Kannada Songs of Sensational 70s

Seventies of Kannada cinema saw the best of best artists contributing to its musical legacy..! It was getting stronger day by day, movie by movie in terms of both quantity and quality music! Music and songs that supported the story telling of legendary directors were appreciated by common public and critics equally! Golden vocals of S Janaki became the signature of Kannada film music during this era..!

Her collaborations with topmost composers like Rajan Nagendra, G K Venkatesh, Upendra Kumar, M Ranga Rao, T G Lingappa, Satyam etc.. gave us unforgettable melodies. She was undoubtedly the torch bearer to their melodious journey..! Her voice was not only featured but also celebrated in almost every single album composed by these genius artists! Though her voice was heard comparatively lesser in Vijayabhaskar’s discography, her presence was appreciated with accolades every single time she sang for him! Great composers from other film industries who paid frequent visits to Kannada cinema like S RajeswaraRao, S Hanumanta Rao, Salil Choudhury, K V Mahadevan, Ilayaraja, Ramesh Naidu, Chakravarty etc.. also looked up to Janaki to make their compositions immortal in Kannada cinema!

Major Lyricists of those days like VijayaNarasimha, Chi. Udayashankar, R N Jayagopal, Geeta Priya etc.. mentioned in several interviews how Janaki amma would bring the native emotions of Kannada women to life in the beautiful words they wrote!

Janaki amma sang maximum number of devotional songs for movies in Kannada cinema which included Purandara dasa krithis like “Lalisidalu Magana”, “Kandu Kandu Nee Enna” or Raghavendra Swamy’s “Indu Enage Govinda” with such a devotional ecstacy. Many other gems like “Naane Bagyavathi”, “Krishna Endare Bhayavilla”, “Jagadeesha Gowreesha” etc.. fall under this category. The semi-classical gems like “Shiva Shiva Ennada Naliga Eke” , “Gaganavu Ello”, “Bharata Bhooshira Mandira Sundari”,  “Sridevi Vagdevi Jaya Gowri” etc.. became her signature! COmposers gave her wonderful raga based songs in different moods like “Hoovinda Hoovige”, “Hagalo Irulo”, “Ninna Savi Nenape” etc.. which she turned to ever living classics..

Duets with PBS in the first half of the 70s and with SPB in later half were not only more in quantity but also unparalleled in quality! As if those gems were not enough, her duets with Dr. Rajkumar carried that extra X Factor that turned every single duet from them to be an iconic song! Duets with other greats like K J Yesudas, Jayachandran, V Ramakrishna etc.. were all gems!!

She became voice of heroines of the era like Kalpana, Bharathi, Aarathi, Jayanthi, Manjula, Lakshmi etc.. and her sizzling romantic songs like “Bayasidari Dhim Dhim”, “Haayagide”, etc.. on dancing stars like Jayamalini, Halam were equally sensational!!

There were many movies where she sang all songs of the movie with her melodious solos and energetic duets and there were also movies like “Prathima” where she was the only playback singer to sing all songs of the movie as solos!

Number of movies grew gradually in number during the 70s and thus the songs of Janaki also proportionally… and those songs became inseparable from Kannada cinema and legacy of Kannada cinema!!

Here are some of the very best songs of Janaki from this golden era of 70s Kannada cinema! This in no way is a complete list of her 70s songs but a quick reminder of the musical sculptures she crafted with her expressive vocals!