Viswanathan–Ramamoorthy

Viswanathan–Ramamoorthy were a South Indian music director duo, composed of M. S. Viswanathan and T. K. Ramamoorthy. The duo had worked together from Panam in 1952 for over 100 films, before splitting with the release of Aayirathil Oruvan in 1965. After the split T. K. Ramamoorthy worked on 16 films from 1966 – 1986. The duo reunited in 1995 after 30 years for Engirundho Vandhaan.

Early life

Ramamoorthy

T. K. Ramamoorthy was born into a famous musical family in Trichy and was a talented violinist since young. His father, Krishnaswamy Iyer and grandfather, Malaikottai Govindasamy Iyer were well known violinists in Trichy. Ramamoorthy gave several stage performances along with his father since his childhood days. In the early 1940s he worked in Saraswathi Stores, where AVM Productions owner Avichi Meiyappa Chettiar was a partner, which led him to play violin for AVM's music composer, R. Sudharsanam, in some films. During these days, he also became friendly with P. S. Diwakar, the famous pianist-cum-music composer in the Malayalam films and was staying with P. S. Diwakar while seeking opportunities. C. R. Subburaman noted the young Ramamoorthy's talent and hired him as a violinist for HMV. By the late 1940s, C. R. Subburaman was a rising star in the South Indian film music world, and Ramamoorthy rejoined him as one of his violinists in his musical troupe. There, he met T. G. Lingappa, another famed violinist.

Viswanathan

M. S. Viswanathan had always wanted to be an actor and singer, but was not successful. He had a few small roles in stage dramas in the 1940s. The famous music composer in the 50s, T. R. Papa, who was a violinist for the doyen of the Tamil film music, S. V. Venkatraman when he met the young struggling Viswanathan, took a liking to him and arranged a job for him as an errand boy for S. V. Venkatraman's musical troupe. In that company of all musicians, Viswanathan realised that he had the inclination and the potential for composing music. He thereafter joined S. M. Subbaiah Naidu and at times assisted him. He then joined C. R. Subburaman as a Harmonium player where he met both T. K. Ramamoorthy and T. G. Lingappa, the two leading violinists at that time. T. G. Lingappa also became a renowned music composer on his own in the 1950s.

M. S. Viswanathan was known as a master of playing 3 instruments harmonium, keyboard and paino by the age of 15 whereas T. K. Ramamoorthy was known as master in playing violin by his age of 16.

With C. R. Subburaman

When M. S. Viswanathan moved to C. R. Subburaman where he met T. K. Ramamoorthy and T. G. Lingappa the two leading violinists at that time. M. S. Viswanathan was handling the harmonium while T. K. Ramamoorthy was handling the violin for C. R. Subburaman. Both T. K. Ramamoorthy and M. S. Viswanathan always proudly name C. R. Subburaman as their Guru. M. S. Viswanathan has also mentioned that was also inspired by the music of S. V. Venkatraman and T. R. Pappa.

In 1952, C. R. Subburaman died unexpectedly while in the midst of completing songs for the films which he was assigned to compose music. T. K. Ramamoorthy and M. S. Viswanathan joined together and completed the background music for films Devadas, Chandirani and Marumagal.

M. S. Viswanathan and T. K. Ramamoorthy took the lead to complete the remaining songs for those affected films such as Devadas and Kadhal. At that point of time both M. S. Viswanathan and T. K. Ramamoorthy were not official partners yet but they had just worked together.

Then M. S. Viswanathan suggested to T. K. Ramamoorthy an alliance in the south by both of them teaming up such as Shankar and Jaikishen who were known as Shankar Jaikishan in the north. At first, T. K. Ramamoorthy had been reluctant because he was already contented with the income he was receiving from being a violinist but agreed to pair on the insistence of M. S. Viswanathan.

First film

Their first movie was Panam, a movie by A. L. Seenivasan and directed by N. S. Krishnan. N. S. Krishnan who knew both M. S. Viswanathan and T. K. Ramamoorthy fairly intimately and also their respective talents by then, with foresight, also suggested an alliance between them like Shankar Jaikishan in the North India (Bollywood).

T. K. Ramamoorthy, despite being an excellent musician with an orthodox carnatic musical background, was a shy, modest and reserved person whereas M. S. Viswanathan was naturally talented, charming, forward and dynamic although he lacked the similar background in Carnatic music.

It was the second film for Sivaji Ganesan and the first film for the successful pair in the history of Tamil Films, Sivaji Ganesan and Padmini. For first time their names appeared as Viswanathan Ramamoorthy. Until then, the names appeared as Ramamoorthy Viswanathan. T. K. Ramamoorthy was elder to M. S. Viswanathan by six years, but the placing of their names as Viswanathan Ramamurthy was agreed upon by both parties on the advice of N. S. Krishnan, who had foreseen that the elder Ramamoorthy may handle Viswanathan if his name may come behind Viswanathan's name. Since then both composed several hundred songs together.

During this time, C. S. Jayaraman, music comoposer and singer, also engaged the services of Viswanathan Ramamoorthy duo for the film Ratha Kanneer to assist him for the background music though music for all the songs in Raththa Kanner were tuned by C. S. Jayaraman himself.

Rising

It was a slow progress for the duo in the 50s, a period that boasted of many talented composers with the stalwart G. Ramanathan, S. V. Venkatraman, K. V. Mahadevan, S. Rajeswara Rao, S. Dakshinamurthi, Pendyala Nageswara Rao, etc. in the lead. After Panam was a success, many film producers and directors approached them and the duo together composed music for over 100 films from 1952 – 1965. The duo were the highest paid composers and held the number one position in market together from 1957 – 1965.

However, right from the beginning, the duo displayed a flair for light sweet melodious music. The films like Porter Kanthan, Pasa Valai, Thenali Raman, Gulebakavali, Sugam Enge, Sorga Vasal, etc. in the 50s created a lot attention for them. In 1956, the duo composed for the Telugu film Santhosham, the Telugu adaptation of the Tamil film Velaikaari with N. T. Rama Rao and Anjali Devi which was a big musical hit. This was reproduced in Hindi as Naya Aadmi with music by Madan Mohan who, impressed by the duo's music, suggested to retain some of the original tunes for the Hindi version. The Hindi song "Laut gaya gam ka zamana" sung by Lata Mangeshkar and Hemanta Kumar Mukhopadhyay in that film, copy of the duo's Telugu song "Teeyani eenati reyi" sung by P. Suseela and G. K. Venkatesh, was a big hit in the North.

Towards the latter part of the 50s, the duo were racing ahead with musical hits like Pudhaiyal, Nichaya Thamboolam, Padhi Bhakti, Bhaaga Pirivinai, etc. The winning combinations of the duo initially were mainly with the Directors T. R. Ramanna and A. Bhimsingh who produced some mega hits in the late 50s and early 60s, for which the duo composed excellent music and thereby reaching the No. 1 slot in the early 60s. Then C. V. Sridhar, after his music composer A. M. Rajah fell out with him in 1961, engaged the duo for his films and many top hits followed. Major studios like Gemini Studios, AVM Productions, etc. were also to engage them later.

During this period, the duo also boasted of assistants of the stature of R. Govardhanam, G. K. Venkatesh, Shankar Ganesh and Henry Daniel. They also had Sathan for special voice and sound effects.

Other collaborations

The composer duo are given the credit in moulding the careers of singers especially that of T. M. Soundararajan, P. Susheela, P. B. Srinivas, Seerkazhi Govindarajan and L. R. Eswari who owe their success partially to the duo and in particular to M. S. Viswanathan as they were most regular singers with them. A. L. Raghavan and S. Janaki sang for them, but not so regularly. K. J. Yesudas had his only collaboration with the duo in the film Kadhalikka Neramillai (1964) in two songs, 'Nenjathai Alli' with L.R. Easwari and P. Susheela and 'Enna Paravai' with P. Susheela. But after the split of the duo, he sang with both M. S. Viswanathan and T. K. Ramamoorthy.

Their early years saw them also working with the already well established singers like P. A. Periya Nayaki, Thiruchi Loganathan, M. L. Vasanthakumari, C. S. Jayaraman, R. Balasaraswathi Devi, P. Leela, Jikki, T. V. Rathinam, T. S. Bagavathi, M. S. Rajeswari, K. Jamuna Rani, S. C. Krishnan, A. P. Komala, Ghantasala and V. N. Sundharam.

The singing actors N. S. Krishnan, T. A. Madhuram, Chittor V. Nagaiah, T. R. Mahalingam, K. R. Ramaswamy, J. P. Chandrababu, P. Bhanumathi and S. Varalakshmi also sang memorable songs for the duo. G. K. Venkatesh, M. S. Viswanathan's good friend and assistant, sang very few but excellent songs for the duo.

T. M. Soundararajan was the all-time favourite singer for M. S. Viswanathan. P. Susheela too owes a great deal to the duo as their main female singer. Jikki used to be their favourite before P. Suseela.

However, the duo was divided on A. M. Rajah. T. K. Ramamoorthy was keen to use him, but M. S. Viswanathan always resisted using him owing to personality conflict after the film Jenova. With the result, A. M. Rajah sang only 5 songs for the duo even at the height of his career in the 50s. In their films, A. M. Rajah did not even give his voice to Gemini Ganesan, who was the actor for whom he was the major voice, except for the film Padhi Bhakti.

Singers like P. Leela, Seergazhi Govindarajan, Sarojini, K. Jamuna Rani, M. S. Rajeswari and A. L. Raghavan, owe their success in 1950s and 1960s mainly to the duo and in particular to M. S. Viswanathan.

Film directors like B. R. Panthulu, B. S. Ranga, Krishnan-Panju, A. Bhimsingh, P. Madhavan, C. V. Sridhar, T. R. Ramanna, A. C. Tirulokchandar worked with duo frequently till 1965. But K. Balachander never worked with the duo together but preferred to work with Viswanathan alone even before the duo split.

Mellisai Mannargal

On 16 June 1963, at a special function M. S. Viswanathan and T. K. Ramamoorthy were each given the title of Mellisai Mannar. It was granted by Sivaji Ganesan at the Madras Triplicane Cultural Academy. The function was supported and facilitated by the Hindu Group of Publications, especially Mr. T. M. Ramachandran, Director C. V. Sridhar and Chitralaya Gobu. Collectively they were called Mellisai Mannargal (Tamil: மெல்லிசை மன்னர்கள்) (Kings of the Light Music).^[1]

The Split

M. S. Viswanathan and T. K. Ramamoorthy who composed for over 100 films during the 50s and 60s split up after the release of Aayirathil Oruvan on 9 July 1965. Since then, both had composed for films individually. All the assistants remained with M. S. Viswanathan.

Both T. R. Ramanna and A. Bhimsingh were saddened by this development, but still worked with both of them, but individually in different films they produced and directed, which showed that at that stage equal importance was given to both.

The split was the result of some problems caused in the duo. In 1964, director C. V. Sridhar directed a film named Kalai Kovil, starring S. V. Subbaiah, R. Muthuraman, Chandrakantha, Nagesh, V. Gopalakrishnan, V. S. Raghavan, etc. It was produced by the duo and they were the composers of the film music too. The film became a huge flop, and the songs also were not chartbusters. In the magazine Kalki, an article came criticising the failure of the film. It told that the songs of the film were copied from the Hindi film songs of Bees Saal Baad (1962) and Sangam (1964). Even though there were many instances were the duo were criticised for copying Hindi songs, those songs were chartbusters and the films in which they included were huge blockbusters. This was not in the case of Kalai Kovil. A huge clash started then, which became harsh by the film Server Sundaram, which was released at the end of 1964, starring Nagesh, R. Muthuraman and K. R. Vijaya. The problem arose because there was a scene in which the duo appears during a song record. One day, the legedary Bollywood music director Naushad Ali came to AVM Studios. When he knew about the scene in which the duo appears, he told a wish to A. V. Meiyappa Chettiar, the producer of the film. It was that he wanted to see that scene. But on the day scheduled to shoot the scene, Ramamoorthy could not come, while Viswanathan came there wearing a suit. This scene was not deliberate, but the clashes became more serious and after composing for Aayirathil Oruvan, the duo announced their split.

M. S. Viswanathan, in his solo career continued to achieve success as he did earlier and composed music for over another 1100 films from 1965–2013, but T. K. Ramamoorthy as a solo music director could not achieve as much and gradually faded away. He composed for only 19 films from 1966 till 1986. M. S. Viswanathan was most in demand and was the highest paid music director from 1965 till 1985.Viswanathan continued to compose music for films actively till 1995 and then took a break composing for devotional songs. But again Viswanathan kept composing till 2013.

The Rejoice

After 30 years, they had rejoined in 1995 just once for the Sathyaraj starrer Tamil film Engirundho Vanthan. But it is to be noted that Vishwanathan has continued to compose music in films right from 1965 till date alone. For composing the music for Engirundho Vanthan, the duo came to a resort in Kerala. The film, however, became a huge flop. The songs were also not popular. It was also the last film of the duo.

They were awarded an honorary doctorate by the Sathyabama Deemed University in September 2006.^[2]

Thirai Isai Chakravarthy

J.Jayalalithaa being the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, conferred the Thirai Isai Chakravarthy (Tamil: திரை இசை சக்ரவர்த்தி) (Emperors of the Cine Music) title on them in August 2012^[3] and presented with 60 gold coins and a new car to them.^[4][5]

Death

Ramamurthy died in April 2013,^[6] and Viswanathan in July 2015.^[7]

Ramamoorthy died in a hospital in Chennai following a brief illness on 17 April 2013. He was 91.^[8]

On 27 June 2015, Viswanathan was admitted to Fortis Malar hospital in Chennai with breathing difficulties.^[9] He had been undergoing a treatment at the hospital for some time. He died at 4.15 a.m. on 14 July 2015 due to age-related ailments.^[10]

Filmography

References

External links

• M. S. Viswanathan at the Internet Movie Database
• T. K. Ramamoorthy at the Internet Movie Database
• List of movies composed music by Viswanathan Ramamoorthy
• List of popular songs composed music by Viswanathan Ramamoorthy
• Mellisai Mannargalin Innisaippaadalgal