CHENNAI, February 25, 2014
Celebrating a legend
MALATHI RANGARAJAN
M. S. Viswanathan blessing 'Tabla' Prasad, who was honoured at the function. Also honoured was recording engineer Sampath (extreme right) while violinist and music director Shyam Joseph (extreme left) looks on
Some of the unsung talents in MSV’s troupe were honoured at an event held in the city recently
This time,
msvtimes.com, the official website of legendary film composer, M.S. Viswanathan, manned by his diehard fans, came up with a new expansion of the initials MSV. ‘Melody’s Synonym Viswanathan,’ read the invite of the seventh anniversary of msvtimes.com, held on Saturday, at Bharat Kalachar. From the beginning, the website has been honouring unsung talents in MSV’s troupe, who have contributed much to the composer’s orchestral excellence. “MSV was lucky to have an accomplished team of musicians working for him diligently,” whispered a voice beside me. True indeed!
Violinist and composer Shyam has worked on nearly 300 films in all the languages of the South. Sharing the dais with other stalwarts that evening, he went on to extol MSV’s talent. “He took me under his wing and helped me blossom as a violinist and composer,” he said. “I’ve seen and wondered at the genius of this simple man, from close quarters. He would watch a scene just once and get the notations for RR ready!”
A point reiterated by recording engineer Sampath, a national awardee, who has recorded more than 7000 songs in a career spanning 55 years at AVM. Msvtimes honoured him that evening. Introduced as a taciturn person who would say just “two words or two sentences” at the most, Sampath went on to talk for quite a while about those glorious days of working with MSV and MGR, the glitches they faced during the re-recording sessions of MGR’s Ulagam Sutrum Vaaliban and the ease with which they found solutions and went on to record some of the best RR pieces for the film. “MGR had recorded chimes of bells from China and wanted them to be used in the RR. The way in which MSV wove some scintillating music around those sounds can only be described as strokes of a master tunesmith,” said Sampath.
In his short address, Prasad, the percussion wizard, whose dancing fingers on the tabla can bring even an entire number to life (those who’ve heard him play the song ‘Ennadi Raakamma’ will know what I mean) thanked msvtimes.com for the recognition, and referred to renowned yesteryear composers, G. Ramanathan and K.V. Mahadevan, and said, “Along with MSV, they were the Brahma, Siva and Vishnu of Tamil film music.”
“MSV did not need technology to lend sweetness to music. From lullabies to dirges, he composed music for all the seven stages of a man’s life, with the emotion quotient of each impacting listeners. Bharat Kalachar is proud to be a part of the website’s endeavours,” said Y.Gee. Mahendra.
Sridhar’s Navrags presented the ever-alive melodies of MSV under the title Viswa Sangeetham. The choice of the rare numbers deserves special mention. “Credit should go to Sabesan of msvtimes,” said Vaidy, another member of the team. “He was the one who listed the best and also some of the rarest melodies of MSV.” Experienced stage singers Kovai Murali and Jayashree stole the show. Sriram Lakshman’s emceeing skills were intact as always. But it’s strange that though msvtimes has been organising its annual celebrations for seven years now, the slight confusion on stage during the actual awards presentation continues.
All the same, it was an evening of enjoyment for the large number of MSV fans gathered at the venue.
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