SOUTH INDIAN CINE MUSIC DIRECTORS [OLD] –X

 MD – V      S. V. VENKATRAMAN [25-04 -1911— 07-04- 1998]

SOZHAVANDHAN VARADHARAJAN VENKATRAMAN

Popular as S V V, had the misfortune of losing his father at the age of three; he was under his uncle’s care from then on. Like several other ‘later blooms’ SVV did not pursue education beyond 4^th standard.  Spotting his deep inclination to music, elders sent him to Madras to prune his skills in music. Ironically, he never learnt music, though he was a very good singer. Noticing SVV’s penchant for music-oriented art, a drama troupe head offered him opportunities to sing, act and compose songs for theatre dramas.

In the course of a play, as an actor, SVV broke his arm and was recuperating at Bangalore. From there he was again brought to Madras to work in movies. SVV has been in cine music till around 1970 from1938 composing songs for Tamil, Telugu,Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi films. In all he had served for over 200 movies.

SVV’s music was a strength for movies, - ‘MEERA’, ‘KANNAGI’, NANDHAKUMAR’ , ‘MANONMANI , ‘NANDHANAR’ etc. Legendary singers  - PU CHINNAPPA, DHANDAPANI DESIKAR, GN B alias   GN BALASUBRAMANIAN,T M Soundararajan, MS SUBBALAKSHMI, ML VASANTHAKUMARI, DK PATTAMMAL , P LEELA, AP KOMALA ,TV RATNAM , S JANAKI , JAMUNA RANI , P SUSHEELA, L R ESWARI AND ALMOST ALL male singers of that era.

BHAJA GOVINDHAM rendered by MS Subbalakshmi was SVV’S TUNE SETTING.

SVV has co-opted to be MD with several others MDs – G. Ramanathan, CR Subburaman, S Rajeswara rao R Sudharsanam and SM Subbiah Naidu.

The later popular MDs – MSV , TK Ramamoorthy and GK Venkatesh have all been assistants to SVV in different stages.

SVV the popular doyen is said to have escaped to eternity in sleep.

Our respects to Mr. SVV

Prof. K. Raman