Legendary playback singer S. Janaki will enthral connoisseurs of music on Saturday at the open air auditorium of Manasagangotri in Mysuru in what will be her last public concert.
She announced her decision to stop accepting new assignments in September 2016. “She is performing at Mysuru to honour an old commitment,” said S. Murali Krishna, son of Ms. Janaki. She has also stopped recording songs for films, after singing for six decades, with the Malayalam film Kalpanakal last year.
“We had been persuading her to perform in Mysuru from the past 10 years,” said M. Naveen, coordinator of S. Janaki Charitable Trust in Mysuru, which is organising the concert. The day will see Pramoda Devi Wadiyar honouring Ms. Janaki. Mr. Krishna confirmed that the Trust, run by her ardent fans, had been persuading his mother to perform at Mysuru and she had finally relented.
The event will see the who’s who of the film fraternity attending, including Shivarajkumar, B. Saroja Devi, Sowkar Janaki, Bharati Vishnuvardhan, Hamsalekha, Srinath, Rajesh and Jayati, participating and sharing their experiences with Ms. Janaki.
With a versatile voice, Janaki crossed boundaries of ages and time and sang for almost every music director in south India — from S. Rajeswara Rao, K.V. Mahadevan, M.S. Vishwanathan, P. Dakshina Murthy, Ilayaraja to A.R. Rehman. She sang alongside legends like Ghantasala, T.M. Soundarrajan, P.B. Srinivos, S.P. Balasubrahamanyam, P. Susheela, L.R. Eshwari , Vani Jayaram and actor-singer Dr. Rajkumar.
