KANNADASAN AND M.S.VISWANATHAN

Kaviyarasu Kannadasan and Mellisai Mannar M.S.Viswanathan are both born on 24th June.  Kannadasan has written some unforgettable songs and M.S.Viswanathan has composed some unforgettable songs.  Both are legends who have contributed a lot to the Tamil Cinema and they will be remembered as long as Cinema is remembered.  While Kannadasan was born in 1927 our Mellisai Mannar was born in 1928.  They both shared a great relationship and were very thick friends.

Kannadasan has written some memorable songs and through his style of lyrics he created a benchmarking which several others have followed over the years and will continue to follow in future as well.  From Vali to Vairamuthu and later to Na Muthukumar everyone who has written film songs have been influenced a great deal by Kannadasan.

Kannadasan wrote several novels and also wrote the "Arthamulla Hindu madham".  He was a strong believer in Hindu religion and suddenly became an atheist and again started believing in God.  When he was an atheist he was researching to prove that there is no God but ended up believing more in God.

It is very very unfortunate that he died when he was only 54 years of age.  If he had lived another 30 years he would have probably written atleast another 1000 songs for tamil films.  Several good poets have come to the tamil film industry over the last 100 years and have written some very good songs.  However, Kannadasan is the only one who will always be known as Kaviyarasu (King of Poets) as he continues to live in the minds of people as the King of Tamil Film Songs.


While he has written songs which is still inspiring people the fact is he wrote those songs when he personally experienced things in his life.  Many of his popular songs emanated through his own life experiences and personal situations.  He has written songs to suit several situations whether it is joy, courage, sorrow, love, motivational, devotional, etc.  He has captured probably every single mood that normal human being would go through in life and has written very appropriate songs with beautiful and meaningful words.  The highlight of his style is the use of simple words.

Vali was frustrated in not getting any chance in films after trying for several months.  He had decided to pack his bags and go back to his hometown Srirangam.  He heard two lines of Kannadasan song in a tea stall which made him stay back in Chennai.  The rest is history as Vali went on to become one of the greatest song writers in Tamil Cinema and has written some memorable songs for MGR.

"Unakkum keezhe ullavar kodi ninaithu paarthu nimmadhi naadu":




The last song that Kannadasan wrote was for his daughter and it was featured in Kamal Hasan movie Moondram Pirai -   "Kanne Kalaimane".  He also knew that he will live in this world forever through his songs and wrote it in one of his songs:

One of the best songs of Kannadasan is "Ullathil Nalla Ullam" in Karnan:

Mellisai Mannar has created so many tunes that has inspired lot of music directors and will continue to inspire them for another few centuries.   He gave a definition for film music and has given some incredible compositions.  He has done all genres of music and for music lovers and music students his compositions will be a great inspiration and learning.

Viswanathan Ramamurthy have given some extraordinary music from 1952 to 1965.  It was very unfortunate that at the peak of their career they split.  MSV never gave up and went on to compose music for another 1000 films over the next three decades.

He used more than 70 violins for the song "Enge Nimmadhi":


The composing of songs for MGR and Sivaji was unique to their films and their personalities and it is still a wonder as to how MSV managed this unique differentiation.  The songs for MGR and Sivaji were both composed by MSV and were all sung by TMS who again gave it a different flavour and style for each of them.

Listen to this composition of MSV with Ramamurthy for MGR and sung by TMS:
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There is one song in which you can the great legend MSV in full action:



If one starts research on the Songs written by Kannadasan and the Music composed by MSV for various films, I think one life time is not enough as they have created a huge ocean of music between the two of them.

Listen to Kannadasan's description of how devoted MSV is to his Music:




Me and my close friend Sriraj have heard this Kannadasan speech more than 100 times when we used to travel by car.

We can never forget these two legends as long as we live in this world as one is the King of Light Music and the other is King of Film Songs.  These two legends will remain the Kings for every in Tamil Film Industry.

We are fortunate that we are able to swim comfortably in that ocean of music created by these two legends.  Today is their birthday and we should be proud that we have lived in the period in which these two legends have lived in this world.  Long live Kannadasan Songs and Long Live MSV and his mellisai.

T.P.Anand
Dubai, U.A.E.
24th June 2014