Jamuna Rani


K. Jamuna Rani is a prolific Indian playback singer who has sung over 6,000 songs in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Sinhala languages.

Career & Life

Rani is the daughter of private officer K. Varadarajulu and violinist K. Droupathy.
She first contributed her voice to film at the age of seven for the Telugu movie Tyagayya. By thirteen, Rani was vocalising for lead characters in films like Valayapathi and Kalyani. She had a hit score with Aasaiyum En Nesamum from the Tamil film Gulebakavali in 1955.
Jamuna Rani first sang in Sri Lankan cinema for Sujatha in 1953 under the direction of composer Ananda Samarakoon. She subsequently contributed to Warada Kageda, Seda Sulang, Mathalan, Suraya and Vana Mohini. 'Jeevana Mea Gamana Sansare' which she sang with A. M. Rajah for the movie 'Seda Sulang' is one of the all-time favourite Sinhala cinema songs in Sri Lanka.
She was a much sought after playback singer in the 1950s till the 1960s. She had very few songs in the early 1970s. After a hiatus, she came back to Tamil songs in Nayakan and Annan Ennada Thambi Ennada.

Music composers she sang for

She worked under G. Ramanathan, K. V. Mahadevan, S. Dakshinamurthi, A. M. Rajah, Vedha, Chittor V. Nagaiah, J. A. Rehman, Pendyala Nageshwara Rao, T. Chalapathi Rao, Ananda Samarakoon, T. G. Lingappa, Viswanathan-Ramamoorthy, T. A. Kalyanam, M. S. Gnanamani, S. Rajeswara Rao, S. Hanumantha Rao, Master Venu, R. Sudharsanam, G. K. Venkatesh, V. T. Rajagopalan, V. Kumar, T. R. Pappa, S. V. Venkatraman, Vijaya Bhaskar, Ghantasala, Kunnakkudi Vaidyanathan, S. M. Subbaiah Naidu, S. P. Kodandapani, V. Kumar, Brother Lakshmanan, M. B. Sreenivasan, M. S. Baburaj, Ilaiyaraaja and Chandrabose.

Playback singers she sang with

She sang immemorable duets mostly with T. M. Soundararajan, A. M. Rajah, Seerkazhi Govindarajan, A. L. Raghavan, P. B. Sreenivas, and Mohideen Baig. Others are Ghantasala, Thiruchi Loganathan, J. P. Chandrababu, S. C. Krishnan, Dharapuram Sundararajan, V. T. Rajagopalan, H. R. Jothipala, Kamukara Purushothaman, P. Kalinga Rao and Pithapuram Nageswara Rao.
She also sang duets with female singers with most notably with P. Suseela, P. Leela, L. R. Easwari and Jikki. Others are A. P. Komala, A. G. Rathnamala, S. Janaki, M. L. Vasanthakumari, T. V. Rathinam, K. Rani, Swarnalatha, M. S. Rajeswari, Soolamangalam Rajalakshmi, L. R. Anjali, Swarna and Renuka.

Discography

Awards