to the Tamil industry while Vani Jayaram and Susheela flourished in his semi-classical compositions, some of which are really hard to perform even by well trained classical singers.

Born in Palakkad in Kerala and raised in abject poverty after the death of his father, MSV learned music as a child. After some failed attempts to be an actor and singer in dramas, he ended up in the company of musicians and their troupes in Tamil Nadu. By 1952, he along with Ramamoorthy, began composing background scores before writing music for songs. In 1965, MSV began his solo career.

The genres and repertoire of MSV is as diverse as the people whom he worked with. Starting with directors such SS Vasan in the 1950s, he went on to associate with people such as RC Shakthi, SP Muthuraman, Bhagyaraj, IV Sasi and SA Chandrasekhar among many others. On the one hand he wrote music for semi-classical songs such as ‘Yezhu Swarngalukkul Ethanai Padal’, which fetched Vani Jayaram a national award, while on the other, he responded to the Disco generation’s demand for their kind of music with ‘Sambo Siva Sambo’ (for Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan on screen) and ‘Engeyum Eppothum’. He handled both genres of music with enormous grace and used a whole new range of sounds for the youth, which incidentally also shaped the onscreen images of actors such as Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth.

MSV also inspired film composers of all generations. AR Rahman was as much in awe of him, as Ilayaraja was. According to Rahman, there is not a single composer in Tamil who hasn’t been influenced by him. “MSV started a trend, followed by Ilayaraja and I took it my way. But without MSV, we all would not be here. MSV still appreciates good music and other composers in the industry,” Rahman has said once.

In his early years, Rahman had worked as a keyboard player and programmer for MSV and the latter always fondly remembered how much the young composer had contributed to his music. In one of his shows, Rahman also recalled the unique composition style of MSV, who stood with his harmonium and tuned the songs line by line along with his orchestra. Apparently nobody else did music this way. MSV, in his old age, had also sung for Rahman. According to Kamal Haasan, MSV was still a child at heart and hence the diversity of his compositions.

It’s not without reason that he is called the King of Light Music (Mellisai Mannar), a tile that was bestowed upon him (and his music partner Ramamoorthy) by veteran actor, the late Shivaji Ganesan. Tamil Nadu government wanted the Government of India to honour him with a Padma Bhushan, but it didn’t work. Regretting this, in 2012, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa presented him with a new title Thirai Isai Chankravarthi (Emperor of Film Music).

For the next few days, it will be only memories of MSV and his songs that will fill Tamil homes - which is his legendary following. Meanwhile, Facebook is flooded with personal memories and tributes.

Here are some of the all time hits of MSV

Pullanguzhal Kodutha Moongilgale 

Malligai En Mannan

Nenjam Marapathillai

Aezhu Swarangalukkul Ethanai Paadal

Ninaithale Inikkum

Ragangal Pathinaru

Vidai Kodu Engal (MSV singing for AR Rahman)