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Vani Jayaram
Vani Jairam in 2009
Background information
Born	Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India (1945-11-30) 30 November 1945 (age 66)
Genres	playback singing
Occupations	Singer
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	1971-current
Website	Official website

Vani Jayaram (born November 30, 1945 in Tamil Nadu) is a prominent Indian female playback singer. She has thrice won the National Film Awards for Best Female Playback Singer^[1]. She is also acclaimed for her in-depth knowledge of both forms of Indian classical music : Carnatic and Hindustani.

She has recorded more than 8,000 film songs in 14 different languages including Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi and Hindi.^[1]

Personal life and background[link]

Vani Jayaram was born in Vellore in Tamil Nadu, in a family of musicians. Her mother is the disciple of Ranga Ramunaja Iyengar, a great veena exponent. Kadaloor Sreenivasa Iyengar, who taught Vani’s sister music, was fascinated by her observation and grasping power. He taught her a few Dikshitar kritis when she was hardly five.^[2] The fifth daughter in a family of six daughters and three sons, Vani always secretly yearned for a career in film playback singing. Considered to be a child prodigy, Vani Jayaram claims to have recognized the different ragas of Indian classical music before the age of five. Her voice was first heard on All India Radio, Madras, at the age of eight.

Vani Jayaram studied Carnatic music under the tutelage of Kadalur Srinivasa Iyengar, T. R. Balasubramanian and R. S. Mani. Her Hindustani classical music guru was Ustad Abdul Rahman Khan.

After her marriage to Jayaram she settled in Mumbai, where she realized her dream.

Career[link]

In 1971, she realized her childhood ambition of becoming a playback singer when Hindi film music director Vasant Desai chose her voice for the Hindi feature film Guddi. She recorded three songs for Guddi, and "Bol Re Papi Hara," a song based on the Hindustani raga Miyan Malhar, instantly made her an household name in India. For that song she was awarded the Tansen Samman (for best classical-based song in a Hindi film), the Lions International Best Promising Singer award, the All India Cinegoers Association award, and the All India Film-goers Association award for the Best Playback Singer in 1971. She went on to sing a few songs each for music directors of Hindi cinema, including Chitragupt, Naushad (a classical song in Pakeezah and a duet with Asha Bhosle in Aaina), Madan Mohan (a duet with Kishore Kumar in the film Ek Mutthi Aasmaan), O.P. Nayyar (several songs from the film Khoon Ka Badla Khoon including duets with Mohammed Rafi and also with Uttara Kelkar and Pushpa Pagdhare), R. D. Burman (a duet with Mukesh in Chhalia), Kalyanji Anandji, Laxmikant Pyarelal, and Jaidev (a duet with Manna Dey in Parinay and a solo in Solwa Saawan). Her songs in Meera (1979), composed by Pandit Ravi Shankar, won her the Filmfare Award.^[3]

Around 1974, she shifted her base to Chennai and soon became a sought-after singer in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam cinema. She worked with almost all the leading music directors of south namely M. S. Viswanathan, M. B. Sreenivasan, K. V. Mahadevan, M. K. Arjunan, Jerry Amaldev, Salil Chowdhary and Ilayaraaja. With the Academy award winner, A. R. Rahman, she recorded a duet with S. P. Balasubramanyam in the song "Sugam sugam athu" for the film Vandicholai Chinnarasu in 1994.

Besides Hindi and Tamil, Vani Jayaram has recordings in other languages of India. These include some songs in Gujarati, Marathi, Marwari, Haryanvi, Bengali and Tulu, and a huge repertoire in Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu and Oriya. For her work in some of these languages, she has been awarded many prestigious awards, among them are Best Female Playback Singer for states of Gujarat (1975), Tamil Nadu (1980) and Orissa (1984).

One of her most famous Marathi songs, "Runanubandhachya," is a duet with the classical Hindustani singer Kumar Gandharva. This song was composed by Vani's mentor Vasant Desai for a Marathi drama called Dev Deenaghari Dhaavlaa. The lyrics were written by Bal Kolhatkar.

Awards[link]

Vani Jayaram was chosen for the Indian President's National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer of 1975, for her work in M. S. Viswanathan's Apoorva Raagangal. Shankarabharanam (Telugu), the film scored by K. V. Mahadevan, gave Vani Jayaram her second National Award as Best Playback Singer of 1980. Once again, she was awarded her third National Award for Best Playback Singer of 1991 for K. V. Mahadevan's Swathi Kiranam.

Her songs in the Pandit Ravi Shankar scored film Meera brought her the Film World (1979) Cine Herald (1979) and Filmfare Award (1980) for Best Playback Singer for "Mere To Giridhar Gopal".

She was awarded Tanzen Award in 1972, which she won for "Bole Re Pappihara" (from the film Guddi), one of the most popular songs in her career.^[1]

She is also the youngest artist to be awarded the Sangeet Peet Samman.^{[citation needed]}

Other titles[link]

• 2004: Kamukara Award ^[4]
• 2007: South Indian Meera ^[5]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Vani Jayaram at the Internet Movie Database
• All 583 Malayalam songs of Vani Jairam
• Vani Jairam at MSI

[ml:വാണി ജയറാം]

Vani ვანი
Vani. View from the Vani Archaeological Museum.
Vani ვანი Location of vani in Georgia
Coordinates: 42°05′02.18″N 42°30′43.01″E / 42.0839389°N 42.5119472°E / 42.0839389; 42.5119472
Country	Georgia
Mkhare	Imereti
Population (2002)
• Total	4, 600
Time zone	Georgian Time (UTC+4)

Vani (Georgian: ვანი) is a town in Imereti region of western Georgia, at the Sulori river (a tributary of the Rioni river), 41 km southwest from the regional capital Kutaisi. The town with the population of 4,600 (2002 est.) is an administrative center of the Municipality of Vani comprising also 43 neighbouring villages (total area – 557 km²; population – 34,000, 2002 est.).

Systematic archaeological studies (N.Khoshtaria, O.Lordkipanidze) carried out in the Vani environs since 1947 revealed the remnants of a rich city of the ancient power of Colchis. The name of this ancient settlement is still unknown but four distinct stages of uninterrupted occupation have been identified. The first phase is dated to the 8th-7th centuries BC. In this period Vani is presumed to have been a major cultic centre. The second phase - end of the 7th and beginning of the 6th to the first half of the 4th century BC - is represented by cultural layers, remains of wooden structures, sacrificial altars cut in the rocky ground, and rich burials. It is assumed that on this stage Vani was the centre of a political-administrative unit of the kingdom of Colchis. The third phase covers the second half of the 4th - first half of the 3rd century BC. It is represented largely by rich burials, remains of stone structures. To the fourth phase (the 3rd-mid-1st cent. BC) belong defensive walls, the so-called small gate, sanctuaries and cultic buildings (temples, altars sacrificial platforms), and the remains of a foundry for casting bronze statues. It is assumed that in the 3rd-1st centuries BC. Vani was a templar city. According to the archaeological data, the city was destroyed in the mid-1st century BC. Subsequently, Vani declined to a village and was officially granted a status of a town only in 1981.

In town Vani there is an interesting museum (founded in 1985), where some unique pieces of the ancient Colchis are exhibited.

International relations[link]

Twin towns — Sister cities[link]

• Fallon, Nevada, USA
• Prosser, Washington, USA - From 2010 ^[1]
• Amvrosiivka, Ukraine - From 2011 ^[2]

Notes[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Lordkipanidze O., "Vani, An Ancient City of Colchis." Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies. 32(2): 151-195, 16 plates. Durham, USA, 1991.

External links[link]