S. Janaki

Here is an interview, from S Janaki for a Malayalam film, with loads of Tamil and other industry tidbits. Most wonderful interview I have seen, showcasing her versatality. This is God-given talent, polished by lots of hardwork. She's seventy, and still mesmerizes.

Part1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oF36...eature=related
Part2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1vHI...eature=related
Part3
http://www.youtube.com/watchv=YWU2pQ...eature=related
Part4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9DTX...eature=related
Part5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m3Bl...eature=related
Part6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkfbo...eature=related
Part7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHVDt...eature=related

When I see gems like these, I wonder why the ongoing debates about who is great and who is not, for the current generation of Tamil film musicians.

Thanks aruvi for providing the links. Thanks also to the person who loaded these clips.

It was wonderful seeing Janaki speak. She was humble as usual and absolutely no airs. I was also impressed with M.Jayachandran as the interviewer, if you can call him that. He was very respectful and was able to get Janakiamma to sing more. Very well done interview. Wish there were more interviews with singers in this mode rather than asking the same old questions of how many medals they won, their childhood etc etc. Jayachandran covered a lot of ground, starting from Baburaj till Rahman. Very enjoyable

S.Suresh

Aruvi,

I agree with your comment. When you hear such songs you are wondering as to what all the fuss about the current music directors is !!!

S.Suresh

Typo in the opening...for a Malayalam tv show, it should say.

Suresh,

You are very right. Amazing woman. Amazing talent. Amazing gems. My knowledge of Hindi is zilch, but can muster through telugu and malayalam. Those songs that she sang, are still sung in lots of reality shows.

Just seeing her showcase her talent was amazing.

Do check the interview with Vani Jayaram as well. I knew nothing much about her before, but was amazed with her memory power and amazing talent. Politics, unfortunately, played down her career...but amazing store of talent.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aruvi

Typo in the opening...for a Malayalam tv show, it should say.

Suresh,

You are very right. Amazing woman. Amazing talent. Amazing gems. My knowledge of Hindi is zilch, but can muster through telugu and malayalam. Those songs that she sang, are still sung in lots of reality shows.

Just seeing her showcase her talent was amazing.

Do check the interview with Vani Jayaram as well. I knew nothing much about her before, but was amazed with her memory power and amazing talent. Politics, unfortunately, played down her career...but amazing store of talent.

---

can u explain more about Vani Jayaram, what happened to her??

as for Janaki maa's interview, it was great... overall a sweet lady.... !!!! She should be given more credits since she is one of the finest singers in India itself.

Dinesh,

I think what is being referred with regards to Vani Jayaraman is her sojourn in Bombay. She became very famous through the Vasant Desai song 'Bole Re Papihara', from the movie Guddi. It was monstrously popular in those days. It was alleged that Lata Mangeshkar had played politics to ensure Vani Jayaram did not succeed in Hindi after that. One doesn't know what exactly transpired but this is what the media says.

Coming back to the Janaki interview, I wish they had time to cover some songs of Shyam and couple of songs of MSV which Janakiamma had sung. I did miss, 'Mareechike' (Shyam), 'Aa Nimishatinthe' (MSV). Well, when you get something good, you tend to get greedy :)

To those who haven't been there before, there is an excellent set of articles at dhool.com by Saravanan which gives a detailed account of S.Janaki's contribution to Malayalam film music. I got introduced to many songs of S.Janaki through these articles.

S.Suresh

Dinesh,
Please check the Vanijayaram songs thread. I have updated the links for the interview there.

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus...0903151521.htm

It's quite surprising that SJ never won any state award in KA...

Our nightingale turns 71
IndiaGlitz [Thursday, April 23, 2009]

The queen of minstrelsy, whose voice could soar as much as her popularity could, and could bow as low as her humility often commanded her to, celebrates her birthday today.

S Janaki, despite the white starched cotton saree that she always sports, is still our most colourful singer, even five decades after she crooned her first song. Her voice is the stuff that legends are made of, with a malleability for moods that many young singers of today can only have envy for.

If she was the voice of adolescent admirations of Sridevi’s in Senthoora Poove, she was equally the voice of the rustic tale of gratefulness in Inji Iduppazhaga. Interestingly, both performances were found National Award worthy. If you were to ask music buffs, they would name hundreds of her 30,000 songs as award-worthy, and they wouldn’t be wrong in saying so. If she was the voice of Savithri, she was equally the voice of an exuberant Preity Zinta in Nenjiniley, one of her immortal renditions for AR Rahman in Uyire. Forming a formidable duo in the company of SPB, S Janaki has been the reigning queen for music in the years and with time, her voice has only slowly dimmed.

A singer who has sung in as may as 13 languages, it would not be unfair to call her as popular in South India as Lata Mangeshkar is, up north. In fact, comparisons among the duo have been rife form the time they began singing, with Janaki getting her first chance to sing a song, after auditioning with a Lata Mangeshkar number.

With years gone by, S Janaki might have taken the bow from playback singing, but to many singers who are here today, she is a colossus who peak is almost impossible to attain. Here’s wishing Janaki-amma, as she is most often called,a happy birthday and lots of happiness!


http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/t...cle/46509.html

http://dailythanthi.com/article.asp?...date=7/19/2009

This news report says SJ is 67, must be incorrect.

Sadly, though she wasn't hurt in an accident involving her car (supposedly driven by her son), one person got killed :-(