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ROLA, THE young musician from Lebanon, was stunned.
"How did you do it?" she kept asking. Moments
earlier she had requested Vani Jairam to teach her a
few lines of a Hindi song. "Yes, provided you teach
me one in your language," had been the singer's
reply. Rola obliged — it was her own composition in
Arabic, and Vani as is her wont, could sing it
almost at once — with melody, diction, intonation,
stress and rhythm intact. It was not for nothing
that Vani was acknowledged as a prodigy, who at the
age of two could recognise ragas with ease and at
four could sing them with élan. The three-time
National Best Singer awardee was recently honoured
with the Kamukara Award for her `outstanding
contribution to film music in general and in all the
four South Indian languages in particular.' Veterans
like Adoor Gopalakrishnan and M. S. Viswanathan have
been recipients of the prestigious award instituted
in the name of Malayalam singer Kamukara
Purushottaman, by the Kamukara Foundation.
Vani may not be singing in films these days but
she is busy as ever as she continues to blaze a
glorious trail as one of the best bhajan singers in
the country. "From a very young age I have been
singing bhajans and ashtapadis, abhangs and ghazals.
As early as 1969 I participated in ghazal sammelans,
which had singers like Purushottam Das Jalota and
Hari Om Sharan Brahmachari. Even at the peak of my
career I was simultaneously recording devotional
songs ... so the genre is not something I've taken
up recently," smiles Vani. The ace singer is
constantly travelling to all parts of the country
for bhajan and other concerts. "I'm leaving for
Andhra this week and from there it will be Kerala
... " Vani reels out her itinerary.
A musical session
Can an interview be described as scintillating?
This one can. Not because the person opposite you is
a singer par excellence but because every time she
wishes to make a point about a particular number,
she sings it for you. So whether it is a Gujarati
twang that transports you to the region of Kutch she
is touching upon, or the idiom of Classical music
she is referring to, music just flows out of Vani,
that you can only sit there mesmerised.
"It's God's gift ... Ilaiyaraja would call me a
computer ... and the Oriya film composer
Prafullakar, whose innumerable compositions I have
sung, would always be amazed at the way I could pick
up the tune, pronunciation and diction all in one go
... " Vani reminisces as she sings an Oriya number
for you. It is not for nothing that she was the top
singer in Oriya cinema for 11 years. "And how can I
forget MSV or Shankar Ganesh who have encouraged me
so much here, or L. Krishnan or Jwala Prasad in
Delhi?" Again composer K. V. Mahadevan would often
state that Vani could handle any kind of song,
however tough, with absolute ease. That Kannadasan
had placed her on a pedestal is there in his book
for all to see. "I was touched when he told me that
I was the only singer he devoted a whole chapter
to," she recalls.
The home lover
The awesome statistics of having sung 8,000 film
songs in 14 languages, beginning with "Guddi," the
recognition on the highest platforms and the
compliments that continue to come from many an
eminent quarter, sit lightly on Vani. "I take care
of every thing in the household myself," she says,
as she takes you round her aesthetically done up
apartment on Haddows Road. The art pieces on the
walls, the various awards adorning the racks, the
old black and white photographs of people who have
been close to her and the neatly arranged books on
the rack, convey a lot about the persons occupying
it. Jairam, her husband, is a connoisseur himself
and a solid and silent support, you could make out.
Unobtrusively he takes care that no one disturbs our
conversation. "I cook and keep the house myself,"
she says and suddenly lets out a small cry ... "Oh
... I just forgot the `sabji' I had kept on the
stove," she says, runs into the kitchen and returns
relaxed. "Jairamji has switched it off ... " she
laughs.
Jairam is a well-trained sitar player himself. So
it is only natural that he has helped nurture Vani's
innate musical talent. "Jairamji wanted me to train
in Hindustani light classical music and there was a
time when my riyaz under Ustad Abdul Rehman of
Patiala Gharana would go on for 18 hours a day," she
says. Vani's skills, you realise, extend beyond
music and the culinary, to areas as wide as
painting, writing poetry (in languages that include
her mother tongue Tamil) and composing music. "Lord
Muruga is my God, god father, advisory board and my
recommendation committee ... If one area of my
musical activity dulls even slightly He opens
another. And each avenue is an enriching
experience." From the top composers in Hindi, Tamil,
Telugu Kannada, Malayalam and Oriya, to maestros
like Pandit Ravishankar, Vani has worked with nearly
all of them.
Vani insists on making tea for you, while you sit
there enraptured, because even as the aroma of
"Pudhina" tea brewing in the kitchen reaches your
nostrils, the wonderful music that floats out
alongside offers an aural feast you will not easily
forget.
Courtesy: The Hindu, Jan 07, 2005 |
