Jikki

Pillavalu Gajapathy Krishnaveni (3 November 1935 – 16 August 2004), more famously known as Jikki, was an Indian playback singer from Andhra Pradesh. She sang around 10,000 songs in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Sinhalese, and Hindi languages.^[1]

Early life

Jikki was born in

Her uncle, Devaraju Naidu, worked as a music composer with the celebrated Kannada theatre legend and movie pioneer Gubbi Veeranna and this introduced the young Jikki to the music and film world.^[2]

Career

Krishnaveni began her career as a child artist in 1943 and played a minor role in a Telugu movie named Panthulamma, directed by Gudavalli Ramabrahmam. In 1946, she appeared in the movie Mangalasutram, a remake of a Hollywood movie Excuse Me.^[2] She was already being noted for her musical prowess and her lilting mellifluous voice although she did not undergo any orthodox classical training in music at that stage.

A chance came her way to sing for the successful Tamil film Gnanasoundari in 1948 for which music was composed by the then doyen of film music, S. V. Venkatraman. The song was the super hit "Arul Thaarum Deva Maathaavey Aadhiyey Inba Jothi" for Kumari Rajamani who acted as the young girl growing into the young woman, M. V. Rajamma the heroine taking over the song with P. A. Periyanayaki singing as the scene advanced in time. This was the turning point in her life and changed the child actress Krishnaveni into a regular playback singer, Jikki, with offers of work for not only Tamil and Telugu films, but also for Kannada and Malayalam films.^[2]

She met her husband to be,

Together with P. Leela, she reigned supreme in the South Indian film world in the early part of the 1950s, till P. Susheela took over the center stage from late 1950s. Though they were in competition, they were fond of each other and behaved like two sisters and sang many songs together.^[3]

Music composers she sang for

Playback singers she sang with

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She sang memorable duets with all of the leading male singers, mostly with

The singing actors she sang with were M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar, K. R. Ramasamy, P. Bhanumathi, S Varalaxmi and J. P. Chandrababu.

Personal life

She was married to the successful playback singer and music director A. M. Rajah. Their duets have been hits. Jikki sang many songs under her husband's direction that are still played by radio stations. A. M. Raja and Jikki have sung for live programmes in other countries such as U. S. A., Malaysia and Singapore.

A mother of six children, Jikki lost her husband when he slipped and fell between the tracks while boarding a train. The accident happened at

Once when she sang five songs for a Tamil film, she asked the producer Valampuri Somanathan to reduce her remuneration because he had given her the opportunity to sing so many songs in a single movie, such was her dedication for singing.[2]

Death

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She had been suffering from breast cancer and had surgery, but the cancer spread to her kidneys and eventually liver. Several attempts were made to save her life by her close friend and singer K. Jamuna Rani which were supported by donations through musical nights and medical and financial support from the governments of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

The then Tamil Nadu chief minister

She died on 16 August 2004 in Chennai.^[2]

Awards and honours

She was honoured with "Ugadi Puraskaram" by Madras Telugu Academy and Government of Tamil Nadu awarded her "Kalai Ma Mani".^{[citation needed]}

Filmography

This section needs expansion with: Kannada songs. You can help by adding to it. (November 2020)

Jikki sang in 98 Telugu and 71 Tamil films.

Telugu

Tamil

^[4]

Discography

References

• "Her tantalising voice will live forever ..." The Hindu. Archived from the original on 25 August 2004. Retrieved 18 November 2013.

External links

• Jikki at
  IMDb
• Sahadevan Vijayakumar. "Jikki — Playback Singer" (in Tamil). Archived from the original on 16 May 2017.