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Fascinating journey to fame
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The `boy' who did odd jobs for the producer S.M. Subbaiah, went on to carve a niche for himself as the monarch of light music in Tamil cinema. The story of veteran composer M.S.Viswanathan...
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IN THE 1940s the Adyar-based Sundaram Sound Studio changed hands again and the new owners were a group headed by a Nellore-based cinema house owner, Ahmed Khan. The new name was Neptune Studio. It was then the fashion to name studios after zodiac signs, inspired by the success of Gemini Studio! The owners did not produce films and let out the studio to producers. The studio was active for some years till it changed hands again.
A prominent movie company of South India in that era was Jupiter Pictures. Promoted by two businessmen of Tiruppur, M. Somasundaram (more popularly known as `Jupiter Somu') and S.K. Mohideen in the 1930s, the company made a mark fast as a successful producer. It made it big when "Kannagi" (1942) became a super hit and was hailed as a classic and the company took over the Central Studios in Coimbatore. After some successful years, conditions began to change in the motion picture business and with increasing costs of production, running a studio in the districts proved uneconomical. So Jupiter Pictures found it wise to relocate in Madras. It soon took over Neptune Studio and moved to the metropolis.
When the shifting was being planned the Jupiter bosses decided to dispense with the services of many employees, especially non-technicians for whom replacements could easily be found in Madras.
Accordingly, they spoke to the Head of the Music Department and noted film music composer of that period, S.M. Subbaiah, and while discussing the downsizing of his unit staff he revealed a secret, which startled `Jupiter' Somu. He had an all-purpose assistant, a boy from Kerala, who carried the music director's harmonium and did such menial tasks. Subbaiah insisted that this boy should not be sent out but go with him to Madras. Why? The boss wondered! Then the beans spilled out of the bag.
The boy was no mere `gofer' (a familiar Hollywood expression which means one who goes for this and that!). Indeed, he had composed the tune for some songs for the Jupiter movies, which Subbaiah had passed off as his own and taken credit for. And many of them were hits. An ardent talent scout, `Jupiter' Somu assented at once and the boy travelled to Madras with Subbaiah. Of course, he was blissfully unaware that he was on his way to fame and fortune.
Indeed the boy had acted in a small role in "Kannagi" as the `boy' Kovalan, along with T.V. Ratnam who played the young Kannagi (later, she made a mark as a successful off-screen `playback' singer with many hits to her credit. Sadly, the producers and director (R. S. Mani) felt that the boy was not fit for that role and he was removed and the footage shot scrapped as `no good; (`n,g.' in film-land lingo). And the boy went back to his `hey-you' job.
The boy was M.S. Viswanathan! The movie music maestro of South India hailed as `Mellisai Mannar! (Monarch of Melodious Light Music)
Manaiyangathu Subramania Viswanathan (born 1928) came from a village, Elapulli near Palakkad in Kerala. The family was poor and to add to the misery he lost his father when he was barely three. He was deeply interested in music but was too poor to afford regular training When his mother was planning to kill herself along with her children a la the popular folk myth tale heroine, Nalla Thangal, a kindly granduncle came to the rescue of the family. He took the boy to Cannanoor (now Kannur) and made arrangements for him to learn music under a Carnatic musician, Neelakanta Bhagavathar. He taught music to the boy free in return for his work as an errand boy. After a few years of training the lad joined Jupiter Pictures as an office boy thanks to a close relative. With his deepening interest in music and desire to become a film music composer, he soon succeeded in making his way to become the `boy' for S.M. Subbaiah.
In 1948... Jupiter Pictures was producing a mythological movie, "Abhimanyu." That was the period in Tamil cinema when mythologicals, folktales, folkmyths and such were still being made with a good measure of box-office success and the impact of the Dravidian Movemement attacking such fiction was yet to be felt. During this period, 36 movies were produced in Tamil and included his of this genre like "Chandralekha", " Aathithan Kanavu", "Krishna Bhakthi", "Gnana Soundari" (Citadel Production), "Mohini", "Chakradhari" and "Vethala Ulagam." Indeed only a fistful of films was based on contemporary themes and storylines known as `socials.' Most of them failed at the box-office and are barely remembered today.
In the movie, a song was written for Abhimanyu (S.M.Kumaresan) to sing in a happy mood for he was in love with Vatsala (U.R. Jeevarathnam, well known singing star of 1940).
S.M. Subbaiah was not getting the tune right in spite of many attempts and was worried how to tune the song fast. One morning he was walking into the music room when he heard, from behind the closed doors, a tune being played on the harmonium and the lyrics being sung by his `boy'— Visu. The song was "Puthu vasanthamamey... " Subbaiah was astonished by the melody and rushed in almost breaking the doors.
He asked the boy to go ahead and complete the song. `Jupiter' Somu, director of the movie A. Kasilingam, and others, went gaga over it. Subbaiah passed it off as his own and, bound by an oath of secrecy, the `boy' had to keep his mouth shut and hope for better morrows...
The song impressed one and all at Jupiter so much that it was used three times in "Abhimanyu". First, it was sung by the hero in the beginning (It was sung off-screen by the well known `playback' singer Tiruchi Loganathan.) The heroine (Jeevarathnam) sang it solo and then the lead pair sang it as a duet. Not surprisingly, it was a big hit and so was the film.
The dialogue was credited to A.S.A. Sami but in fact it was written by Mu. Karunanidhi. He was then the script assistant to Sami. In view of his Dravidian Movement convictions he did not wish to seek credit for the dialogue. But his scintillating style and cascading Tamil give his identity away.
In a long monologue spoken with much feeling and impact by Arjuna (M.G. Ramachandran) Abhimanyu is described as "Thamizh magan" (Son of Tamil).
While in Madras, Jupiter Pictures took on lease a historic and palatial building in Mylapore. Known as "Mangala Vilas" it was owned by the noted Indian of his day, G. A. Natesan, publisher, public figure and close associate of Mahatma Gandhi and friend of Swami Vivekananda.
It was in this building that the celebrated singer, Lata Mangeshkar, recorded a Hindi song for a Jupiter movie, her professional debut in Madras. At the Neptune Studio during the1950s - 1960s Jupiter produced many successful films, like "Manohara" (1954, directed by L.V. Prasad), "Karpukkarasi" (1957, .S.A.Sami), "Thangapathumai (1959, A.S.A.Sami), "Ellorum Innattu Mannar"(1960, Tatineni Prakasha Rao), "Arasilankumari" (1961, A.S.A.Sami). Jupiter also made films in partnership with other producers but such efforts were not up to box office expectations with some exceptions.
Sadly, the fortunes of Jupiter at Madras began to change for many reasons. Misunderstandings, ego clashes, changing trends in filmmaking, changes in the tastes and preferences of moviegoers and more, contributed to the decline.
The studio changed hands again and the new owner was M.G. Ramachandran. MGR changed the name to "Satya Studio" in honour of his mother. During his reign the studio buzzed with activity and many films, MGR's and others' too were produced here. The meetings of his party, the AIADMK, were also held here.
After his demise the studio did not see much activity and later, when filmmaking came to a halt here in the early 1990s, the name was changed to `Annai Satya Maaligai'. A women's college now functions here.
RANDOR GUY
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