India, Oct. 17 -- Noted music composer Deva, the self-made architect of Tamil 'gana' style rhythms and one who gave innumerable, striking hits for top heroes, including Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay in a career spanning 400 films, died here on Saturday.

"All of a sudden our father left us, his death was following a cardiac arrest," the renowned musician's son Shrikanth Deva told reporters here.

'Gana' songs, Deva's gift to the Tamil speaking people, may be described as a kind of music composition, which, in a way brought to mainstream the subaltern world; its likes and dislikes and the rough and tumble of the youth community as well. 'Gana,' in Tamil usage, denotes the rustic, indigenous, working-class origins of the songs, and the harm...