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M.S.Viswanathan-Ramamurthy duo dominated the South Indian Film Music especially Tamil Film Music during mid 50s and 60s. They were responsible for introducing a change in the orchestration of the songs in Tamil films. They made good use of the guitar and the drums, and added the touch of Western music into Tamil film songs, which until that time were pretty much classical oriented. The combination of M.S.Viswanathan and T.K.Ramamurthy (as the Music Directors), Kannadasan (as the lyricist), T.M.Soundarajan (as the male singer) and P.Susheela (as the female singer), produced 100s of excellent songs in the 50's and the 60's. Later day Tamil film music directors like V.Kumar, the duo of Shankar- Ganesh, and some others, started their careers under the wings of M.S. Viswanathan and and T.K.Ramamurthi. They scored music for a couple of Hindi films but with a lesser level of success.The duo split sometime in the mid-sixties (1965/1966), after which MSV continued to score music for Tamil films with great success, almost into the mid-seventies, before Ilaiyaraja came into the field, and established his own unique style with greater success, while Ramamurthi did not meet with as much of a success in his solo ventures.
Illayaraja revolutionised Tamil Film Music with his unique music style, his style was a blend of Tamil folk songs, Indian and Western classical music, Pop and Jazz. His first film Annakili was a runaway success, heralding a new era in film music. He dominated Tamil Film Music from the late 70s till the 90s. He was a great experimenter , he even modified original Thyagaraja compositions e.g., "Marimari ninni..."(Sindhu Bairavi) . He had a remarkable speed, he could record a song in six to ten hours and the re-recording of a whole film (12000-15000 feet) in three or four days. A record is his scoring for two films in five days, shuttling between studios from session to session round the clock. This assurance of speed and quality has boosted his value to the producer.He worked with a variety of directors like Baarathiraja, Balachandar, Balu Mahendra, Mahendran, Maniratnam among many others and has given 100s of all time hit songs. He has scored music for nearly 500 movies. Apart from Tamil he has scored for other language films which include Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and English. His latest hit is Kadhaluku Mariyadhai.
The 90's saw a new music genius, A.R.Rahman graduated to film music from composing music for advertisements. His first film Roja made him a national sensation and he won the Country's best music director award. He uses all the modern equipment's and facilities to compose his tunes.Every year he composes music only for a handful of movies . He silenced his critics who criticised his slow speed by producing quality music. He carefully selects his movies and directors , He has worked with all the major directors like Maniratnam (Roja, Thiruda Thiruda, Bombay, Iruvar, Vuirye(yet to be released)), Shankar (Gentleman, Kathalan, Indian), Balachandar (Duet), Barathiraaja(Kizhaku cheemaile, Karuthamma) In Hindi he has worked with Ram Gopal Varma (Rangeela, Daud), He has scored music for Telugu movies also (Gang Master, Super Police). Recently he released a music album Vanthe Matharam(Sony Music) to commemorate India's Fiftieth Year of Independence
