M.S. Viswanathan

He is known for his work on Agni Sakshi (1982), Vishwa Thulasi (2004) and Varuvan Vadivelan (1978). He was married to Janaki.

M.S.Vishwanathan has composed music in Hindi for films like Barah Ghante (1975),Bachche Mere Sathi (1972),Pyaara Tarana (1982).Many of the Tamil movies were also dubbed into Hindi and for the dubbed versions he was the music composer.But unlike the kind of numero uno position he enjoyed in South India from 1959-1996, he did very less work in Hindi and though songs were melodious, media attention and publicity for those songs was negligible as those Hindi films for which he composed music flopped. The songs like Aandhi Ke Sang Toofan sung by Ambar Kumar,Jaaneman Tujhpe Hai Aaya Dil sung by Krishna Kalle,Loot Le Le Tu sung by Chetan and Pushpa Pagdhare are some of the songs composed by him which became famous at the time of its release.The duets of Vani Jayram-SPB like Meri Akhiyan Me and Dil Mein Dard were also popular.

Viswanathan introduced Jayachandran, the Malayalam singer to the Tamil films in Manippayal(1973) with the song Thanga-chimizhpol and used him for many more films in the 70s.

From the 1970s directors like S.P.Muthuraman, Major Sundarrajan, N.S.Manian, Bhagyaraj, R. Krishnamurthy, D.Yoganand, C.V. Rajendran, P.Madhavan, K.S. Prakash Rao, R.C.Shakti, I.V. Sasi, Vietnam Veetu Sundaram, M.S.Gopinath, Taraka Rama Rao Nandamuril, Amirtham frequently worked with Vishwanathan and later from the 1980s to the early 1990s new directors like Visu, S.A.Chandrashekar, Mouli, Major Sundarrajan, A.Jaganathan, Komal Swaminathan,Amirtham, R.C.Shakti collaborated with Viswanathan regularly. In the 1990s directors like Lakshmi, K.Raghunath collaborated with him.

He reigned supreme in Tamil films from 1965 to 1985 and films with his music released consecutively every year from 1950-1996. He sang under his own composition over 500 songs and in addition sang 200 songs composed by other music directors Ramamoorthy composed for only 19 films on his own after the break up in 1965 till 1986.

He mainly teamed up with the well-known Tamil poet and lyricist Kannadasan in the 1960s and 1970s and also with Vaali from late 1960's. Viswanathan continued to belt out hit songs from 1965 till 1996.

Ramamoorthy was older than Viswanathan by seven years, but placing of their names as ''Viswanathan-Ramamoorthy'' was agreed upon by both parties on the advice of N.S. Krishnan, who thereafter got the duo their first chance to score ''Panam'' a 1953 film produced by A.L.Seenivasan and directed by Krishnan himself.

The duo Vishwanathan and Ramamoorthy considered C.R.Subbaraman as their mentor and have said their other inspirations include music of T.R.Papa and S.V.Venkatraman. The Duo composed for over 100 films from 1952-1965.

Humming, Chorus, Whistling were all incorporated swiftly in the songs composed by M.S.V without usage of advanced technology way back in the 1950s to the 1970s. MSV continued to upgrade his music with new trends like western music and disco from the early 1970s till the 1990s and blended them with Indian classical tunes.

M. S. Viswanathan was born on June 24, 1928 in Palakkad, Madras Presidency, British India as Manayangath Subramanian Viswanathan.