Part 1-Her excellent solo songs

30^th November 1945 -4^th February 2023

In a family of six daughters and three sons, she was born as the fifth daughter. As per the traditional practice the child is given a name on the eleventh day from birth, but as her mother was not well on that day, the naming ceremony got postponed and it was only later on , her father consulted an astrologer for a suitable name. The astrologer apparently informed the father that the baby had done lot of good deeds in the previous birth  , like performing abhishekam ( sacred ritual of pouring a liquid on a deity’s idol) of honey at the famous Murugan temple at Palani and so will be a very great singer and advised the baby to be named as Kalaivani. Kalaivani in Tamil denotes   Goddess Saraswati , who is the deity for knowledge, wisdom, speech , music and arts.

This is the story of Vani as Kalaivani was called by her parents and after her marriage to Mr Jairam, became the legendary singer Vani Jayaram . She herself narrated this in one of her interviews and so I have reproduced this anecdote here. How prophetic the words of that astrologer turned out! When she sang it was flawless, like a pristine river flowing along smoothly and with a diction that was perfect in whatever language she sang. She has sung in almost 19 languages, approximately 20,000 songs in a career that started in 1971 and continued for almost five decades!

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

Like many child prodigies , she had a passion towards music from a very young age and  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 . At the age of 8, she had the opportunity to give her first public performance at All India Radio, Madras.

Vani did her schooling at Lady Sivasamy High School, Chennai and then graduated from the Queen Mary’s College, Chennai. After  her studies, Vani was employed with the State Bank of India, Madras, and later in 1967, she was transferred to the Hyderabad branch. Her marriage with Jairam brought her to Mumbai and seeing Vani’s musical skills, Jairam encouraged her to get trained in Hindustani classical music under the tutelage of Ustad Abdul Rehman Khan. She had rigorous training under the Ustad , many-a-times for 12-16 hours in a day. She decided to resign her job and devote full attention to music. Her husband , Jairam was a pillar of support in her career.  Later, her guru , Ustad Abdul Rehman Khan introduced her to the well-known musical genius Vasant Desai .

Thanks to him and the director Hrishikesh Mukherjee, she was selected to sing three songs for the film Guddi that was made in 1971. Her song Bole Re Papihara took the entire country by storm and she became famous overnight! As the cliché goes, there was no looking back for her in her musical career. Of course , her stint in Hindi films was short and there were stories about how she was prevented from getting more songs ,but let us not delve upon that. In a short period , she sang duets with the leading male playback singers in Hindi like Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh,  and Manna Dey. What was loss for the Hindi film music , turned out to be a great bonanza for the South Indian film music.

VJ ( I will henceforth Vani Jayaram as VJ for brevity) , entered the Tamil film with her first song for a Tamil film “ Thayum Seyum” for which music was composed by the veteran S M Subbiah Naidu but unfortunately the film and the song remained unreleased. Then came an obscure film Veettukku Vanda Marumagal and she had a duet with T M Soundararajan “ Or Idam Unnidam” that was nothing to write home about. Again , her solo ‘ Malrapol Sirippathu Pathinaru’  in Sollathan Ninaikiren in 1973 was drowned under the all-time great “ Sollathan Ninaikiren Ullathal Thudikkiren ” composed and sung by M S Vishwanathan  and S Janaki.

But fate had something better in store for her and with the immortal “ Malligai En Mannan Mayangum” in the 1974 film Deerga Sumangali, she had arrived with a bang. This song , even after 51 years sounds as fresh as it was when we heard it first. Then came her masterpiece that fetched her the first National award for best female playback for the song Ezhu Swarangalukkul in the film Aboorva Ragangal. This song along with Kelviyin Nayagane are examples of VJ’s stunning singing abilities.  

The 70’s decade saw lot of churning in Tamil film music, with the old order slowly giving way to the new artists, in all aspects-music director Ilayaraja stormed with his Annakili in 1976, singers K J Yesudas, SP Balasubrahmanyam, S Janaki and Vani Jayaram were singing along with the legends T.M Soundararajan and P Susheela . VJ had some of her best songs during this decade as the song list that I have selected reveal.

Apart from her great training in classical music, VJ had a crystal-clear voice that could reach the higher octaves so comfortably . Her pronunciation  was always perfect and the way she could emote according to the genre of the song. Example-just listen to her Nitham Nitham Nellu Choru and Naane Naana Yarothana-these are not her typical styles but she could render the folksy Nitham Nitham and an intoxicated Naane Naana perfectly like she rendered Ezhu Swarangalukkul . Even the relatively rare genre of ghazal in Tamil film music sounded so easy when Shankar -Ganesh , taking inspiration from the famous ghazal singer Jagjit Singh’s Tum Nahin Gam Nahin Sharaab Nahin, composed one of VJ’s masterpiece Megame Megame Paal Nila Theyuthe.

She was the choice of veteran Pandit Ravi Shankar for his immortal compositions in  Meera -Hindi film made in 1979.  Similarly the classical genius K V Mahadevan made the Thyagaraja kritis popular among the masses with his Shankarabharanam , Telugu film, ably assisted by VJ and SPB. She has the distinction of getting three National awards for best singing -all accorded to her for film songs with a strong classical base: Ezhu Swarangalukkul for Tamil film Aboorva Ragangal, her songs in two Telugu films Shankarabharanam & Swati Kiranam ( Aanathi Neeyara is something from the heavens!).

Although she was very actively singing in the 70’s & 80 ‘s in Tamil films, but later on had sung lesser . To some extent she chose to sing only those songs that were to her liking and in the later years the lyrics had turned more unpalatable for her and she preferred to focus in other south Indian languages and more devotional songs.

If I have to do a proper justice to her vast repertoire , I have to divide this blog into two parts-one for her ‘out of the world’ solos and second for the exquisite duets that she sang with almost all the male singers of that time.

Here is my part 1 that has some of her great solo songs-many are quite famous but I have also tried to include few rarely heard gems , that I could discover while researching for this blog.  They are listed in chronological order , with song-film-year-music director -lyricist mentioned in that order.

1. Malligai Yen Mannan Mayangum-Dheerga Sumangali-1974-M S Vishwanathan-Kannadasan

What a sensation this song created in 1974 and even now after 5 decades, whenever I hear this it always creates a pleasant feeling. MSV’s tunes always had that intrinsic melody that are timeless. Although VJ sang few before this , it is this song that made everyone sit up and notice the new singer in Tamil films. Of course by this time, her debut Bole Re Papihara in the  1971 Hindi film Guddi had made her popular throughout the country.

2. Malligai Mullai Poopanthal-Anbe Aaruyire-1975-M S Vishwanathan-Vaali

Somehow the word Malligai turned out to be a good omen for VJ and this one also , coming in the next year , became quite famous. The way she takes up the first charanam in those typical high octaves and does that little jugglery with the line at the end “ Amarndhiruppaal indha mana magalae” is something outstanding.

3. Muthamizhil Paada Vanthen-Melnatu Marumagal-1975-Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan-Ulundurpettai Shanmugam

Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan, apart from being a wizard with the violin , composed music for many films and had his own unique style. One of VJ’s greatest strengths was her perfect Tamizh diction and the lyrics of the song complement this. Written by Ulundurpettai Shanmugam, who , in his early years was  a staunch atheist, but after a severe illness , got cured after having prayed to Lord Muruga ( as advised by someone close to him) and became a great devotee and later wrote hundreds of devotional songs. He had even translated many hymns , bhajans from Sanskrit to Tamil .VJ also excels in the devotional genre and so we have a gem of a song.

4. Yen Ullam Azhagana Vellithirai-Cinema Paithiyam-1975-Shankar-Ganesh-Kannadasan

For VJ , it must a unique thing that after her immensely successful Bole Re Papihara in Hindi , she got the  opportunity to sing its Tamizh equivalent when the Hindi film Guddi was remade as Cinema Paithiyam. The music directors Shankar-Ganesh . Actually Shankar and Ganesh started off as a duo , but after the sudden demise of Shankar, Ganesh carried forward with Shankar’s  name always prefixed and were known for some of their brilliant compositions. Ganesh had VJ as one of their most prominent female playback singers. Their tunes were sometimes brilliant , but at  times they used to compose forgettable tunes also. However this one does a great justice to the original Bole Re Papihara , though not an exact imitation of the tune.

5. Ezhu swarangalukkul-Aboorva Raagangal-1975-M S Vishwanathan-Kannadasan

Can someone ever do any justification in describing  this song? This is one song that will remain forever as long as there is music in this world. VJ got her first National award for best playback singing , though MSV , as usual gets left out. In terms of composition, lyrics(need a separate blog to write about Kannadasan’s master work!-I had done a humble tribute to him in my blog about Kannadasan) and singing, this remains a masterpiece. In spite of being relegated to a title song (cannot understand why  K. Balachandar who usually does great picturization of songs decided like this!), with no situation to enhance the mood of the song, it is sheer genius of MSV, VJ & Kannadasan that elevates this song to its great heights. The classical training of VJ provides the strong foundation to this song . I can go on and on…better listen to this and get yourself immersed in the sheer delight of this song.

6. Nadamennum Kovilile-Manmatha Leelai-1975-M S Vishwanathan-Kannadasan

One more gem from the same trio-MSV , Kannadasan and VJ and if we add K Balachandar it becomes a quad! However, once again, I am personally disappointed with the picturization of this song , that seems a bit out of place , considering the excellent lyrics by the Kaviarasar. Especially , the class seen in the composition , lyrics and singing is so superlative that the visuals are a big let-down. VJ renders a stunning Sri Ranjani raagam based number with the play of swarams , and when we have MSV’s wizardry in the orchestration, it is just bliss. I have consciously provided the link to the audio of the song as the picturization doesn’t do any justice at all to this masterpiece and in fact spoils it in my humble opinion.

7. Sugam Aaaiyarm En Ninaivile-Mayangukiral Oru Madhu-1975-Vijay Bhaskar-Panchu Arunachalam

In the 70’s decade, there were many music directors trying to create their own space and Vijay Bhaskar was one among them. A veteran of the  Kannada film world , he had  composed few great songs for Tamizh films also. Many of his tunes were different from the prevailing styles and he had composed some wonderful songs for VJ. Compared to the heavily classical based songs of VJ , this showcases her style in a lighter music.

8. Paadum Vande Parthathunda—Kalangalil Aval Vasantham-1976-Vijay Bhaskar-Kannadasan

My selection has 3 songs composed by Vijay Bhaskar and all are rare gems. I was fortunate to come across this rare song after ages, while looking at best songs of VJ.

9. Manamagale Un Manavaraikolam– Kalangalil Aval Vasantham-1976-Vijay Bhaskar-Kannadasan

Vijay Bhaskar proves his mastery in composing an intricate tune and VJ executes it with a skill that is truly amazing. It is amazing to observe VJ matching the pitch of the nadaswaram step by step just like that famous song of S Janaki from Konjum Salangai-Singara Velane Deva. Pity that songs like this have remained mostly unheard and appreciated.

10. Pongum Kadal Osai-Meenava Nanban-1977-M S Vishwanathan-Vaali

Personally I would rate this among the top 5 songs of VJ. What a scintillating composition by MSV and how beautifully she has rendered it.  Right at the beginning , the way she starts off with the line “ Pongum Kadalosai” shows her mastery and MSV , uniquely sets the tone with a distinct rhythm pattern. If I am not mistaken the vibraphone is used prominently in this along with tabla and not to forget the flute. The clarity , flow like a mountain stream and the sweetness in voice at higher notes-all make this VJ’s priceless gem.

11. Veru Idam Thedi Povalo-Sila Nerangalil Sila Manithargal-1977-M S Vishwanathan-Jayakanthan

An unconventional and bold theme , this film had just two songs-one rendered by the master MSV himself-Kandathai sollugiren Ungal Kathaiyai sollugiren and this song by VJ. Superbly written by Jayakanthan himself , the song depicts the struggle of a woman, who has an unfortunate incident when a stranger offers her a lift on a rainy day and summarizes her the story at the end of the film. MSV’s tune and VJ’s emotive singing brings forth the pain of the heroine.

12. Aalamarathu Kili-Paalabhishegam-1977-Shankar-Ganesh-A Maruthakasi

As I mentioned earlier, Shankar Ganesh could come out with some brilliant tunes now and then and for VJ they always created something magical. One interesting fact about this song is that the legendary lyricist A Maruthakasi , who had worked mainly in the 50’s and 60’s had written this . As usual VJ starts off at a pitch that she pulls off with an apparent ease that seems unbelievable.

13. Nitham Nitham Nellu Choru-Mullum Malarum-1978-Ilayaraja-Gangai Amaran

Although Ilayaraja had few songs for VJ as compared to other music directors, he had given her some iconic songs that gave opportunity to showcase her versatility. Till this song happened, no one could believe that VJ can sing a typical  folk song. For Ilayaraja, known for using a grand orchestra , a simple morsing and ghatam was enough to create this “ ultimate foodie” song. The way VJ makes a sound that one would while relishing a tasty food is fabulous!

14. Ennullil Yengo Yengum Geetham-Rosaappu Ravikkaikari-1979-Ilayaraja-Gangai Amaran

The four songs of Ilayaraja that I have selected here are iconic and brings out the immense variety in VJ’s singing. If Nitham nitham nellu choru was folksy, Ennullil Yengo had a touch of a ghazal coupled with a Hindustani classical feel. The picturization , though crucial to the movie, somehow spoils the song’s pristine quality and personally I always prefer to listen to rather than watch ( like how I enjoy almost 95% of my favourite songs!).

15. Naane Naana Yarothana-Azhage Unnai Aardikkiren-1980-Ilayaraja-Vaali

If someone had any doubts if VJ can sing songs like this, she proved them all wrong! This was not her regular style at all , but just look at the way she rendered a song that comes to everyone’s mind when her top songs are listed out. Ilayaraja , as usual , comes out with a great tune and orchestration, with the  guitar, violins, saxophone all  creating an evergreen song.

16. Yen Kalyana Vaibogam- Azhage Unnai Aardikkiren-1980-Ilayaraja-Vaali

From the same film Azhage Unnai Aardikkiren, Ilayaraja creates another masterpiece for VJ , this time more in line with her strong points. The charanams are simply outstanding.

17. Megame Megame-Paalaivana Cholai-1981-Shankar-Ganesh( Jagjit Singh) -Vairamuthu

Ghazals are usually rare in Tamizh films and when Shankar Ganesh took inspiration from the famous ghazal xomposed by Jagjit Singh ( Tum Nahin Gam Nahin) , it was natural they opted for VJ. Having been well trained in the genre and also with her strong Hindustani classical music, VJ, if I may take the liberty to say, matched the rendition of the ghazla maestro Jagjit Singh and had even surpassed in few places with her intricate alaapanai. One should credit lyricist Vairamuthu for writing to a preset tune with so meaningful words and Shankar Ganesh for the superb orchestration.

18. Muthu Muthu Therottam Ennai-Aaniver-1981-Shankar Ganesh-Vaali

One is reminded of the legendary music composer O P Nayyar , with the guitar used as part of rhythm . A delightful , lilting rendered by VJ so beautifully.

19. Yaarathu Sollamal Nenjalli Povathu-Nenjamellam Neeye-1983-Shankar Ganesh-Vairamuthu

The journey of SG with VJ continues even into the 80’s and this is a very rare gem and a sweet melody . This song also has a feel of a ghazal and VJ does a great job once again.

20. Ulagengum Nam Veedu-Pathini Pen-1993-M S Vishwanathan- Pulamaipithan

I came to know of this song that many would not have heard thanks to an interview of VJ for a TV channel. VJ narrated in that interview that once the recording was over , MSV complimented her stating  that he had composed the tune with so much of effort and time and she had rendered that with so much of ease. Great compliment from a genius composer to a legendary singer. I have not seen the visuals of this song but it appears that the actor starts off singing in Hindi and then once the crowd demands she must sing in Tamizh, switches over to Tamizh. The alaapanais in this song are just out of the world!

I will continue Part 2 soon , with some of her excellent duet songs….

Acknowledgements and Disclaimer:

I sincerely thank the publishers of following  Internet sources   for the information that I could gather for this article:

1. You Tube
2. Wikipedia
3. Ms Subashree Thanikachalam’s QFR series in YouTube

The songs mentioned are from the popular, public domain and have been embedded here   only for the listening pleasure of the music lovers. This blog does not claim any copyright over them, which rests with the respective owners of the rights The photograph is taken from the internet, duly recognizing the full copyrights for the same to the  original creator or the site where they were originally displayed .This blog does not claim any copyright over them, which rests with the respective owners of the rights.