Palagummi Viswanadham started his career as a Veena artiste in the film studios of Madras and reached his zenith as a music director in the studios of All India Radio, Hyderabad. For years on end this remarkable man was producing radio plays, song of the month, songs for workers, songs for women, devotional songs, songs for children…the list goes on. Whatever challenges AIR threw at him he delivered with great finesse. He could make propaganda sound aesthetic, devotion sound secular.

Viswanadham worked very closely with Devulapalli Venkata Krishna Sastry, the great Telugu poet. Together they gave Telugu people songs for all occasions, for example, "Nīrujallina Mungitlō" for Sankranti, "Teravanđī Talupulu" for Ugadi, lullabies like "Navvantē Jābilli", patriotic songs with a difference like "Nārāyana Nārāyana Allā Allā" devotional songs "Rāma Charanam", “Yā Allā" and so on. He worked with other great poets Dr. C. Narayana Reddy, Dasarathi, Sasanka to name a few. Palagummi Viswanadham composed music for great musicians too: Dr. Mangalampalli Balamurali Krishna, Vakkalanka Sarala, M. Chittaranjan, P.B. Srinivas and others. The nearly 15,000 songs he composed were sung by singers who range from amateurs to professionals: Kovela Santha, M. Santha, M. Sowbhagyam, K.B.K. Mohana Raju, Vedavathi Prabhakar, Hemavathinagaraju, Chaya Devi, Chandrakantha, Vinod Babu, Swapna, K. Balaji, K.V. Ramana to name a few.

After his retirement from AIR, Palagummi Viswanadham composed many Christian devotional songs and several other features for Amruthavani, which were broadcast from Radio Ceylon.

Apart from being a highly creative music director, Palagummi Viswanadham proved to be a remarkable lyricist. His song "Amma Dongā" is so popular among Telugu people abroad that in weddings it is sung as a Bidai song. His other famous songs are "Enni Sārulu Annadō" which was sung by Balamuralikrishna. He chose to sing it at the World Telugu Conference at Hyderabad. And finally how can one forget the nostalgic song "Ma Ūru Okkasāri Pōyi Rāvāli" which he sang himself in his distinctive style.

News & Views

Versatility

Gallery

Downloads