Friday, April 5, 2013

S.JANAKI


S.Janaki is one of the greatest singers of all times in the Indian Cinema.  She will be turning 75 on 23rd April and I salute her for the wonderful songs that she has rendered over the last 55 years.  Many of her songs will remain evergreen and "Singaravelane Deva" is really the top on my list:


Her illustrious career in the film industry started in 1957 and she has sung several thousand songs in several  Languages including English, Japanese, German, Sinhalese and Sanskrit.  She has received the National Award for best playback singer four times and has received several state awards in the last five decades.

She is a very versatile singer and can easily adapt into any genre.  The testimony to this is her song in Hindi Film Saaheb in 1985 "yaar bina chain kahan re":


The songs that she has rendered in Maestro Ilayaraja's music are some of the best songs of S.Janaki.  She has also worked with various other Music Directors like M.S.Viswanathan, K.V.Mahadevan, Shankar Ganesh, Chakravarthy during the 1980s and given so many hit songs through her lovely voice.  The modulation and pitch with which she has rendered some of the songs is really unbelievable.  She is a truly gifted singer and her songs will live for ever.

There are a number of hit songs in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam and I have listed below some of my favourite songs from Tamil Films sung by S.Janaki:
  1. Singaravelane Deva
  2. Konja neram ennai marandhen
  3. Kaatrukkenna veli
  4. Unnidathil ennai koduthen
  5. Poovarasamboo poothachu
  6. Senthoora poove senthoora poove
  7. Naadam en jeevane
  8. Puttam pudhu kaalai
  9. Kodiyile malliga poo manakkuthe maane
  10. Azhaghu malar aada abinayangal kooda
  11. Raasave unna naan
  12. Kotta paakkum kozhundhu vethalayum
  13. Nenjukkulle innarunnu sonnal
  14. Vaazhavaikkum kaadalukku jai
  15. Pattu poove mettu podu
  16. Mounamaana neram
  17. Maalai soodum velai
  18. Isai medayil inba velayil
  19. Then poove poove vaa thendral theda
  20. Enadhu vizhi vazhi mele
  21. Sandana Kaatre senthamizh oottre
  22. Ye paadal ondru raagam ondru
The song in Rettai Vaal Kuruvi is one of my most favourite songs "kannan vandhu paaduginraan":

Long Live S.Janaki.

T.P.Anand
Dubai, U.A.E.
5th April 2013

2 comments:

  1. TP,

    "Singara" - Took me back in time. Well written btw "Yaar Bina Chain Kahan Re" was my first song sung on stage in Pilani.

    Keep writing !

    Sandhya Prakash

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Sir...

    Didn't know the song from Saaheb was by S.Janaki, Good to know -
    it also shows how ignorant we are by just assuming all the songs are either Lata or Asha...

    Thanks again for this enlightening article...

    Mukund Srinivas

    ReplyDelete