Vani jayaram is one of the few singers who has sung in all famous Indian languages and given popular songs in all of them. She has a sweet and clear voice and possesses the uncanny ability to sing in all these languages without doing any sort of damage to the lyrics or pronunciation. She is formally trained in classical music and is proficient in both Hindustani and Carnatic music styles. It is not overly wrong to conclude that her talents have not been fully exploited in Tamil Film Music. This is especially true in the recent times where she has been unfortuntely neglected more and more by Tamil Film Music directors. However, during the early years of her film world entry, she has given memorable songs with M. S. Viswanathan, e.g Ezhu swarangalukkul, Naathamenum kovilile, etc. Shankar Ganesh duo has been giving songs for her almost in all their movies. With them, she has given one of her most memorable songs Megame Megame. With Ilaiyaraja she has given good songs like "Naane naana", but he has not used her much in his films. The story goes that she use to claim Ilaiyaraja is not up to the mark of MSV.
Vani got her first national award from the song Ezhu swarangalukkul, that comes very close to a classical concert song. Later on, she has got few more national awards for her singing in Telugu films, e.g. Sankarabaranam and Swatikiranam. She has indeed been famous in the other major film scene in India, i.e. the Hindi Film Music world. Her performance in the film Guddi got her great accolades and was instantly deemed by all to topple all the singers. However, her talent had to be ignored by the hindi film music directors apparently because of pressures from other top singers. In the recent days, she has been concentrating on devotional songs and bhajans, written and composed by herself.
"Malligai en mannan mayangum" (from Dheerga sumangali)
"megame megame,paal nilaa thedhudhe" (paalai vana cholai)
Ezhu swarangalukkul - Apoorva raagangal (This song starts with Pantuvaraali.
Before every charanam, the violinist briefly plays a different
raagam and VJ starts singing the followig charanam in this
new raagam. At the end of this charanam, she again comes
back to Pantuvaraali and goes to a different raagam in the
next charanam. The sequence of ragas(if I'm right) is Ranjani, Sindhu Bairavi,
Kamboji.)
Kelviyin naayagane - Same movie. Another ragamalika.
Darbari kanada , Amirthavarshini, Madhyamaavathi.
"sugamaana raagangalE" - mridanga chakravarthy
naadhamenum kOyililE - manmatha lIlai
en uLLil engO - rOsaappU ravikkaikkaari
naanE naanaa - azhagE unnai aaraadhikkirEn
manamagale un manavarai kolam - kaalangalil aval vasantham
en kalyaana vaibogam - azhage unnai aarathikkiren
Oru puram vedan: Mayangugiraal oru maadhu
Moongililai kaadugale - penmani aval kanmani
ganapathyE - marumagal ?
paarththu sirikkudhu bommai - thirumathi oru vegumathi
kattik karumbE kaNNaa - samsaaram adhu minsaaram
manna un kovilai thedi -- vedikkai en vaddikai
yaaradhu sollaamal nenjaLLi pOvadhu - "nenjamellaam nIyE"
kavidhai kelungal - punngai mannan
ponggum kadal Osai (meenava naNban)
malligai mullai poo pandhal (anbE aaruyirE)
{the song actually goes off like...
ellaam ethaRkaaka, namakku kalyaaNam athaRkaaka}
naanaa, paaduvathu naanaa (nool vEli)
sri devi varam kEtkiraaL (dhEviyin thirumaNam) {with PS}
ninaiththathu niRaivERum (ninaiththathu niRaivERum ?)
muththamizil paada vanthEn (mEl naattu marumagaL)
kaaviri nagarinil kadarkkari Oraththila (vaaznthu kaatukirEn)
Naan padi kondae irrupaen.. - Sirai
aala marathukk kili - paalabishegam (S&G)
Naalai mudhal unnakaagavae naan paduvaen, en uyir kannanae - Nenjamaelam neeyae