Vani Jairam (birth name, Kalaivani) was born on November 30, 1945, in Vellore, Tamil Nadu. In her childhood, she was given a formal Carnatic music training under the guidance of Kadalur Srinivas Iyengar, T.R. Balasubramanian, and R.S. Mani. After completing her graduation, she worked in the State Bank of India, Madras. After her marriage in 1969, she moved to Mumbai and set up her family. In Mumbai, she learnt Hindustani Classical Music under Ustad Abdul Rehman Khan of the Patiala Gharana. She learnt the nuances of various vocal forms such as Thumri, Ghazal, and Bhajan under Khan’s tutelage and gave her first public concert in 1969.
Her Career
Vani Jairam made her debut in Bollywood as a playback singer in the Hindi movie with the 1971 film ‘Guddi’, directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee. While Vani’s popularity was soaring in Bollywood cinema, she started getting offers from the South Indian industry. She did playback for over 1,000 Indian movies and recorded over 10,000 songs. She worked with famous music directors like Ilaiyaraaja, M.S. Viswanathan, Vijaya Bhaskar, O.P. Nayyar, R.D. Burman, V. Dakshinamoorthy, M.S. Baburaj, G. Devarajan, Johnson, Madan Mohan, and many more. Besides solo numbers, she also sang duets with the likes of S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, P.B. Sreenivas, K.J. Yesudas, P. Jayachandran, Dr Rajkumar, T.M. Soundarrajan, S. Janaki, Asha Bhosle, Mohammed Rafi, etc.
Moreover, she also rendered her voice to many devotional songs, private albums, and participated in numerous solo concerts in India and abroad. In a career spanning over 50 years, she sang songs in 19 languages including Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam, Marathi, Kannada, Oria, Gujarati, Haryanvi, Assamese, Tulu, Bengali, etc.
She sang unforgettable songs such as Megame Megame for the Tamil movie Palaivana Solai, and Enakkoru malar maalai nee vaanga vendum…for a terminally ill patient addressing Shankar. She very beautifully conveyed the message of Gatha. She rendered several hits such as in Apoorva. Raagangal, Azhage Unnai Aarathilkiren, and Deerka Sumangali.
Indian film music composer, Vasant Desai, offered her to record three songs in the film Guddi. The song Bole re papihara … became a talk-of-the-town. Her song Humko Mann ki Shakti Dena became a school prayer and continues even today. The song Mere To Giridhar Gopal in Meera in 1979 won her first Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer. She recorded about 12 bhajans which became very popular.
Awards
Vani Jairam won the National Film Awards for Best Female Playback Singer three times for a romantic drama film Apoorva Raagangal, musical drama Sankarabharanam, and musical drama film Swathi Kiranam. She also has won four state government awards from the states of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Gujarat. In 2012, she was honoured with the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award–South for her achievements in South Indian film music. In July 2017, she was honoured with the Best Female Singer at the North American Film Awards (NAFA) 2017 event at New York City. On completing 50 years as a playback singer, the Indian government announced the Padma Bhushan in 2021.
Vani breathed her last on February 4, 2023 at the age of 77.
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