Profile of Vani Jairam - Vani Jairam, who has rendered dedicated service of three decades to the cause of Indian Music, has exhibited extraordinary versatility in handling different regional music systems of India with great success and approval in over 14 languages.

As a child prodigy of two years, Vani could distinguish different musical notes and ragas. She received training in Carnatic Music from specialized musicians. Vani's marriage to Jairam took her to Bombay - the centre of Hindi Film Industry. She received intensive training in Hindustani Music from Ustad Abdul Rehman. Nearly 18 hours of daily routine of learning and riaz, enabled Vani to assimilate the intricate techniques of Thumri, Bhajan and Ghazal singing. She gave her first public concert in Bombay on 1 March 1969. Vani was invited by many leading organisations to give Light Classical Music concerts.

The veteran Music Director, Vasant Desai, wanted to listen to her music and called her for recording of Marathi songs the very next day. This was followed by a regular flow of recording of Marathi songs. Pandit Kumar Gandharva agreed to record duet songs with Vani as he was impressed by her fine tuned voice. For almost a year, Vani toured the length and breadth of Maharashtra along with Vasant Desai rendering Marathi songs.

Vasant Desai, who was signed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee to give music for the film 'GUDDI' recorded all the songs of the film in Vani's voice. Vani's song 'Bol Re Papi Hara' brought her five Awards including the prestigious 'TANSEN AWARD'.

For the next two years, Vani was busy singing for all the popular Music Directors like Naushad, Madan Mohan, O. P. Nayyar, R. D. Burman, Kalyanji Anandji, Laxmikant Pyarelal and many others. Vani was also singing for regional films in Marathi, Gujarati, Marwari and Bhojpuri and had the privilege of singing duets with stalwarts like Mohamed Rafi, Mukesh, Kishore Kumar, Manna Dey and Mahendra Kapoor.

She also became popular in the South Indian industry, singing in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam for top Music Directors like M.S. Viswanathan, K.V..Mahadevan, Vijay Bhaskar, M.K. Arjunan and Dakshinamurthy in addition to recording Malayalam songs for Salil Choudhury.

Vani received her First National Award for a Tamil film in 1976 and subsequently two more National Awards in 1980 and 1992 for Telugu songs. Vani was also honoured by the State Governments of Gujarat, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh with Awards in the Best Playback Singer category. Vani received the Filmfare Award for her songs in the film 'MEERA' under the music Direction of Pandit Ravi Shankar. Vani, who has recorded nearly 8,000 film songs in three decades, has always kept in touch with the live audience through her stage concerts all over the country and abroad.  [ Continues ]