The Music legends are back

M.S. Viswanathan, T.M. Soundararajan and P. Suseela came together after 15 years, to record a song for ‘Valiban Sutrum Ulagam.’

Photo: S.S. Kumar 
 
Nostalgia: (From left) P.Suseela, T.M.Soundararajan and M.S.Viswanathan.

After nearly 15 years, three giants — M. S. Viswanathan, T. M. Soundararajan and P. Suseela — came together to record a song for the film, ‘Valiban Sutrum Ulagam,’ produced by Jai Sakthi Creations.

Unfortunately, the first time the power went off. So the recording was fixed for another day. This time, everything went off without a hitch and the three experienced singers finished the job in less than three hours.

The first pallavi, ‘That Boot Thanjavuru, Thamukadikira Thalam Kettu Nakooda Aadaporaendi’ went off smoothly and quickly. Soundararajan said (about Viswanathan), “He knows my style of singing. Normally, a music director would want the singer to sing it his way, but MSV let me sing it my way and then corrected it to suit him. That is why his compositions are still fresh in the minds of the public.”

At one stage, Viswanathan wanted another take and TMS said he was ready to sing it any number of times to improve the song. And he sang… till the music director was happy.

P. Suseela finished her portion in an hour. She remembered how in the past they hopped from studio to studio to record a song. “I was finishing a song for MSV when director Sridhar arrived. He heard the tune composed for his film ‘Ooty Varai Uravu.’ It was a solo number (female), but he did not like it. In no time MSV brought his harmonium and started to compose a new tune, which was recorded the same night and we all left the studio at 2 a.m. The song was ‘Thaedinen Vandhadhu’ and the shooting was held the next day.”

TMS said that MGR used to join them for lunch. “On the day of recording, lunch for 15 persons would come from MSV’s house. The fish kuzhambu, in particular, would be very tasty. During his shooting schedule, MGR used to ask whether MSV was around and join us for lunch.”

When MSV was asked whether he remembered the last time all three of them had come together, he said, “We joined together to create music to make people happy. I do not remember anything other than that. I am thankful to the Almighty for this creativity.”

On the idea of bringing the legends together, writer-director A.R.Lalithasamy said, “I wanted to do a commercial movie with all the elements of an MGR film. So I started work on a script and wanted M.S.Viswanathan to score the music. The lyrics have been written by Vaali and Kamakotiyan. We wanted to record a song sung by the evergreen singers, TMS and P. Suseela. We told our music director who readily agreed to it and now, we have a good number. It will be shot soon and the film is expected to be released next year.”

The story is about a doctor, who invents a new drug to cure a certain disease. The doctor wants the formula to be given to the Government so that it will benefit the public. But his partner wants it to be sold to another country. Then the doctor is killed. This thriller has all the commercial ingredients to be a box-office hit. The hero of the movie is MGR Siva and the heroine, Meenakshi. The cast includes MGR Hari, Latha, Manorama and ‘Vennira Adai’ Murthy. The story, screenplay, dialogue and direction are by A.R.Lalithasamy.