Birthday Greetings to the legendary, multi-lingual playback singer Vani Jairam, who turned 73 today.

Birthday Greetings to the legendary, multi-lingual playback singer Vani Jairam, who turned 73 today.

Vani Jairam, who started her career over four decades ago, has proved her prowess in many a genre of music from films to ghazals and bhajans to classical. Her voice has, indeed, stood the test of time.

Her journey in the music industry began in 1971 with the Hindi film, Guddi. Its song “Bole re papi hara” set a milestone for its music director Vasant Desai and the singer Vani Jairam who was widely appreciated for the par excellence rendition. “Bol Re Papi Hara” catapulted Vani Jairam to dizzying heights overnight. After Guddi, Vani Jairam had a beeline of composers wanting to sign her up for their works. Another milestone in the graph was Gulzar’s ‘Meera’ (1979) that had Hema Malini playing the title role. Working with none other than Pandit Ravi Shankar, the album of songs that comprised bhajans explored Vani Jairam’s forte-Hindustani music. In Hindi, she also sang in films like Pakeezah, Parinay and Grahan.

Vani Jairam was a tremendously talented singer who did not get her due in Hindi films. However, Vani Jairam enjoyed a long and fulfilling career — just not in Hindi films. The singer found tremendous success in films of other Indian languages including Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada, where she sang many unforgettable songs.

Her numerous awards are an indication of how diverse her discography is — National Film Awards for Tamil and Telugu films and State Awards for Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati and Odiya films.