Veteran playback singer Vani Jairam passes away

CHENNAI: Veteran playback singer Vani Jairam (78) has passed away. She collapsed at her residence in Chennai today afternoon. She recently completed fifty years in the world of music. Vani Jairam received Padma award last week.

Born in 1945 in Vellore, Tamil Nadu, Vani Jairam entered the world of music through Bollywood. Her original name is Kalaivani. She started gaining attention with the 1971 Hindi film ‘Guddi’. She sang songs in 18 languages including Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu. She has won the National Award for Best Female Singer thrice. She was awarded India's third highest civilian honor, the Padma Bhushan. The singer passed away before receiving the honour.

She became active in the South Indian music after moving to Chennai in 1974. On January 31, 1973, she sang her first Malayalam song 'Sourayudham Vidarnu' composed by ONV Kurup for the movie 'Swapnam' and composed by Salil Chowdhury. She continued to sing many Malayalam songs.

Vani Jairam is one of the earliest singers who came from another language and received the love of Malayalis. After Salil Chowdhury, she got opportunities to sing for many Malayalam music directors including MS Viswanathan, Dakshinamoorthy, Devarajan Master, Arjunan Master, AT Ummer, Kannur Rajan, KJ Joy and Johnson.

From 1975, Vani Jairam and S Janaki were prominent singers in Malayalam movies for a decade. Vani returned to Malayalam after a long time through the song 'Olanjalikuruvi', music directed by Gopi Sundar in the film ‘1983.’ She last sang for the film ‘Pulimurugan’ and ‘Action Hero Biju’. ‘Manathe marikurumbe’ and ‘Pookal panineer pookal’ were the songs.

Vani Jaiaram has said that the opportunity to sing a song in Malayalam for the first time on the tune of Salil Chowdhury was the greatest blessing from God. Although she is no more, she will always be remembered for her contributions to the world of music.