Palagummi Viswanatham ruled Akashavani

“Enni saarlu annado, anneenni teerulu vinnado… annakoladi, vinnkoladi amruthabharitam Ramacharithamu…”

is a famous song penned and composed by renowned music composer Palagummi Viswanatham (93) who died on Thursday evening after a protracted illness.

 In a career spanning more than five decades, Palagummi, as he was fondly called by his fans and music lovers, composed more than 15,000 songs and wrote the lyrics for a hundred of them.

Palagummi Viswanatham renowned all over AIR

Palagummi Viswanatham worked for several decades with All India Radio, mostly in the pre-television era.

At AIR, Palagummi's light music for a variety of shows which included features, plays, rural programmes and programmes for farmers etc. He also composed publicity songs for government programmes and patriotic songs during the Sino-Indian and Indo-Pak wars.

Retiring after 25 years from AIR, Palagummi continued to be associated with radio composing for special programmes, rerecording and judging shows. He received several awards in his lifetime, most of which were from the State Government and included a Nandi Award for music for a television serial in 1992. He also received a Hamsa Award for composing music for television film Rajasekhara Charitra.

Bhargavi@sakshipost