Chennai :

After battling a kidney illness for what insiders say was almost a year, legendary composer ‘Mellisai Mannar’ M S Viswanathan passed away at 4.20 am at a private hospital in Chennai.

The composer had been admitted to Fortis Malar Hospital in Adyar after his kidneys started failing almost 34 days ago. He had been given dialysis and doctors there had been examining his condition in the hope of finding a solution, but at 87, the frail music director was not the best candidate for surgery – let alone a transplant.

Born in Kerala in ‎the village of Elapuzhi in 1928, his penchant for musical performance pushed him to join yesteryear artist Bagavathar’s drama troupe at the age of 14.

It was at this time that he began his sojourns to Madras and had a glimpse of what Kodambakkam would eventually become.

MSV then joined the troupe of C R Subbarayan as a harmonium player.

This is where he met his compatriot Ramamoorthy and struck up a partnership that spanned over 695 films till the latter’s death.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Entertainment> Tamil / by Express News Service / July 14th, 2015