4 February 2023
Hyderabad
Legendary playback singer Vani Jairam, who has recorded over 10,000 songs in languages such as Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Gujarato, Haryanvi, Assameese, Tulu and Bengali languages, passed away at her residence on Haddows Road, Nungambakkam in Chennai on Saturday. According to reports, she had sustained an injury on her forehead. She was 77.
In a career spanning more than 50 years, she was also the voice of thousands of devotionals and private albums and was also a constant fixture in numerous solo concerts in India and abroad. Known for her vocal range, versatility and easy adaptability to any difficult composition, Vani has often been the preferred choice for several tunesmiths across India through the 1970s until the late 1990s.
Born as Kalaivani in Vellore in Tamil Nadu into a Tamil family of classically trained musicians, Vani got classical Carnatic training under the guidance of Kadalur Srinivas Iyengar, TR Balasubramanian and RS Mani. A child prodigy, she gave her first public performance at the All India Radio, Madras when she was merely eight years old. After her marriage to Jairam, she settled in Bombay, a city where she also saw her dream come true. Having understood her singing skills, Jairam pushed Vani to get trained in the Hindustani classical music and she enrolled under Ustad Abdul Rehman Khan of the Patiala gharana. Her rigorous training under him made her quit from her SBI bank job and take up music as her profession.
With the 1971 Hindi film Guddi, directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Vani made her debut as a playback singer. While she recorded three numbers for the film, it was the track titled, Bole Re Papihara that gave her much appreciation and respect, launching a career that never looked back.
She made her Telugu debut with the film, Abhimanavanthulu (1973), recording the song "Eppativalekaadura Naa Swami" composed by S P Kodandapani. Her songs for the film Pooja (1975) brought her instant fame in Telugu cinema. The songs "Poojalu Cheya" and "Ennenno Janmala Bandham" became evergreen hits, making her one of the singers to watch out for. For Sankarabharanam, she reeled out five songs–"Brochevarevarura", “Dorakunaa Ituvanti Seva", "Manasa Sancharare", “Paluke Bangaaramaayena" and "Ey Teeruga Nanu"– alongside SP Balu, winning not just critical acclaim and audience appreciation but also multiple awards. She won her second National Film award for the film, while Andhra Pradesh government also feted her with Nandi Award for Best Female Playback Singer for the same album. She associated with Viswanath and KV Mahadevan for other films like Seetamalakshmi (1978), Sruthilayalu (1987), and Swati Kiranam (1992). Apart from Mahadevan, Vani recorded many Telugu songs for Rajan–Nagendra, Satyam, Chakravarthy, M S Viswanathan and Ilaiyaraaja. Besides her outstanding solo numbers, her duets with the likes of KJ Yesudas, SP Balasubrahmanyam, PB Sreenivas, P Jayachandran, Dr Rajkumar, TM Soundarrajan, S Janaki, Asha Bhosle and Mohammed Rafi also emerged as chartbusters, cementing her place and legacy in the archives of Indian music history.
She was the go-to singer for Ilaiyaraaja for most of his dubbed songs from Tamil into Telugu. Some of her most other admired numbers include “Minneti Sooridu Vachenamma" (Seethakoka Chilaka), "Saagara Sangamame" (Seethakoka Chilaka), “Andela Ravamidhi" (Swarnakamalam), "Oka Brundavanam" (Gharshana), "Rojalo Lethavannele" (Gharshana), "Kurisenu Virijallule" (Gharshana), "Theli Manchu Karigindi" (Swati Kiranam) and "Vaishnavi Bhargavi" (Swati Kiranam). She always emphasized on songs with substance. “It was music rather than name, fame and glamour that always captivated me,” she used to say.
Overall, she won the National Film Awards for Best Female Playback Singer thrice (for Apoorva Raagangal, Sankarabharanam, and Swati Kiranam). She also has won State Government awards from the states of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.
She was recently named for the Padma Bhushan honour for her contribution to music by the Government of India. She was among the list of nine notable personalities from various fields to have been announced for the award this year.
