The veteran lyricist Vaali has completed over 50 years in Tamil cinema. He has penned several thousand songs and worked with five generation of music composers.

Speaking at a programme organised by the Cine Musicians Union to felicitate yesteryear composers M S Viswanathan and T K Ramamoorthy, Vaali said that after their era, there have been only tune-makers remaining and no real music composers. 

The lyricist who turned 80 last year was at his peak composing songs during the Viswanathan-Ramamoorthy era from the 1960’s to the 1980’s.

The composer-duo was bestowed Lifetime Achievement Awards by the CMU.

Music directors Vidyasagar, SA Rajkumar, Dhina and singers P B Sreenivas and K J Jesudas and actor Y Gee Mahendra were present on the occasion.