DeMonte St to be renamed as MSViswanathan Road

It came as music to the ears of not only

Mylaporeans but to his fans across the globe. De

Monte Street in Santhome is to be renamed as

Mellisai Mannar M S Viswanathan Road.

Incidentally the road across the junction was

renamed T M Soundararajan Salai after the famed

playback singer TMS who sang the highest number

of songs in the composition of MSV.

M S Viswanathan lived in Santhome till he breathed

his last and his house had visitors from all over the

world from cinema, music, arts and dance.

Worshipful Mayor of Greater City Chennai

Corporation R Priya announced this at its meeting

based on a request from MSV’s family.

The road is adjoining to late MSV’s house

The street starts in San Thome High Road till

the end of beach side in the east and comes

under the Corporation Ward 125.

MS. Viswanathan, whose film compositions

transcended every known category of music

and refused to be pinned down to musical

traditions passed away at 88 and is survived by

four sons and three daughters

Both the famous composers Ilayaraja and A.R.

Rahman have worked with MSV, the doyen

among composers. It is not just for many of his

evergreen songs, but also for the State song of

the Government of Tamil Nadu the

— Neerarum Kadalodutha — MSV will ever be

part of the Tamil psyche

In the Tamil film music world, no other

composer was as diverse as MSV was and he

had composed music for over 1,700 films in

Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada. He had also

sung in many movies and also had acted in

quite a few. He had worked with four Chief

Ministers — N.T. Rama Rao, M.G.

Ramachandran, M. Karunanidhi and J

Jayalalithaa.

MSV is the musical legend who completely ruled the

South Indian Film music scenes from the 1960's for

the next 30 years.

The name of the person who clearly extracted and

portrayed the "Melody" from classical music. The

person who has been composing for more than 5

decades. The person who introduced various genres

of music to Tamil Films and brought out melodies

from those varieties too

He was born in Ilappulli in Kerala in 1928 at

Manayangath House the name of Viswanathan's

home. MSV’s parents did not have any musical

background. His father's uttering of some popular

tunes those times was the only music that

Viswanathan was exposed to as a kid.

With that kind of little musical history, how did the

small boy tuned to be a composing legend, is still a

mystery

Viswanathan did not have a proper music school for

a very long time, though the desire and passion for

music was like a fire within him. The desire even led

him to sell eatables in a theatre during the interval

of the movie

He preferred music than studies but did not have a

proper training because of financial crisis. He

listened to Neelakanda Bhagavathar without his

knowledge while he was teaching his disciples.

MSV’s arangetram was held when he was 13 in

Thiruvananthapuram in 1940.