Vani Jairam

Vani Jairam (born Kalaivani; 30 November 1945 – 4 February 2023) was an Indian playback singer in Indian cinema. She is fondly referred to as the "Meera of modern India" Vani's career started in 1971 and has spanned over five decades. She did playback for over one thousand Indian movies recording over 20,000 songs. In addition, she recorded thousands of devotionals and private albums and also participated in numerous solo concerts in India and abroad.

Renowned for her vocal range and easy adaptability to any difficult composition, Vani has often been the choice for several composers across India from the 1970s until the late 1990s. She has sung in several Indian languages languages including Kannada, Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Sanskrit, Gujarati, Haryanvi, Assamese, Tulu, Kashmiri, Bhojpuri, Marwari, Urdu, Konkani, Punjabi and Bengali languages.

Vani is the youngest artist to be awarded the "Sangeet Peet Samman". She won the National Film Awards for Best Female Playback Singer three times and also has won State Government awards from the states of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. In 2012, she was honored with the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award – South for her achievements in South Indian film music. In July 2017 she was honored with the Best Female Singer at the NAFA 2017 event at New York City.

She was well versed in various forms of music, including Carnatic, Hindustani, thumri, ghazal and bhajan. Apart from singing, she was also a songwriter, composer and painter.

Early life and education

Vani was born as Kalaivani in Vellore in Tamil Nadu, in a classically trained musicians family, as a fifth daughter in a family of six daughters and three sons. Her parents, Duraisamy Iyer and Padmavathi, trained under Ranga Ramunaja Iyengar and enrolled her in his classes, where he taught her a few Muthuswami Dikshitar kritis. Later she was given formal Carnatic training under the guidance of Kadalur Srinivas Iyengar, T. R. Balasubramanian, and R. S. Mani.

Vani was glued to the Radio Ceylon channel and was attracted to Hindi film songs to the extent that she used to memorize and reproduce the entire orchestration of the songs that used to repeatedly play on the Radio. At the age of 8, she gave her first public performance at All India Radio, Madras.

Vani did her schooling at Lady Sivasamy High School, Chennai. She then graduated from the Queen Mary's College, Chennai. Post her studies, Vani was employed with the State Bank of India, Madras, and later in 1967, she was transferred to the Hyderabad branch.

Early career in Mumbai

After her marriage to Jairam in 1969, she moved to Mumbai to set up her family. Upon her request, she was transferred to the Mumbai branch of her bank. Knowing her singing skills, Jairam persuaded 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 her bank job and take up music as her profession. She learned the nuances of various vocal forms such as Thumri, Ghazal and Bhajan under Khan's tutelage and gave her first public concert in 1969. In the same year, she was introduced to the composer Vasant Desai who was recording a Marathi album with singer Kumar Gandharva. Upon listening to her voice, Desai chose her to sing the song "Runanubandhacha" for the same album along with Kumar Gandharva. The album released to much popularity among the Marathi audience and the duet song was well received. She sang with the veteran vocalist Agra Charan Pt. Dinkar Kaikini in the 1979 film Meera. The music was given by Pt. Ravi Shankar.

Career

Tamil cinema

While Vani's popularity continued to soar in Bollywood cinema, she started getting offers from the Cinema of South India. In 1973, she recorded her first Tamil song for the film Thayum Seiyum under the music direction of S. M. Subbaiah Naidu. However, the film remains unreleased to date and the song remained in the cans. Her first released song was a duet romantic song with T. M. Soundararajan for the film Veettukku Vandha Marumagal (1973). The song "Or Idam Unnidam" was composed by the duo Shankar–Ganesh, with whom, Vani went on to record maximum songs in Tamil cinema. Immediately after this, she was employed by one of the most successful director-composer duos, K. Balachander and M. S. Viswanathan, for their successful film Sollathaan Ninaikkiren for a solo song "Malarpol Sirippathu Pathinaaru". Thus began her long association with the top-rated music directors in Tamil cinema. Her biggest break came through the song "Malligai En Mannan Mayangum" from the film Dheerga Sumangali (1974), again composed by M. S. Viswanathan. Vani recalled that it was a challenging song and "he (Viswanathan) trusted me with it". She sang many songs composed by M.S.Viswanathan and Shankar–Ganesh. M.S.Viswanathan by seeing her amazing grasping power and ability to write swaras immediately mentioned her as 'Blotting paper'. When Vani was in Madras (now Chennai) for two music concerts at a Bhajan Sammelan, Viswanathan, who was the chief guest, was impressed by her performance and gave her the opportunity to sing the song. The song received laurels and accolades for both its composition and vocal rendition. It was in the same year, she recorded a duet song with S. P. Balasubrahmanyam for music director Vijaya Bhaskar for the film Engamma Sapatham. It was later reported that Vani's voice featured in all the films which had Vijaya Bhaskar as the composer in both Tamil and Kannada film industries.

The year 1975 turned out to be the first most eventful year for Vani since she won her first National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer for the songs she rendered in the film Apoorva Raagangal. The songs "Ezhu Swarangalukkul" and "Kelviyin Nayagane" made her popularity soar to heights and she became known as the singer who would always get selected to sing difficult compositions. She was flooded with singing offers from all the top-rated music composers, including M. S. Viswanathan, Kunnakkudi Vaidyanathan, Sankar Ganesh, V. Kumar, K. V. Mahadevan, G. K. Venkatesh and Vijaya Bhaskar. In 1977, she first recorded her voice for Ilaiyaraaja's composition in the film Bhuvana Oru Kelvi Kuri. She won her first Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Female Playback for the song "Naane Naana" composed by Ilaiyaraaja for the film Azhage Unnai Aarathikkiren (1979). With Ilaiyaraaja, Vani went on to record many popular songs in the 1980s for the films such as Mullum Malarum (1978), Rosappo Ravikaikaari (1979), Anbulla Rajinikanth (1984), Nooravathu Naal (1984), Vaidehi Kathirunthal (1984), Oru Kaidhiyin Diary (1985) and Punnagai Mannan (1986). In 1994, composer A. R. Rahman recorded her voice for the film Vandicholai Chinraasu for a duet song with S. P. Balasubrahmanyam. Later in 2014, she recorded a portion of the Thiruppugazh composed by Rahman, for the period film Kaaviyathalaivan and followed it with the song "Narayana" in the film Ramanujan.

Jairam recorded thousands of Tamil songs both in solo and duet formats. Many of her duet songs have been recorded along with T. M. Soundararajan, P. B. Srinivas, K. J. Yesudas, S. P. Balasubrahmanyam and Jayachandran. Songs like "Ezhu Swarangalukkul", "Keliviyin Nayagane", "Ennulil Engo", "Yaaradhu Sollamal", "Megamae Megamae", "Kavidhai Kelungal", "Nadhamenum Kovililae", "Aana Kana" and "Sugamana Raagangale" are considered amongst the best compositions to be recorded in Vani's voice. The first Ghazal type song in Tamil movies was "Megame magame" written by Vairamuthu was sung by Vani Jayaram.

Telugu cinema

Vani's contribution towards Telugu cinema and devotional songs have been extensive and widespread. She recorded her first Telugu song for the film Abhimanavanthulu (1973). The song "Eppativalekaadura Naa Swami", composed by S. P. Kodandapani, was a classical dance-based song. Her songs for the film Pooja (1975) brought her to the forefront of Telugu cinema. The songs "Poojalu Cheya" and "Ennenno Janmala Bandham" became household hits and cemented her position. It was for the K. Viswanath's musical film Sankarabharanam (1980), Vani increased her popularity by singing five songs and winning her second National Film award for all the songs collectively. She was also awarded the Andhra Pradesh government's Nandi Award for Best Female Playback Singer for the same songs. She went on to collaborate with director Viswanath and music director K. V. Mahadevan for many films like Sruthilayalu (1987), Sankarabharanam and Swathi Kiranam. Later in 1990, the same team produced the film Swathi Kiranam which was again musically noted; all the songs sung by Vani were received well. She received her third National Film Award for the film.

Apart from K. V. Mahadevan, Vani recorded many Telugu songs for Rajan–Nagendra, Satyam, Chakravarthy, M. S. Viswanathan and Ilaiyaraaja. She recorded most of the dubbed songs from Tamil composed by Ilaiyaraaja.