S. Janaki Information & S. Janaki Links at HealthHaven.com

S. Janaki
S. Janaki
	File:Janaki.jpg;
Background information
Born	April 23, 1938 (age 71); Guntur, Andhra Pradesh
Genres	playback singing, Indian classical
Occupations	Singer
Instruments	Vocalist
Years active	1957-present

S. Janaki (Kannada: ಎಸ್. ಜಾನಕಿ,Telugu:ఎస్. జానకి, Tamil:எஸ். ஜானகி, Malayalam: എസ്. ജാനകി),(born April 23, 1938) is a legendary, award-winning female playback singer. She is a Telugu by birth, but went on to become a house hold name in entire South Indian territory. She is renowned for her super modulation power of her voice which can aptly adapt to anybody ranging from a small child to an elderly old woman. She has sung in many Indian languages including Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi.^[1] Janaki is also a lyricist and a composer. She has worked with almost all the music directors of her time including the Oscar winner A.R. Rahman. She along with S P Balasubramanyam is the most popular singing combination in south India.^[2]

[edit] Early life

S. Janaki was born into a Telugu family in Pallapatla, Repalle village, Guntur District of Andhra Pradesh.^[3]

She was interested in music from early age and started performing at the age of three. She learnt music from Sree Paidiswamy, a nadaswaram Vidwan.

[edit] Singing career

Janaki started singing at 19.^[4] She later moved to Chennai on the advice of her uncle Dr. Chandrashekar and joined AVM Studios as a singer. She started her career in movies by singing songs composed by T. Chalapati Rao in the Tamil movie Vidhiyin Vilayattu in 1957. Subsequently, she performed in the Telugu movie MLA. She went on to become one of the most favourite singers of Ilayaraja and began to sing for him for at least 2-3 songs per movie in all the 4 southern languages.

She also wrote many songs for Tamil and Telugu movies. She has sung more than 30000 songs[Films,Non Films], in almost all languages in South India as well as in Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada, Sinhalese, Bengali, Oriya, English, Sanskrit, Konkani, Tulu, Saurashtra, Baduga, Japanese and German.^[5]

A devotee of Lord Krishna and Shirdi Sai Baba, she has also recorded Hindu devotional music on Meera.^[5]

Her contemporaries include Ghantasala, Dr.Rajkumar,P. Susheela, Vani Jayaram, K J Yesudas, L R Eeswari, P. Jayachandran, P. Leela, K. S. Chithra, Sujatha, Jency, P B Srinivas and of course S P Balasubramanyam. She is the inspiration for many upcoming female playback singers.

[edit] Personal life

S. Janaki married V.Ramprasad. She is now settled in Chennai, lives with her son Murali Krishna, who acted in few films and has an audio business of his own; and his wife Uma Murali Krishna, a classical dancer (Bharatnatyam and Kuchipudi); they have two daughters Amruthavarshini and Apsara.

She is also a close relative of carnatic classical vocalist, Garimella Balakrishna Prasad.^[6]

[edit] Major awards

In 1956, second prize in competitions held by AIR (All India Radio) from the former Indian President Dr. Rajendra Prasad at the .
In 1986, Kalai Mamani by Government of Tamil Nadu
In 1987, Sur singar award
In 2002 , Cinema 'Achiever Award' by the government of Kerala
In 2005, Special Jury Swaralaya Yesudas Award for outstanding performance in music.

National Film Awards Five times for the best Playback singer by Government of India
State Film awards fourteen times for the best Playback singer by Government of Kerala
State Film awards seven times for the best Playback singer by Government of Tamil Nadu
State Film awards ten times for the best Playback singer by Government of Andra Pradesh
State Film awards four times for the best Playback singer by Government of Karnataka
2009, Honorary doctarate by Mysore university for her tremendous contribution to Kannada Film songs background singing.

[edit] National awards

1976, Film Name: 16 vayadhinile, Language: Tamil, First line of the song: "Senthoora Poove"

1980,Film Name: "Manjil Virinja Pookkal",Language: Malayalam, First line of the song: "Manjani kombil"

1981, Film Name: Oppol, Language: Malayalam , First line of the song: "Ettumanoorambalathil"

1984, Film Name: Sithara, Language: Telugu , First line of the song: "Vennello godari andham"

1992, Film Name: devar Magan, Language: Tamil, First line of song: "Inji Idippazagha"

[edit] References

[edit] External links

IMDb entry
A website on S. Janaki (unofficial)
An article on S. Janaki
Listen to Janaki and others Tamil/Hindi/Telugu Songs

[0] ttp://www.hindu.com/fr/2007/04/13/stories/2007041300740300.htm

[1] ttp://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2004072700010100.htm&date=2004/07/27/&prd=mp&

[2] ttp://www.hindu.com/fr/2007/06/29/stories/2007062950420200.htm

[3] ttp://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/fr/2007/06/22/stories/2007062250510100.htm

[indiaglitz.com-4] ttp://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/tamil/article/30687.html

[5] ttp://www.hindu.com/2006/09/04/stories/2006090406160200.htm

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

Contents