M. S. Viswanathan - Viswanathan Ramamoorthy As Partners

Viswanathan Ramamoorthy As Partners

Since young, T. K. Ramamoorthy was a good violinist and played violin in the orchestra of C. R. Subburaman at HMV even at the age of fourteen and continued with him later in film music as well.

M. S. Viswanathan had always wanted to be an actor and singer, but was not successful.He had done a few small roles in stage dramas.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 realized 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 where he met T.K.Ramamoorthy. Viswanathan was handling the harmonium while Ramamoorthy was handling the violin for C.R.Subburaman. There was also T. G. Lingappa in that troupe as a violinist who also became a renowned music composer on his own in the 50s.

In 1952, C. R. Subburaman died unexpectedly in the midst of completing the background music for the films such as Devadas, Chandi Rani and Marumagal. Viswanathan and Ramamoorthy joined together and completed the background music for these films. During this time, M.S.Viswanathan also got an opportunity to be the third composer for the film Genova with M.S.Gnanamani and T.K.Kalyanam, who were famous music composers then.Both Ramamoorthy and Viswanathan always proudly name C.R.Subburaman as their Guru.

N. S. Krishnan who knew both M.S. Viswanathan and T.K.Ramamoorthy fairly intimately and also their respective talents by then, with foresight, suggested an alliance between them like Shankar Jaikishan in the North. 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. Ramamoorthy is 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 Viswanathan-Ramamoorthy their first chance to compose for the film Panam which was produced by A.L.Seenivasan and directed by N. S. Krishnan himself.It was the second film for Sivaji Ganesan and the first film for the most successful pair in the history of Tamil Films. Sivaji Ganesan - Padmini.

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 (Kings Of The Light Music).

But M. S. Viswanathan and T. K. Ramamoorthy split up after the release of Aayirathil Oruvan on 9 July 1965. Since then both had composed for films individually. After 29 years, they had rejoined in 1995 for the Sathyaraj starrer Tamil film Engirundho Vanthan.