You’ve got to watch her closely to realise that the enthralling voice is actually in action. Even the toughest of refrains cannot make her move her head or hands ever so slightly — till date her statuesque pose as much as her scintillatin g strains leave watchers wonderstruck.
Meet S. Janaki, the effervescent and cheerful (“I’m always young at heart.”) play back singer, and winner of four National awards (besides several other laurels), who’s been singing continuously for five decades, in 17 languages, and is still going strong! In April, S.Janaki completed five decades of a successful singing career that began when she was 19.
“Her debut was before G. Ramanathan’s time and she has recently recorded songs for composers Dhina and Oviyan! An entire gamut of creators,” says an awe-struck Y.G.Mahendra, actor and dramatist. He’s an organiser of an elaborate function to be hosted in her honour at Erode on July 1. “Why should the mega event be city-centric? She’s got innumerable fans here too,” the people there argued and hence the venue. A 10,000 plus crowd is expected to witness the event.
It is a rewarding two-hour session at the Janaki household in Chennai, where the singer regales you with a medley of her numbers peppered with interesting anecdotes. Kalpana Ranjith, an up and coming singer pitches in with her observations of the senior. “She’s my inspiration,” says Kalpana.
The first song she recorded after completion of her 50 years as singer was for the Kannada film, ‘Premigagi Na’ —a duet with Hariharan. “I probably can’t hold my breath for as long as I could 30 years ago, but my vocals are intact and I continue with stage shows and playback singing,” she smiles. Recently, she had been to Australia for a show. Son Muralikrishna accompanies her everywhere (“Thanks to her I’ve visited a whole lot of countries,” he laughs) “You have singers who’ve reached a crescendo and have faded out with time. You see many mushrooming and going into oblivion, all in a jiffy. But she has been consistent throughout,” says Mahendra.
It was Janaki’s husband Ramprasad who first spotted her potential and relentlessly worked to see her scale heights. And scale she did, despite the persisting breathing problem which has been her companion for nearly 45 years now! “‘If you didn’t have such abundant talent I wouldn’t allow you to strain yourself,’ he would say,” Janaki wistfully recalls.Then & now
With so many years of recording experience behind her how does she find the present practice of singers and crew walking into a studio alone and recording their parts? “Earlier the assemblage of orchestra and singers made the work spot vibrant. Now, you heave and sigh romantically for a duet not even knowing who your singing partner would be,” she laughs. “But all of them have immense potential. As long as I do my job well, nothing bothers me,” she adds. She hums the Vidyasagar masterpiece, ‘Malarae Mounama…’ and Rahman’s unforgettable ‘Nenjinilae …’ to exemplify the point. The former was filmed on Arjun. “He came with a bouquet after the recording,” she remembers.
Talking of her romantic pieces reminds you of the ones she sang for the late sexy siren ‘Silk’ Smitha. “I couldn’t believe the seductive overtures in the ‘Naethu Rathiri Yamma …’ duet (shot on Kamal and Smitha) were actually Janaki’s,” says Mahendra, as the two chorus in laughter. “There have also been those who asked me why I had to sing such numbers? ‘Don’t you have enough money?’ wrote an angry fan. But a playback singer should be able to sing for any character. It’s God’s gift that from a small child to a hag, my voice can adapt itself to suit any age,” Janaki explains. Are the romantic moans — the ‘hmmm’ and ‘ha’— taught by the composers and directors? “They would just tell us to add ‘masala’ at certain points in the song. The ‘masala’ is our own,” she laughs aloud. The ace singer is a composer too.
Her numbers which she feels have been well filmed… “Many. ‘Chinna Chinna Vanna Kuyil …’ (‘Mouna Ragam.’), ‘Senthoora Poovae …’ (‘16 Vayadhinilae’) and so on. “Don’t forget that masterpiece of yours, ‘Chinnanjiriya Vannaparavai,’” Mahendra reminds her. And who can forget the memorable ‘Singaravelanae’ from ‘Konjum Salangai’? “Strangely, Tamil offers became less after that hit,” says Janaki. M.S.Viswanathan gave her lustrous hits, such as ‘Sumai Thaangi’ and ‘Policekaaran Magal,’ but it was only after Ilaiyaraja and his debut film ‘Annakkili,’ that her career in Tamil really zoomed. “I had known Ilaiyaraja from the days he was a guitarist with composer G.K.Venkatesh.” she tells you.
Janaki’s allergy to certain drugs has led her to the brink quite a few times. “Many of my hits have been recorded when I was terribly ill. I remember when I was singing ‘Thookam Un Kangalai …’ (‘Aalaya Mani’) I was nearly choking and my eyes seemed to be popping out. The song was okayed and my husband rushed me straight to hospital. I could never have managed another take,” she shudders. “Does the melody show her agony even slightly?” Mahendra’s rhetorical poser echoes what you feel. Once when we were singing for ‘Sankarabharanam’ SPB gave me a pain killer. I hesitantly took it. In a matter of minutes my eyes got swollen and I started choking. You should have seen the fear on SPB’s face,” she laughs. Fan support
“My fans are my life. Many of them are like my own children. It’s all right if it makes Murali jealous,” she looks at her son with a glint in her eyes. She mentions the girl in Tiruppur who’ll listen to nobody’s voice but hers, the boy in Australia who was in tears when he couldn’t get a ticket for her show, Iqbal who sent her prasadam from the Samayapuram temple when she was in hospital, Maharajan, Badri, the ambulance driver who rushed her to hospital during the last crisis without taking his leg from the accelerator saying he loved her music … “Why, when I told Sneha about the Erode event she said she has to be there, because she just loves Janaki’s voice. Actors Lakshmi and Manorama are also joining us only because of their admiration for the singer,” says Mahendra, as Janaki joyously looks at you and asks: “You’ll also be there, won’t you.”
Fifty not out
The golden jubilee, of S. Janaki's career as playback singer, will be celebrated at Erode on July 1. The legend will present some of her songs herself.
Meet S. Janaki, the effervescent and cheerful (“I’m always young at heart.”) play back singer, and winner of four National awards (besides several other laurels), who’s been singing continuously for five decades, in 17 languages, and is still going strong! In April, S.Janaki completed five decades of a successful singing career that began when she was 19.
“Her debut was before G. Ramanathan’s time and she has recently recorded songs for composers Dhina and Oviyan! An entire gamut of creators,” says an awe-struck Y.G.Mahendra, actor and dramatist. He’s an organiser of an elaborate function to be hosted in her honour at Erode on July 1. “Why should the mega event be city-centric? She’s got innumerable fans here too,” the people there argued and hence the venue. A 10,000 plus crowd is expected to witness the event.
It is a rewarding two-hour session at the Janaki household in Chennai, where the singer regales you with a medley of her numbers peppered with interesting anecdotes. Kalpana Ranjith, an up and coming singer pitches in with her observations of the senior. “She’s my inspiration,” says Kalpana.
The first song she recorded after completion of her 50 years as singer was for the Kannada film, ‘Premigagi Na’ —a duet with Hariharan. “I probably can’t hold my breath for as long as I could 30 years ago, but my vocals are intact and I continue with stage shows and playback singing,” she smiles. Recently, she had been to Australia for a show. Son Muralikrishna accompanies her everywhere (“Thanks to her I’ve visited a whole lot of countries,” he laughs) “You have singers who’ve reached a crescendo and have faded out with time. You see many mushrooming and going into oblivion, all in a jiffy. But she has been consistent throughout,” says Mahendra.
It was Janaki’s husband Ramprasad who first spotted her potential and relentlessly worked to see her scale heights. And scale she did, despite the persisting breathing problem which has been her companion for nearly 45 years now! “‘If you didn’t have such abundant talent I wouldn’t allow you to strain yourself,’ he would say,” Janaki wistfully recalls.Then & now
With so many years of recording experience behind her how does she find the present practice of singers and crew walking into a studio alone and recording their parts? “Earlier the assemblage of orchestra and singers made the work spot vibrant. Now, you heave and sigh romantically for a duet not even knowing who your singing partner would be,” she laughs. “But all of them have immense potential. As long as I do my job well, nothing bothers me,” she adds. She hums the Vidyasagar masterpiece, ‘Malarae Mounama…’ and Rahman’s unforgettable ‘Nenjinilae …’ to exemplify the point. The former was filmed on Arjun. “He came with a bouquet after the recording,” she remembers.
Talking of her romantic pieces reminds you of the ones she sang for the late sexy siren ‘Silk’ Smitha. “I couldn’t believe the seductive overtures in the ‘Naethu Rathiri Yamma …’ duet (shot on Kamal and Smitha) were actually Janaki’s,” says Mahendra, as the two chorus in laughter. “There have also been those who asked me why I had to sing such numbers? ‘Don’t you have enough money?’ wrote an angry fan. But a playback singer should be able to sing for any character. It’s God’s gift that from a small child to a hag, my voice can adapt itself to suit any age,” Janaki explains. Are the romantic moans — the ‘hmmm’ and ‘ha’— taught by the composers and directors? “They would just tell us to add ‘masala’ at certain points in the song. The ‘masala’ is our own,” she laughs aloud. The ace singer is a composer too.
Her numbers which she feels have been well filmed… “Many. ‘Chinna Chinna Vanna Kuyil …’ (‘Mouna Ragam.’), ‘Senthoora Poovae …’ (‘16 Vayadhinilae’) and so on. “Don’t forget that masterpiece of yours, ‘Chinnanjiriya Vannaparavai,’” Mahendra reminds her. And who can forget the memorable ‘Singaravelanae’ from ‘Konjum Salangai’? “Strangely, Tamil offers became less after that hit,” says Janaki. M.S.Viswanathan gave her lustrous hits, such as ‘Sumai Thaangi’ and ‘Policekaaran Magal,’ but it was only after Ilaiyaraja and his debut film ‘Annakkili,’ that her career in Tamil really zoomed. “I had known Ilaiyaraja from the days he was a guitarist with composer G.K.Venkatesh.” she tells you.
Janaki’s allergy to certain drugs has led her to the brink quite a few times. “Many of my hits have been recorded when I was terribly ill. I remember when I was singing ‘Thookam Un Kangalai …’ (‘Aalaya Mani’) I was nearly choking and my eyes seemed to be popping out. The song was okayed and my husband rushed me straight to hospital. I could never have managed another take,” she shudders. “Does the melody show her agony even slightly?” Mahendra’s rhetorical poser echoes what you feel. Once when we were singing for ‘Sankarabharanam’ SPB gave me a pain killer. I hesitantly took it. In a matter of minutes my eyes got swollen and I started choking. You should have seen the fear on SPB’s face,” she laughs. Fan support
“My fans are my life. Many of them are like my own children. It’s all right if it makes Murali jealous,” she looks at her son with a glint in her eyes. She mentions the girl in Tiruppur who’ll listen to nobody’s voice but hers, the boy in Australia who was in tears when he couldn’t get a ticket for her show, Iqbal who sent her prasadam from the Samayapuram temple when she was in hospital, Maharajan, Badri, the ambulance driver who rushed her to hospital during the last crisis without taking his leg from the accelerator saying he loved her music … “Why, when I told Sneha about the Erode event she said she has to be there, because she just loves Janaki’s voice. Actors Lakshmi and Manorama are also joining us only because of their admiration for the singer,” says Mahendra, as Janaki joyously looks at you and asks: “You’ll also be there, won’t you.”
Fifty not out
The golden jubilee, of S. Janaki's career as playback singer, will be celebrated at Erode on July 1. The legend will present some of her songs herself.
No comments:
Post a Comment