M S Viswanathan: 800 films, six decades, evergreen hits

He composed music for 800 films, mostly in Tamil but a few notable ones in Telugu and Malayalam too. In a career spanning six decades from 1940-2015, M S Viswanathan (1928-2015), also known as MSV was a colossus who gave evergreen music for a host of heroes and heroines, launching careers and consolidating many. A unique feature of his tenure at the top was that he operated as a pair with yet another musician, T K Ramamoorthy for the first decade and more, with whom he came up with music for around 100 films.

In the Telugu cine world, MSV was present right from his debut in the 1950s but the modern generations would remember him for a series of hits in the 1970s – 'Anthuleni Katha', ' ChilakammaCheppindi', 'MaroCharitra', ' AndhamainaAnubhavam', ' Akali Rajyam' etc. Among these films, all of which was under the direction of the iconic K Balachander, the songs were appreciated over time. There are many favourites among them for the over-45 age group of Telugu film music listeners even today.

His later day associations with his successors like Ilaiyaraja and A R Rahman, collaborating with them, made him a long-lasting music director who is irreplaceable for his tuning and orchestration till date. It is Viswanathan's 92nd birth anniversary today.