Recently veteran playback singer Vani Jairam was bestowed with the coveted MS Subbalakshmi award, by the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Palniswamy, for her outstanding and invaluable contribution to film music. Recipient of three national awards for her renditions in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu and the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement award, it is amazing, that at the age 76, Vani has managed to maintain the tonal and quality of melody in her commendable voice.

After a brief encounter, more than a decade ago, I first met Vani Jairam and her husband in a musical function in Mumbai and she had then given me her visiting card, which I had preserved. I was wondering as to whether her mobile number is still valid but when I spoke to her and told her that I would like to talk to Vaniji and she immediately replied Vani speaking, I was so surprised and amused with her soft and tender voice, I felt I was talking to Vani's daughter and not Vani but she clarified that she is Vani. It is amazing that age has not distorted the quality of her melodious voice

Here is a short chat I had with her over her her career in Mumbai in the 1970s, her musical journey and her settling down in Chennai:

Can you tell us something about your childhood days

I was born in Vellore in Tamil Nadu, on 30th November 1945 and they say I was a child prodigy who could differentiate between varied ragas. My her mother was a singer and the disciple of the famous musicologist Ranga Ramanuja Iyer. My sisters were all professional classical singers but I was told I was the only one to take to film music. I belong to a large family of 3 brothers and 6 sisters. (Pauses) Besides me and my younger sister, nobody else is around.

When did you commence you singing devotional music?

I commenced my career in singing devotional music….. as far as I remember having performed for the Bhajan Sammelan for Sur Singar Samsad, where singers like Purushottam Das Jalota (Anup Jalota's father), Hari Om Sharan and others had participated. Infact before I could become a playback singer, I was known as a singer for devotional music. In 1970, on 22^nd December, I recorded for my first Hindi film song for Hrishikesh Mukherjee's ‘Guddi’, the songs recorded were Hum Ko Man Ki Shakti Dena and Bole Re Papi Hara with music composition by Vasant Desai and lyrics written by Gulzaar, these two songs became great hits, winning me the 1st National award. Hum Ko Man Ki is adapted as a prayer in so many schools, in many programmes, even today people love to listen to Bole Re Papi Hara again and again.

What did you do prior to this big song becoming a hit?

Prior to the recording of ‘Guddi’, Vasant Desai, recorded Marathi songs, which was used in Marathi plays featuring the dynamic Bal Gandharva.

You have spent almost five decades of singing in 19 languages for over 1000 movies and 20.000 recordings. Can you tell us something about this musical journey of yours?

The moment you feel satisfied, you become stagnant and you will never grow, I have a long way to go. I have sung in Marathi,Gujarati, Tamil, Malayalam, Bengali, Odiya, and maybe other languages too, I can’t recall. One of the most popular Bengali number was Shehi Gaan Kanu Ami for the film ‘Pampa’ with music by Nirmal Chakraborty and many was firsts to my credit.

These songs have given a philip to many actors who have become famous today. Your comments.

Many songs of mine have made actors stars. For instance Sridevi's first Tamil film ‘Moonru Mudiche’ and first Hindi film ‘Solva Sawan’ had my songs. Juhi Chawla"s first Kannada film ‘Prema Loka’ also had a song that I sang.

Vani you ruled the Malayalam industry for over a decade, being the leading playback singer, singing along with established names like Yesudas. Jayachandran. Your comments.

While in Mumbai we were getting lot invitations to sing for Hindi cinema, but slowly the invitations for South Indian cinema became greater, so ultimately we decided to shift to Chennai.

It was here that you won many awards, if I am right?

Yes, I won the National award three times for rendering in Hindi the song for ‘Guddi’, ‘Apoorva Ragangal’ (Tamil) and ‘Shankarabharanam’ and ‘Swati’ (Telugu), I also won several other best playback singer awards from varied states and the Lifetime Filmfare achievement award for my lifelong contribtution to film music.

By Guru Vijay Shankar

Guru Vijay Shanker is a professional Kuchipudi, Kathakali, Bharata natyam exponent, dance teacher, choreographer, actor and eminent arts critic for over four decades based in Mumbai. He can be contacted on email: vijaydance@gmail.com