Vani Jairam
Indian singer (1945–2023)
She is on sixteen recordings here, and fifteen of them are one film.
Lata Mangeshkar had recorded Meerabai's bhajans before and declined to do it again for Gulzar's Meera in 1979. The whole soundtrack went to Vani Jairam instead - Ravi Shankar's score, Meerabai's own sixteenth-century verse, sung by a woman who had been given it because somebody else said no.
She won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer for Mere To Giridhar Gopal, and it is the single most consequential thing that happened to her career.
That career was largely elsewhere. She sang in something like nineteen languages and is most of all a Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam singer - some ten thousand recordings, three National Awards - and Hindi film music was never the centre of it. Which makes Meera a strange and good accident: the one Hindi score she is remembered for came to her by refusal, and she took it.
She died in 2023, a few weeks after being given the Padma Bhushan.
Dates and credits from Wikidata.
Songs
16 recordings in this catalogue.
- Bole Re Papihara — sang · Guddi (1971)
- Humko Man Ki Shakti Dena — sang · Guddi (1971)
- Hari Bin Kaise Jeeyun Re — sang · Guddi (1971)
- Mere To Giridhar Gopal 1 — sang · Meera (1979)
- Jaago Bansiwale — sang · Meera (1979)
- Pyare Darshan Dijo Aaj — sang · Meera (1979)
- Bala Main Bairagan Hoongi — sang · Meera (1979)
- Karna Fakiri Phir Kya Dilgiri — sang · Meera (1979)
- Jo Tum Todo Piya — sang · Meera (1979)
- Karuna Suno Shyam Mori — sang · Meera (1979)
- Badal Dekh Dari — sang · Meera (1979)
- Main Sanware Ke Rang Raachi — sang · Meera (1979)
- Mere To Giridhar Gopal 2 — sang · Meera (1979)
- Shyam Maane Chaakar Rakhoji — sang · Meera (1979)
- Ranaji Main To Govind Ke Gun Gasun — sang · Meera (1979)
- Aeri Main To Prem Deewani — sang · Meera (1979)
Related people
Worked with
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Lata Mangeshkar
Lata Mangeshkar had recorded Meerabai's bhajans before and declined to sing Meera in 1979. The whole soundtrack went to Vani Jairam instead, who took the Filmfare for Mere To Giridhar Gopal. It is the single most consequential thing that happened to her career.
Related films
Worked with
-
Meera (1979)
Lata Mangeshkar declined the film and the entire soundtrack went to Vani Jairam, who won the Filmfare for Mere To Giridhar Gopal. The one Hindi score she is remembered for came to her by refusal.
