| Alias | Manayangath Subramanian Viswanathan, MSV |
|---|---|
| Age | 90 years |
| Height | 5'8" |
| Weight | 57.00 Kgs |
| Occupation | Actor, Music Director, Singer |
| Language Worked in | Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam |
| Spouse | Janaki |
| Birth Place | Palakkad, Kerala, India |
| Eye Color | Black |
| Marital Status | Married |
| Parents | Subramanian, Narayanikutty Subramanian |
| Favourite Cuisine | South Indian |
| Favourite Color | Blue |
| City | Chennai |
Viswanathan was born on June 24, 1928 to Manayangath Subramanian and Narayanikutty (or Naanikutty) in Elappully village in Palakkad, Kerala, India. 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.
Right from the beginning, the duo displayed a flair for light sweet melodious music.The films like Porter Kanthan, Pasa Valai, Thennali Raman, Gulebahavali, 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(story by C. N. Annadurai) 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. Susheela and G. K. Venkatesh, was a big hit in the North..
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 they 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, AVM, 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.
His achievements range from introducing fresher melodies with changing trends, 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 also include appearances in numerous films and television series.M. S. Vishwanathan went on to act in a couple of Tamil feature films notably appearing in Kaadhal Mannan after being convinced to do so by actor Vivek, while he also starred in Kamal Haasan's Kaathala Kaathala and Karthik's Rojavanam.