It would be commonplace to describe Manna Dey as a legend. He was that and much more. last of the ‘great’ male singers who enriched our lives for decades, spanning at least three generations, he was the bridge not only between the past and present but also classical and pop. He could render Sur na saje, kya gayoon main sur ke bina or Puchho na kaise maine rayen bitayi with the same dedication as the zesty Aao twist karen or the superfast Ae bhai zara dekh ke chalo.
Prabodh Chandra Dey (screen name Manna) was born to a family of legendary Hindustani classical singers. His uncle Krishna Chandra or KC Dey (the blind super-singer of the 30s and 40s) initiated his nephew to the world of ragas at a time when dadra, thumri and other variants of classical compositions ruled the roast. In the Calcutta of those times, zamindars lavished their largesse on musicians and rewarded them well for the evening entertainment they provided at jalsa gatherings in their palatial city homes in North Calcutta or baganbaris (farmhouses in today’s parlance) on the outskirts of the Second City of Empire.
Young Manna’s strict classical grooming ensured he maintained a rigorous schedule of riwaaz (early morning practice sessions) which have since gone out of vogue given the hustle-bustle of contemporary life. In fact he refused to settle in the US despite completing the process of getting a Green Card because after going there he found his musical training was suffering.
Manna Dey never achieved the celebrity status that his youngers like Kishore Kumar or Mohammad Rafi did. But he remained contented with what life gave him, admitting they were more versatile as they possessed a “God-given voice, whereas mine is only a trained voice”. A devotee of music, he always asserted he never sang for money, but only out of love.Till about five years back, he continued to perform on stage and remained a major draw at pandals in Calcutta, Delhi and Mumbai during Durga Puja.
Manna Dey’s golden period was in the 60s, when romance ruled and melody was king. He was fortunate to have sung many memorable numbers for Raj Kapoor such as Yeh raat bheegi bheegi, Aaja sanam madhur chandni mein hum and Pyar hua iqrar hua and even the rhythmic Mud-mud ke na dekh. Unfortunately, few music directors tried him out with other heroes and by the late 60s and 70s he came to be better known as comedian Mehmood’s voice (apart from Aao twist karen, some will recall Jodi hamari from nondescript Aulad whose music was composed by Anand-Milind’s father Chitragupta). He excelled in comic numbers such as Mere bhains ko danda kyon mara picturised on Shammi Kapoor in Pagla kahin ka, for example. In Padosan, Manna Dey and Kishore, playing back for Mehmood and Sunil Dutt respectively, had a gripping competition rendering Ek chatur naar badi hoshiyaar. But Dil ka haal sune dilwala (Shree 420), with Raj Kapoor on the dafli was undoubtedly his best rendition in this genre.
Soulful melodies, though, were his real forte. Who can forget Ae mere pyare watan from Kabuliwala as Balraj Sahni yearns to return to his motherlandIJ Strains of Zindagi kaisi hai paheli waft through the air even today, 40 years after Rajesh Khanna walked along Juhu beach with this fast-paced philosophical number playing in the background.
Although known more for their folk-based compositions, laxmikant-Pyarelal’s raga-based duet for Manna Dey and lata Mangeshkar for a mythological in the early 60s, Tum gagan ke chandrama ho is rated among the most romantic melodies of yesteryear. Similarly, another duet Soch ke ye gagan jhoome from the little known Jyoti, composed by SD Burman rates as among the best chassical numbers of Bollywood. But the superhit, laaga chunri mein daag from Raj Kapoor-starrer Dil Hi To Hai (music: Roshan), ending in a hyperfast jhala is comparable only to Rafi’s Madhuban mein Radhika naache re (Kohinoor).
Shankar-Jaikishan, however, were the only big music-directors of their time who gave deserved recognition to Manna Dey’s versatility, thanks largely to Raj Kapoor’s fondness for the Bengali singer. From the beautiful bhajan “Tu pyaar ka sagar hai” (Seema), the semi-classical duet with Asha Bhonsle, “Re man sur mein gaa” (lal Patthar), to the foot-tapping waltz “Dil ki Giroh khol do” (Raat aur Din), filmdom’s earliest composer duo did real justice to Manna Dey’s talent. Not that others did not compose superhits with him. Kalyanji-Anandji threw in a chartbuster with “Yaari hai imaan mera”for Amitabh Bachchan’s first big commercial success, Zanjeer.
The list of Manna Dey’s classic renditions can be endless. From “Umad-ghumad kar aayee re ghata” (Do Bigha Zamin), to “Bheegi chandi, chhayee bekhudi”, “Phool gendua na maro”, “Hansne ki chah ne kitna mujhe rulaya hai” “Nadiya chale chale re dhara” and the National Award winner “Janak jhanak tori baje payaliya” (Mere Huzoor) “Shaam dhale Yamuna kinare” (Pushpanjali) and even the inebriated “Ek botal ho bagal mein” (Seeta aur Geeta) and of course the classic “Yeh dosti hum nahi todenge” (Sholay), Manna Dey lives on our lips more than two decades after he stopped singing for Hindi films, (his last was from Nana Patekar’s Prahaar - “Hamari mutthi mein aakash sara”).
Manna Dey was a cult figure in Bengal, standing up to competition from Hemanta Mukherjee (known in Bombay as Hemant Kumar) and even Kishore. His numbers from Antony Feringhee (starring Uttam Kumar and Tanuja), such as “Aami je jalsagharer belowari jhaad”, and several Soumitra Chaterjee hits like “Jibone ki pabona”, Hoyto tomari jonyo”, as well as Uttam-Madhabi Mukherjee’s Shankabela (“Ke prothom kaachhey eshechhi” and “Ami Agantuk”) or “Aami Shri Shri Bhajahari Manna” (Chhadmabeshi, original of Chupke-Chupke) will forever remain evergreen favourites of Bengali masses and classes alike.
Manna Dey stayed on top of Bengal’s charts despite his relative inability to score with Rabindra Sangeet, considered a sine qua non for the success of Bengali singers. Perhaps his strict classical training came in the way of the less rigorous compositions of Tagore, in which a comparatively untrained Hemata Mukherjee excelled.
With Kishore Kumar, Mohammad Rafi, Hemant Kumar, Mukesh and Mahendra Kapoor passing away over the last few decades, Manna Dey remained the last torch-bearer of a bygone age. Female nightingales, lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhonsle are still there to recall the days when singers had to record in sweaty tin sheds past midnight to ensure relative silence on the streets and even their names did not appear on 78 rpm record labels. But a huge slice of history has gone with Manna Dey’s passage. But then, as he sang in Anand:
Jinhone sajaye yahan mele, Sukh-dukh sang-sang jheley Wohi chunkar khamoshi Chala jaye sapnon ke age kahaan… He has left behind many dreams with us and moved on to the world of dreams. The heavens are richer, but the Earth poorer.