Sistla Janaki (born 23 April 1938) is an Indianplayback singer and occasional music composer. She is widely referred to asJanaki Amma and "Nightingale of India" Or ("Nightingale of South"). She is one of the greatest and most influential singers in the history ofIndian music. She has recorded over 48,000 songs in films, albums, television and radio, which includes solos, duets, chorus and title tracks in 20 Indian languages, includingTamil,Telugu,Kannada,Malayalam,Hindi,Sanskrit,Odia,Tulu,Urdu,Punjabi,Badaga,Bengali,Konkani, as well as in foreign languages such asEnglish,Japanese,German andSinhala. She is one of the most versatile singers in India and has an exceptional vocal range. The language in which she sang the most songs in her career was Kannada, followed by Malayalam. She is widely acclaimed as the "Queen of Expression and Modulation"in any Language with Nativity".
S. Janaki's contribution to the Indian music industry in a career spanning six decades gained her honorific titles such as the "Queen of Melody", "Nightingale of India", and "ExpressionQueen of Indian Music".[2].She began her singing career with the Tamil filmVidhiyin Vilayattu (1957) at the age of 19 and recorded songs in six different languages in the same year.[3] Her career has spanned over six decades until 2016, when she announced self-retirement from singing for films and stage appearances. However, upon insistence from the film fraternity, she made a comeback by singing a song for the Tamil filmPannaadi in 2018.[4] She was active in the music industry for 60 years. She has won 4 National Film Awards and 33 different State Film Awards. She is a recipient of an honorary doctorate from theUniversity of Mysore, theKalaimamani award from the Tamil Nadu State Government and theRajyotsava Prashasti award from the Government of Karnataka. In 2013, she refused to accept thePadma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian award of the Government of India, and said that she deserves theBharat Ratna, the highest civilian award of the Government of India for her contributions to music. She pointed out that it was "too little, too late" and that South Indian artists were not given their due recognition.
Janaki was born on 23 April 1938 in Pallapatla,Repalle Taluka inGuntur,Madras Presidency,British India (now inAndhra Pradesh).[5] Her father, Sistla Sreeramamurthy, was anAyurvedic doctor and teacher. She spent most of her childhood inSircilla where she got her first on-stage performance opportunity at the age of nine. She learnt the basics of music through aNadaswaram vidwan, Paidiswamy. She never pursued any formal training in classical music.[6]
Janaki married V. Ramprasad in 1959. He encouraged her career and accompanied her during most of her recordings. He died in 1997 due tocardiac arrest.[7]
Janaki's mother tongue isTelugu, but she can fluently converse and write in Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi.[8][9][10][11][12]
While in her twenties, Janaki moved toChennai on the advice of her uncle to work with the music composerR. Sudarsanam inAVM Studios as a singer. She started her career as a playback singer in the Tamil movieVidhiyin Vilayattu in 1957. Subsequently, she performed in the Telugu filmM.L.A.. She sang film songs in 6 languages in her first year.[13]
She picked the Malayalam lullaby "Amma Poovinum"[14] from10 Kalpanakal as theswansong of her 60-year singing career and retired on 28 October 2017 with a concert held atMysuru.[15]
Janaki sang her first Kannada song in 1957. By the early 60s, she had started working with many prominent music composers. Throughout the 1970s and 80s, she remained the number one go-to female playback singer in Kannada films. Most of the music directors, fromG. K. Venkatesh,Rajan–Nagendra toHamsalekha, offered her most of their top compositions.
She has a record number of duets with P B Srinivas, S P Balasubrahmanyam and Dr Rajkumar. She was awarded the Rajyotsava Prashasti in 2014. She was awarded anhonorary doctorate from theUniversity of Mysore for her tremendous contribution to Kannada film and music.
S. Janaki and Malayalam songs are inseparable, and she sang her first Malayalam song in 1957. She practiced the correct accent and the nuances of the language, which made her one of the most sought-after singers in the industry. She was the favorite of many popular music composers likeV Dakshinamoorthi,MS Baburaj,Shyam,MB Sreenivasan, A.T.Ummer andSalil Choudhary.
S. Janaki went on to sing thousands of songs from the early 1960s to the mid-80s. She received her firstKerala state film award for best singer in 1970 and went on to win the same award almost every year for the next 15 years. It was her command over the language and perfect diction that took her to great heights in Malayalam films. S. Janaki is perhaps the only non-Malayali artist who has won the maximum awards in Malayalam films.
Some of her hit solo tracks in Malayalam films are:
S. Janaki sang her first Tamil song in 1957. The songSingaravelane Deva from the movieKonjum Salangai brought her into the limelight in Tamil films.M. S. Viswanathan gave her many hit songs every year throughout the 60s and early 70s. It was the songUnnidathil ennaik kodutthen fromAvalukendru Or Manam (1971) that consolidated her position among the most promising singers in the Tamil industry.
She sang many songs under many famous composers. TheIlaiyaraaja-S. P. Balasubrahmanyam-S. Janaki combination produced hit after hit from the mid 1970s till the 1990s. S Janaki is the only singer who has won state awards under the oft-called top three music composers of the state (M. S. Viswanathan,Ilaiyaraaja andA. R. Rahman).
S Janaki started her career in Telugu films in 1957 in the film M.L.A. Movies likeBava Maradallu,Pooja Phalam andBangaru Panjaram had songs by S. Janaki which were immensely popular. She sang continuous hits throughout the 1960s and 70s, continuing this streak until about the mid 90s. S Janaki has won 12Nandi awards, 10 for films and 2 for television serial songs. A few of her solos are:
"Nee Aasa Adiyaasa" and "Idenandi Idenandi Bhagyanagaramu" -M.L.A. (1957)
ComposerBappi Lahiri was impressed by a Hindi song sung by S Janaki for a Tamil movie, when he visitedPrasad Studio. He decided to have songs sung by her in his upcoming Hindi movies and introduced her to Bollywood.[8] She sang many duets with singerKishore Kumar.
Some of her notable Hindi songs are
"Prabhu more awgun chit na dharo" and "Ayo prabhat sab mil gaayo" -Sur Sangam (1985)
"Yaar Bina Chain Kahan Re" and "Jawan Hai Dil Jawan Hain Hum" -Saaheb (1985)
Janaki sang many evergreen songs inOdia. She has sung about 68 songs in Odia films. Her songs are still popular today and she also won 1Orissa State Film Award forOdia filmSata Kebe Luchi Rahena (1986)
Janaki has worked with music directors of different generations. From the early 1960s she was given songs by composers mainly in Kannada and Malayalam films.Though she sang fewer songs in Telugu and Tamil during the beginning of her career she went on to rule the playback industry across all four south Indian languages from the mid 1970s.
G. K. Venkatesh was one of the early composers who brought a renaissance in Kannada film music.He started composing for more films from the early 1960s and went on to give some remarkable songs to Janaki. The GKV-SJ-PBS combination was the talk of the town in those days.Two songs that need special mention from this combination are "Nambide ninna naadhadevate" fromSandhya Raga and "Karedaru kelade" fromSanaadi Appanna: both became very popular.Dr. Rajkumar, who had begun his acting career in the 1950s, got to sing his first duet with S. Janaki – "Tumbitu Manavaa" – for the film "Mahishasura Mardini" in which he played the villain.
M. Ranga Rao was one of the composers who contributed memorable songs to Kannada film music.He collaborated with S. Janaki for many films, includingEdakallu Guddada Mele ("Sanyasi Sanyasi") directed by Puttanna Kanagal. Ranga Rao composed memorable duets sung by Dr. Rajkumar and S. Janaki for "Vasanta Geeta", "Hosabelaku" and "Samayada Gombe".
For Hosabelaku, Ranga Rao composed a melodious tune for a poem by RashtrakaviKuvempu "Teredide Mane O Baa Atithi" and S. Janaki sung this along with another legendary singer,Vani Jayaram.
The earliest recognised collaboration of S Janaki's was with the Malayalam composerMS Baburaj, who specialised in Hindustani music. Under his direction, Janaki was able to give voice to some of Kerala's best loved film songs of all time during the 1960s and early 1970s. The songs they've worked on have been known for their outward expressions, both in voice and the composition by itself. Some of Janaki's best known solos come from this collaboration, includingVasantha Panchami Naalil (Bhargavi Nilayam),Anjana Kannezhuthi (Thacholi Othenan) andThaane Thirinjum Marinjum (Ambalapravu).
Ilaiyaraaja knew about Janaki's vocal range and versatility when he worked with G. K. Venkatesh. When he got a chance to compose music for his debut filmAnnakkili (1976) he asked Janaki to sing 3 songs which became immensely popular, beginning an era in Tamil cinema. This combination churned out hits after hits pushing S Janaki to the numero uno position for at least the next 2 decades. S Janaki won 4 state awards in Tamil in his compositions. He explored her voice in wide variety of songs and she became the first choice for songs with village background.
She sang most of her duets withS. P. Balasubrahmanyam,Malaysia Vasudevan,Mano,K. J. Yesudas, andJayachandran. Ilaiyaraaja himself sang around 200 duets with Janaki; most were chart busters. After Ilaiyaraaja started giving more songs to S. Janaki, other music composers followed by making her sing their top hits.
The SPB-IR-SJ combination created some of the finest duets of Tamil cinema. The 1980s saw the meteoric rise of Janaki with a strong back up from Illaiyaraja, as she sang his songs in all four South Indian languages.
Rajan and Nagendra have a unique place in the hearts of Kannada music lovers. S Janaki was a part of almost all their albums. During the initial days, RN gave many duets to PBS-SJ. Later their main singers were SPB and S Janaki. Almost all of their songs remain etched as the unforgettable melodies of Kannada Cinema. The romantic duets that came out of the SPB-S Janaki-Rajan–Nagendra combination are considered to be heavenly and evergreen. Radios called the pair of SPB and S Janaki as "Love Birds" and are termed to be the "Best singing pair" in Kannada cinema, owing mainly to their romantic duets composed by Rajan–Nagendra in the 1970s and 80s[18] In terms of numbers, it was Rajan–Nagendra who gave maximum songs to Janaki after Ilaiyaraaja.The solos and duets that S Janaki rendered under these music composers can never be erased from the minds of the Kannada audience. Some top hit songs came from movies such as Eradu Kanasu, Hombisilu, Gaali Maathu, Pavana Ganga, Avala Hejje, Chandana Gombe, Naa Ninna Bidalare and the list continues.
By the end of 80sHamsalekha established himself as the top music composer in Kannada cinema pushing all the veteran composers to the background. His strong association with actorRavichandran resulted in many hit songs. S Janaki was his first choice during the initial days of his career. SPB-SJ-HL created some of the evergreen duets in movies likePremaloka andRanadheera. S. Janaki worked in more than 40 films with Hamsalekha and sang all-time hit solos and duets.
Kannada cinema offered SJ real gems of her singing career andVijaya Bhaskar is no exception. Though his main singers were P Susheela in 60s and Vani Jayaram and Chitra in 70s and 80s, he gave some of his best compositions to S Janaki in movies likeGejje Pooje,Bellimoda,Upasane,Seetha (1970 film); he chose her whenever the song needed some special singing. "Gaganavu ello bhoomiyu ello" remains one of the most memorable songs of S Janaki. If we take the top 10 songs of S Janaki in Kannada cinema there would definitely be at least 2 songs composed by Bhaskar.
During the '90s, Janaki sang many great Tamil and Telugu songs forA. R. Rahman at the early stage of his career. Songs like "Ottagatha Kattiko", "Gopala Gopala", "Nenjinele", "Kadhal Kaditham Theetave", "Mudhalvane", "Endhan Nenjil", "Margali Thingal" and many are still popular. She won theTamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer for "Margazhi Thinkal Allava" from the filmSangamam under his composition.
Janaki and voice modulation are synonymous. She has done a wide range of voice modulation according to the age of the character in all four South Indian languages. She is perhaps the only singer who won state awards for the same. Tamil Nadu state award for "Poda poda pokka" song fromUthiripookkal (1979) and Andhra Pradesh State award for "Govullu tellana" song fromSaptapadi.The song "Kanna nee engey" from the Tamil filmRusi Kanda Poonai (1980), also penned by her, was sung entirely by Janaki in a child's voice. So was the song "Mummy Mummy" sung by her from the Malayalam filmEe Thanalil Ithiri Nerum (1985). Songs she sang in kids-voice in 70s in Kannada too were popular, one such song is "Thayiya thandeya" from the filmMadhura Sangama (1978). She sang many such songs for many different characters of different ages. She sang more than 48000+ songs across all languages.
Janaki says that the toughest song of her singing career is the Kannada song "Shiva shiva ennada naaligeyeke" from the movieHemavathi (film), which featured many fast swaras. The song, which is in two different ragas,Thodi andAabhogi, was composed byL. Vaidyanathan.[19][20]
2015 – Life Time Achievement Award from Radio Mirchi for Outstanding Contribution in all South Indian Languages [Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu][33]
2019– First Recipient of theMS Subbulakshmi National Award for immense contribution to the field of music, Tamil Nadu State Government[citation needed]
^Darpan, Pratiyogita (August 1998).Competition Science Vision. Pratiyogita Darpan.Archived from the original on 18 April 2023. Retrieved30 January 2023.
