MSV: His Music and his times - Part 13: A review of early 70s TFM

Before we move further let us a take a overall look at how the Tamil Film Music scene was in the early 70s - starting from 1970 till 1975.

This was the time when Hindi music penetrated deeply down South. As I had earlier mentioned R D Burman's new musical style was a major hit across India. It was not just R D Burman alone but other Hindi music directors of those times started giving hits in the R D Burman mold. Even if we forget the hit part of it, Hindi film music was richer compared to Tamil film music because it has space for other music directors with different styles. For example, in 1970, Madanmohan came up with 'Dastak', an outstanding film musically, which had some terrific Lata solos. Kalayanji Anandji in the same year had 'Safar', which has a couple of outstanding Kishore solos. In 1971 we had Salil Chaudhary coming up with an everlasting 'Anand', while Kanu Roy gave 'Anubhav'. S D Burman was also very active in this period giving films like 'Prem Pujari', 'Gambler' etc. We also had Ghulam Mohammed's 'Pakeezha' in the same time frame. Not that every film was a hit musically in Hindi but the number of films which had great music and the overall variety was much more in Hindi. So Hindi songs started becoming popular in Tamil Nadu and their reach extended far beyond the urban centers. 'Binaca Geet Mala' was one of the most awaited program of those times, where radio was the only lifeline for music lovers.

So why did people sway towards Hindi? It is not that they didn't hear Tamil film music (I had already mentioned hits like 'ennadi rakkamma' and 'agaya pandhalile' earlier) but Hindi film songs rivaled Tamil songs in their popularity and sometimes the Hindi film songs, say like those of 'Aradhana' or 'Hare Rama Hare Krishna' or 'Bobby' were more popular the the Tamil hits.

If we analyze this phenomenon, we can see a few reasons for this. The first one is that people had probably got used to MSV's melodies. So you can say it was like a anti-incumbent wave. Secondly, MSV was a master as far as melodies were concerned but orchestration was definitely his weak point. The 'coolness' factor in the orchestration and the usage of 'modern' sounding instruments were far better in R D Burman / S D Burman's music. So when MSV got his own melody in the western form, it was a winner. Like say, 'madhana maligaiyil'. When he had to try and imitate R D Burman he came off as second best. Like this song from 'Mayor Meenakshi', 'kanden kalyana'



(K R Vijaya dance alert). I am not saying this is a bad song but that there is very less MSV in it in the pallavi. The charanam becomes MSV. So overall it gives a bit of a confused sound. It doesn't follow the modern sound with which it starts. (I feel this pallavi takes its cue for 'churaliya' of R D Burman, which R D Burman himself had lifted from some English song !!)
(Correction: As my friend Ravi pointed out in the comment section, this song takes its cue from the 'Bobby' song, 'hum tum ik kamre mein bandh ho', which was a major All India Hit in those days)

You can see that Sathyam's song from 'Nomu' has a similar pallavi line. Like the Tamil there too the charanam switches to standard Telugu melody mode.



Secondly, we must also accept another fact about MSV's music after he split from Ramamurthy : the consistency dropped. When they were together there were so many films in which every song was a gem and is remembered till date. After the split, the number of such movies decreased. It was more like a movie would have one or two lovely songs and other songs would be of decent quality, but not great. Also in case of Vishwanathan Ramamurthy, there were very failures when it came to music. Whereas in case of MSV, there were many movies whose music did not capture the imagination of the fans. I don't want to list those movies here but have a look at MSV's discography here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._S._Viswanathan_discography#1970_to_1974s and you will agree with me.

Another important factor was that Hindi films got some new blood during this time. Rajesh Khanna became an All India Superstar after 'Aradhana'. Rishi Kapoor was a major hit with 'Bobby'. Later came Amitabh Bachchan. Our answers to all these developments was always Sivaji Ganeshan or MGR. So no wonder MSV could get inspired only to some extent. That he tried his best to provide youthful songs to Sivaji and MGR itself attests to his greatness.

The other issue is that of MSV's music sounding the same. In some films when everything works, the music is excellent. Else you get a feeling of tiredness. Take the songs of this film, 'Iru Dhuruvam' for instance. Some of the pieces are typical MSV but instead of getting elated you feel tired.



Now, it is not proper to say that MSV was the only one to blame for the Hindi invasion. The truth is that he was the only one who atleast held the fort to certain extent. Other music directors in the same time period were even less effective. No one could come close to MSV in terms of consistency (even though MSV's consistency itself was not of high order) or quality.

(To balance things out I must point out that R D Burman took the pallavi 'muthukulika varigala' from MSV's 'Anubhavi Raja Anubhavi' for the movie 'Do Phool'. )



The major music directors other than MSV were K V Mahadevan, Shankar Ganesh, V Kumar and Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan. In this Shankar Ganesh had no style of their own. Atleast I am unable to discover it. V Kumar was often confused with MSV's. He gave some nice songs but he was unable to give consistent hits and when K Balachander moved from him to MSV, he lost one of his main backers. Kunnakudi was never a MD who could churn out hits. He did provide an alternative to the standard fare but he was not a music director who could be mainstream.

This left us with K V Mahadevan and his inconsistent form. Some movies had super songs and some movies had indifferent songs.

Here is one such super hit song, which has been a delight for the remixers as well. 'palagathu pakkathile' from 'Vietnam Veedu'



Here is a song done V Kumar in 'Edhir Neechal'. A major hit but it is very difficult to tell V Kumar from M S Vishwanathan (and many a person I know has attributed V Kumar's songs to MSV)



In essence none of these music directors were able to stand along with MSV and face the Hindi onslaught.

Around this time, maybe late 1975 or early 1976, a 30 something man, wearing bell bottom pants, was standing in Panju Arunachalam's office and told him that he and Goverdanam master would combine together to give music for the movie Panju Arunachalam was producing. Panju Arunachalam was not impressed, "I want you to be the solo music director" , he said. The bell bottom man went back, convinced Goverdanam master that he needs to be the solo MD and after a few more hiccups was able to provide music for a low budget film that Panju Arunachalam produced.

'Annakili' was released in the summer of 1976 with no stars in it. It went on to be a major hit. At that time no one, including MSV, realized that MSV had entered the final phase of his musical career.