Viji Manuel

Vijay Manuel (1951—15 August 2015) was an Indian musician who worked mainly in Tamil cinema. He was the son of pianist Handel Manuel.

Viji Manuel
Born	Vijay Manuel
Died	15 August 2015 Chennai
Nationality	Indian
Occupation	Musician
Children	1
Father	Handel Manuel

Early and personal life

Vijay^[1] "Viji" Manuel was the son of pianist Handel Manuel and soprano singer Alice,^[2][3] who died in 2018.^[4] Unlike his classical trained father, Viji was self-taught and formed a rock band "Plastic Glow" and used to play at a hotel at Mussorie where he used to play other instruments if anyone from the band did not show up.^[5]

Career

Viji Manuel started his career as bass guitarist for composer Shyam and then went to work for many established composers such as M. S. Viswanathan, K. V. Mahadevan and with Ilaiyaraaja as acoustic guitarist.^[5][6] He also recorded a Christmas album with his father.^[7]

He also composed music for two films: Idhaya Vaasal (1991) and Iravu Sooriyan (1991) however he stopped composing for films due to interfering from producers who insist on "giving me reference songs".^[5] Viji composed the score of Thulluvadho Ilamai (2002) at the request of Yuvan Shankar Raja who had to leave for London on an urgent work.^[5] His final film where he played keyboard was Kanithan (2016) which was released a year later after his death.^[8]

Personal life

Viji Manuel was married,^[9] and has a son born in 1974.^[1] In the late 2000s, Viji broke his femur after a slip and fall,^[10] and was inactive professionally for almost five years until 2014.^[11] He died on 15 August 2015 at the age of 64 due to kidney ailments.^[8]

Discography

• Punnagai Mannan (1986) - contributed lyrics for "One Two Three" song
• Idhaya Vaasal (1991)
• Iravu Sooriyan (1991)
• Thulluvadho Ilamai (2002) (score only)