Vani Jayaram made her Malayalam debut in 1973 by recording the solo song "Sourayudhathil Vidarnnoru" composed by Salil Chowdhary for the film "Swapnam". The song became hugely popular giving a good credibility to Vani and gave her career a breakthrough. She went on to record over 600 songs in Malayalam cinema. Vani collaborated with all the popular Malayalam composers such as M. K. Arjunan, G. Devarajan, M. S. Viswanathan, R. K. Shekhar, V. Dakshinamoorthy, M. S. Baburaj, Shyam, A. T. Ummer, M. B. Sreenivasan, K. Raghavan, Jerry Amaldev, Kannur Rajan, Johnson, Raveendran and Ilaiyaraaja. Her rendition for the song "Aashada Maasam", composed by R. K. Shekhar for the film "Yudhabhoomi" (1976) met with wide appreciation and further increased her popularity. In 1981, she sang "Kanana Poikayil Kalabham" along with K. J. Yesudas in the composition of M. K. Arjunan for the film "Ariyapedatha Rahasyam" directed by P. Venu. After a long hiatus, Vani returned to Malayalam cinema in 2014 by recording a duet song for the film "1983", and followed it up with a duet song in "Action Hero Biju" (2016).