Vani Jairam: Did her career get sabotaged in Hindi?

In her career of 50 years, Vani Jairam recorded almost 10,000 songs in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and other languages. In Hindi, she recorded nearly 300 songs, some of which like Bole re Papihara and Humko Mann ki shakti Dena in Guddi became iconic. In Hindi, however, her career was said to be sabotaged. This allegation is only partly true. The belief that Lata Mangeshkar did not allow Vani’s career to take off is laughably invalid. Only failed female singers made this allegation. Even Suman Kalyapur who lived in the shadow of Lataji’s voice admitted to having a huge respect. In 2018 Vani Jairam wrote on social media, “I was a fanatic lover of Hindi Film Music much to the disappointment of my mother who had trained me to be a Carnatic Classical Musician. I was hooked on to the radio in all my free time and used to observe all the nuances of singing and pronunciation from the songs of Lataji. I always dreamt of singing in Bombay Films and get Lataji’s blessings. It happened thanks to Music Director Jaidevji who invited me to attend a Recording of Lataji and get her blessings. I remember I went to a recording studio to listen to her at Jaidevji’s recording. …I listened to her recording, touched her feet and took her blessings. Lataji was so nice to me and invited me to visit her home. When I visited her home she blessed me and gave me a Banarasi silk sari at her Mumbai Peddar Road residence. I even attended a meeting in Lataji’s house when all the top playback singers were present. Not a day goes by for me without listening to her songs. The day starts with her song for me, she has given us wonderful melodies.I am proud that I have lived in the same time as of Lataji and had the rare privilege of interacting with her on so many occasions. Lataji was one of a kind. There can be only one Lata,” she said.” Lataji once said about Vani Jairam to me. “She has a very powerful and distinctive voice. I liked her voice and I told her this. Vani has even come home. I’ve always encouraged new talent. I don’t know where these stories of my sabotaging her career came from.”

It all started when in Guddi, the film that launched Jaya Bhaduri’s career, one of Vani’s songs Hari bin kaise jiyun was replaced by Lataji’s Main toh kabse khadi iss par, a Salil Chowdhury composition from _Madhumati_ . However, the decision to replace the song had nothing to do with Lataji. Guddi director Hrishikesh Mukherjee once shed light on the dumb controversy. “Beta, do you think Lata needs to look anxiously at anyone’s career? She is Mata Saraswati reincarnated. Other singers should be happy and grateful to sing when she is around. What happened in Guddi was, I wanted a familiar evergreen Lata song for a party sequence in place of Vani’s Bhajan which didn’t seem suitable for the occasion. Lata didn’t even know about the change.” In fact, when Lataji opted out of Gulzar’s Meera it was then that Vani Jairam got to sing all the exquisite Meera Bhajans in the film for Hema Malini. All Lataji needed to do was show some interest in the project in front of composer Pandit Ravi Shankar and she would have been in. But once Lataji made up her mind to not do Meera she stuck to her guns. After the recordings, Lataji praise Vain Jairam’s singing. The sabotage conspiracy is not entirely untrue, though. In 1975 for the Mumtaz starrer Aaina, composer Naushad wanted Asha Bhosle and Vani Jairam for a wedding song Kaho toh aaj bol doon. Asha Bhosle allegedly refused to sing with Vani. Naushad had to record the song with the two singers in two different studios. Finally, Vani’s portion in Kaho toh aaj bol doon had to be scrapped. Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based journalist. He has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and Instagram