New Delhi: Veteran playback singer S., known as the voice of South Indian films and ‘Nightingale of South India’. Janaki died at the age of 88. This singer, who settled in millions of hearts by the name of Janaki Amma, ruled the world of music for 6 decades.
Had rejected Padma Bhushan and asked for ‘Bharat Ratna’
In 2013, the Central Government S. It was announced to give Janaki the country’s third highest civilian honor ‘Padma Bhushan’. But he refused to take it. Janaki said that considering her contribution to Indian music, she should get ‘Bharat Ratna’.
According to him, he should have received this honor long ago. In his career, he received 4 National Film Awards and 33 different State Film Awards. His voice gave a new identity to Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi cinema.
‘Nightingale’ made from Guntur’s daughter
S. Janaki was born on 23 April 1938 in Pallapatla village in Guntur district in Madras Presidency, British India. His father Sistala Sriramurthy was an Ayurvedic doctor and teacher. He spent a major part of his childhood in Sircilla. At the age of just 9, he gave his first stage performance.
Janaki took basic music lessons from Nadaswaram scholar Padiswami, but never took any formal training in classical music. Telugu was her mother tongue, but she also spoke and wrote fluently in Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi.
60 years of wonderful singing journey
In 1957, at the age of 19, he started playback singing with the Tamil film ‘Vidhiin Vilayattu’. In the same year he recorded songs in 6 different languages. In 1959, she married V. Ramprasad. Ramprasad played a big role in shaping his career and accompanied him on most of the recordings. He died of cardiac arrest in 1997.
Janaki took retirement from film recording and live stage in 2016. But in 2018, she came back for some time and sang for the Tamil film ‘Pannadi’. With this his 60 years long musical journey ended. Janaki Amma’s voice still resonates in every South Indian home. With his demise the music world has lost an era.
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