Jency a rainbow : John Mahendran

Jency….A Rainbow voice of both Joy and pain blended.

When you are happy you enjoy the music, when you are sad you understand the lyrics, I have read this somewhere.

Same can be said to songs that are sung by Jency madam.Listen to her song when you are happy it’s a jolly good song, listen to the same song when are unhappy it sounds different.

Dheiveega raagam, Idhayam pogudhey, En vaanilay,Kaadhal oviyam and many are the golden examples.

Few years back Srikant Deva and myself were composing songs for a movie during when I was suggesting many reference songs for the situation. Coincidentally all the songs I suggested were sung by Jency madam.

Then came the thought, why don’t we make her sing the song. After a brief search we found her, yes Jency madam was on the other side of the call.

She was quite taken aback by our request to honor our song by her God blessed voice. It came as a shock when we heard that it was almost eighteen years since she sang a song.

“ ayyo john, it’s been ages since I sang, god knows whether I can do justice to your song, I will come but if you feel I am not good, just send me back”

A moment when a Cuckoo doubted her own voice…

Within few days she flew down, the ever smiling, shy natured singer was meticulous in her work, she kept asking so many questions to me about the song, I was surprised as to why she was having so many questions to a Director than a Music director who composed the tune.

Next few hours was magical…each words conveyed a different emotion when it came through her voice…A voice which is a companion to many loners… A voice which rekindles our memories…

During the break as I was torturing her to sing some numbers, she told me something about my father and Director Mahendran, that shocked me as a Director, something that I never knew was the most important job of a director.

She said “ john, those days, during the song recording, Mahendran sir used to come to voice room, and explained me about the script and detailed me about the character I was about to sing and goes ahead to explain the situation of the song and also the mood of the character I was about to sing and also how he intends to shoot the song. Such was the input given to a singer not just the tune and lyrics”

Honestly till then I never even knew that many Directors did this…or as a Director, it is his duty to explain to a singer.

In todays rush most of the time singers don’t get to meet even the music director or the lyricist, imagine meeting a director. The singers don’t even know which movie or director they are singing for.

No wonder songs of those days still so strongly lingers in our deepest of our memories no matter whether we are happy or sad.

“ sirikkum vizhiyile oru mayakkam theriyudhey” en vaanile song from Johnny, despite the strong presence of giants like Mahendran sir.  Lensman Ashok kumar, Maestro Ilayaraja, Rajini sir and Sridevi Madam, it was the invisible voice of jency that still makes a strong disturbing nostalgic impression in our hearts.

John Mahendran

Writer/Director/Columnist