User talk:Kmurali1962

Occupations

M S Viswanathan hails from an orthodox Malayali Nair family, with parents Subramanian and Narayanikutty (or Naanikutty), in Manayangath house (from which one of his initials is derived). He was born in Elappully village in Palakkad, Kerala, India in 1928. He lost his father when he was four. He was saved by his grandfather when his mother decided to kill him and herself as an escape from abject poverty and lack of support. He sold refreshments in a movie theater during his childhood and later learned music from Neelakanda Bhagavathar. He gave his first stage performance in Trivandrum when he was 13 years old. A legendary perfectionist, he established a prolific career composing film music in the Tamil film industry. As early as 1948, M. S. Viswanathan was already working with various music directors. While working under as a harmonium player and asssiting composing under C. R. Subburaman and S. M. Subbaiah Naidu and he also obtains inspiration from S. V. Venkatraman and T. R. Papa. His first score was for the film Jenova (1954). He along with T. K. Ramamoorthy dominated film music composing in the South Indian film industry during the 1950s and 1960s and composed scores for over 700 films, revitalising Chennai film music as the duo Viswanathan-Ramamoorthy. .[1] The duo parted in 1965 and since he had composed for films individually. They rejoiced back after 29 years of separation in 1995 for Engirundho Vanthan.

His achievements range from introducing fresher melodies, style and orchestration approaches to incorporating various genres of what is now called world music into Indian cinema music. He has sung over 500 of his own songs, as well as those of other music directors like V. Kumar, Shankar Ganesh, Ilayaraaja, Gangai Amaran, Deva, Bharathwaj and A. R. Rahman. He has also scored music for many non-film albums and for political campaigns. His achievements include appearances in numerous films and television series.

He often worked with the well-known Tamil poet and lyricist Kannadasan. In recent times, Viswanathan has focused on composing devotional music and serving as a judge in Malayalam TV reality shows.

He has colloborated with Illaiyaraja in 'Mella Thiranthathu Kathathavu', 'Senthamizh Paatu' 'Vishwa Thulsi' and 'Senthamizh Selvan' starring Prashanth.