Vani Jayram : A Successful Multi-lingual And Meritorious Playback Singer Whose Career Has Spanned For Last Five Decades.

 

Vani Jayram : A Successful  Multi-lingual And Meritorious Playback Singer Whose Career Has Spanned For Last Five Decades.

First time I came across the voice of famous playback singer Vani Jayram was when I was in school. I remembered her song which she had sung with the famous classical singer Kumar Gandharva whose music had been composed by Vasant Desai for one Marathi drama Dev Deena Ghari Dhavala. This song was penned by BAL Kholhatkar and the song was,” Runanubandhachya Jithun padlya gaathi, Bhetiit tushtta mothi (meaning English, “These bonds transcending relations have been forged…… in rendezvous most gratifying”). During my school days, I was madly in love with the song. This song is about a love where a couple is bound to each other for unpaid debt.  This song is based on Pahadi raga where the music composer combined the Raag and Bandish so beautifully without even compromising its grammar. Vani Jayram has sung this song so beautifully along with Kumar Gandharva. It was not easy to sing this song with Kumar Gandharva; but her sur and aalap were so perfect that anyone can admire her talent as a singer. Music director Vasant Desai spotted her voice and introduced her to Bollywood in the 70s. After that she never stopped. For the last five decades she has sung nearly twenty thousand songs in Hindi, Marathi, Gujrati, Telgu, Malayalam, Tamil, Odia and Bengali languages.

From Yogesh Gogwekar

Vani Jayram was born on 30th November 1945 in Vellore in Tamilnadu in classical trained musician families. She has five sisters and three brothers. Her mother, Padmavati, a Carnatic classical singer, was trained under Ranga Ramuja Iyengar. While her sister was getting training from Kadaloor Sreenivasa Iyengar, little Vani was taking keen interest in music learning. Therefore, her mother enrolled her at the age of five with him for learn the music. She was also trained under T R Balasubramanian and R S Mani. With her observation and grasping power, she started recognising the different ragas not only from Carnatic classical music but also from Hindustani classical music. She was also attracted towards Hindi film songs and used to remember these songs and reproduce the same in perfect way. At the age of eight, she performed her first performance on All India Radio, Chennai (that time Madras).  After completing her school education, she joined Queen Mary’s College in Chennai. After finishing her graduation, she joined State bank of India in 1967. In the same year, she was transferred to Hyderabad by State bank of India. In 1969, she married with Sitar Player Jayram and the couple decided to shift to Mumbai to learn and develop more music. State Bank of India accepted her request and transferred her to the Mumbai branch. 

After reaching Mumbai, her husband Jayram, after seeing her devotion to music, persuaded her to learn Hindustani Classical music. She started training under vocalist of Patiala Gharana, Ustad Abdul Rehman Khan. Under him, she learnt various types of Music like Thumari, Ghazal and devotional songs. She left her job at State Bank of India and took up singing as her professional. When she was doing her concert in 1969, she was introduced for the first time to music composer Vasant Desai who was composing one Marathi song with Kumar Gandharva which was mentioned in the beginning of this article. This duet song had become very much popular among the audience of Maharashtra.  After understanding her talent, Vasant Desai decided to do the recording of her voice for three songs of his next film Guddi in which he was the music director. These songs were,” Bole Re Papihara” in Raga Malhar, “Hamko Man Ki Shakti Dena” in Raga Kedar and Hari Bin Kaise Jeeun.  All these songs became very much popular and she had been selected by many music composers of Bollywood like Naushad for films Pakeeza and Aina, Jaidev for Man Jaye and Parinay, Madan Mohan for Ek Muthi Asman, R D Burman for film Chhaliya and Laxmikant Pyarelal for film Jurm aur Saza. She also sang with veteran Agra vocalist Pt Dinkar Kaikini for film Meera whose music has been composed by Pt. Ravi Shankar. After sensing the step-motherly attitude towards her in Bollywood, she decided to leave Mumbai and settled down in Chennai and achieved great success in south Indian films as a singer. Even after such success, she recorded her songs under music composer O P Nayyar for film Khoon Ka Badla Khoon.

In Chennai, she decided to sing for Tamil films and recorded her first Tamil song Thayum Seiyum under the music director S M Subbaiah Naidu, but this song was not released till date. Her first Tamil song was released was “Or Idam Unnidam” for Tamil film Veettukku Vandha Marumagal in 1973 under the music composition of Shankar Ganesh. After that Vani Jayram recorded maximum songs under the music composition of Shankar Ganesh. It is being aid that she got much popularity for the song Malarpol Sirippathu for the film Sollathaan Ninaikkiren whose music was composed by two music directors K Balachander and M S Viswanathan.  She also became very much famous as a singer in Telgu films. Her first Telgu song was” Eppativalekaadura Naa Swami” for the film Abhimanavanthulu under the music composer S P Kodandapani.  This song was picturized for classical dance. Her name reached every household of Telgu speaking people when she sang two songs in the film Pooja which was made in 1975 and songs were "Poojalu Cheya" and "Ennenno Janmala Bandham''. Like that she composed many songs for Malayalam films. Her solo song “Sourayudhathil Vidarnnoru” which was composed by Salil Chowdhary for the film Swapnam has become so popular and gave her great breakthrough. After that she sung with many composers and became very popular in the Malayalam film Industry.

Besides Runanubandhahya, She sung many songs for Marathi like Devache Ghar Kuni, Door Jata Hi Wat, Jasa Paus Unhat, Jhale Bezaar Gardi, Jivlag Maze Nahi, Maath Panyat Budala, Malate Mee Malate, Nach Sahavato Ha Bhar, Prem Pise Bharale, Sukhache Sukh Shree, Thamb Jodidara Nahi, Tujavin Karmat Nahi, Utha Utha Ho Suryanarayana. If music lovers listen to her songs, they can make out her ability to sing a wide repertoire of songs from classical to romantic song and also her ability to grasp the tunes and to reproduce the same immediately. Due to this, she becomes special with her sympathetic voice and her ability to sing with imagination.  Vani Jayram also recorded some Holi songs and has done many concerts of Thumari and Devotional songs i.e. Bhajans. She has done the concert with Kathak dancer Pandit Birju Maharaj. She also recorded Gita Govindam with Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra on Pakhwaj which was composed by Prafullakar.

On the occasion of launching the book on music composer Vasant Desai “Vasant Desai-Composer Par Excellence”, Vani Jayram said that he was God for her. She explained her immortal relationship with Vasant Desai who recorded her first Marathi song “Runanubandhahya” and made her popular in every Indian house with a song, “Bole Re Papihara” for the film Guddi.  She said that he was her mentor and guide. At the time of praying tribute to Vasant Desai, she said, “If there was no Vasant Desai, there would be no Vani Jayram. He told me to work hard, sing well, and earn a lot of money, pay taxes and sleep well at night”.

Vani Jayram continues to be busy with her music. She believes in humanity and recalls all the legendary people to whom she met during her career. She is now 75 years old. Even at this age, she continues to hold her audiences in light classical concerts.  In one of the interviews, she said,” I never waste time, and chronology means little to me, as my voice is still young’. Let her voice remain young forever with the blessings of God and music lovers should get more things to listen from her.

 

Mumbai

02/05/2021