Singer Vani Jayaram dies
She had recorded over 10,000 songs in a career spanning five decades
Popular Indian playback singer Vani Jayaram, who has recorded at least 10,000 songs in multiple languages in a career spanning over five decades, died on Saturday. She was 78.
The singer, reportedly, died after sustaining injuries to her head at her residence in Chennai. Jayaram is the recipient of many an honour, including the Padma Bhushan, India’s third-highest civilian award. She had won the national film award for best playback singer thrice, and awards from many state governments. In terms of versatility, career length and impact on the country’s cinema and pop-culture, Jairam’s nearest peers are the legendary singers SP Balasubrahmanyam and Lata Mangeshkar.
Jayaram née Kalaivani has also recorded thousands of devotional songs and performed concerts across the world regularly.
Some of her most popular songs include Bol re pappi hara... from the 1971 Bollywood film Guddi and Kelviyin Nayagane and Yezhu Swarangal from the landmark Tamil film Apoorva Ragangal (1975)— for which she won her first national award.
Born in 1945 in Tamil Nadu, Jayaram made her singing debut in Guddi. Jayaram had recorded three songs for the film, directed by the yesteryear great Hrishikesh Mukherjee, but it was her soulful rendition of the song Bol re pappi hara.. that made her an overnight sensation. She would go on to sing in India’s multiple film industries and forge collaborations with composers, including MS Viswanathan, KV Mahadevan, GK Venkatesh, Naushad, OP Nayyar, V Dakshinamoorthy, Rajan-Nagendra, Vasant Desai, Ouseppachan and Ilayaraja.
Jayaram has crooned alongside many of her leading peers — Balasubrahmanyam, PB Sreenivas, P Jayachandran, KJ Yesudas, Mohammed Rafi, Dr Rajkumar, among others.