Versatile playback singer Vani Jairam passes away at age of 77

Vani Jairam, seasoned playback singer, passed away at the age of 77. She was found dead at her home in Nungambakkam in Chennai where she lived alone. Her husband, Jairam passed away in 2018 and she had no children. She has sung more than 10,000 songs in 19 languages including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Assamese songs.

Jairam had recently received the third-highest civilian honour of India, Padma Bhushan ahead of the Republic Day in 2023. She was selected for the award in 2021 on completing 50 years of her remarkable career as a playback singer. In Bollywood, she is famously remembered for singing the Hindi songs like ‘Bole re Papihara’ from Guddi in 1971, ‘Zindagi Mein Aap Aaye’, a duet with Mukesh in ‘Chhalia’ 1973 and Mere to Girdhar Gopal in 1979 in Meera.

The singer was found dead at her Chennai home. When Jairam’s maid came for work on February 4, she informed the neighbours when she didn't get any response after ringing the bell repeatedly. The neighbours then called up Jairam’s sister Uma, who lives in the same city and Uma called up the police. Police arrived and then broke open the door of the house in the presence of Jayram’s sister and found her dead.


Police sources said that prima facie it seemed that Jairam had fallen and hit her head on a table, and there was little injury mark on her forehead. Police would reveal further reasons for her death after the post-mortem.

FAQs:

Q1.Which was Vani Jairam’s first Hindi song?
Jairam sung the first Hindi song in 1971 in the film ‘Guddi’. She had sung ‘Hum ko mann ki shakti dena’ composed by Vasant Desai.

Q2.Vani Jairam was trained in which musical styles?
Jairam had received musical training initially in Carnatic, and later, she received training in Hindustani music, Thumri, Bhajan and Ghazal.