When Manna Dey started honing his singing talent, he himself was not aware of the wave he created. Here are a few facts that set him apart from his contemporaries
Fondly known by one and all as Manna Dey, the maestro’s original name was Prabodh Chandra Dey. He received his early education in a small pre-primary school and later went to Scottish Church Collegiate School and Scottish Church College. He began chasing his dream right from his college days where he sang to entertain his classmates. later he began taking singing lessons from his uncle, Krishna Chandra Dey and Ustad Dabir Khan. While he was learning music, he also won the inter-collegiate singing competition for three consecutive years.
His journey in Bollywood began only as an assistant music director in 1942. He accompanied Krishna Chandra Dey to Mumbai for the same. He also worked as an assistant music director under SD Burman but soon began working independently. However, he also took musical lessons in Hindustani classical music from Ustad Aman Ali Khan and Ustad Abdul Rahman Khan.
Dey’s career as a playback singer kicked started with Tamanna (1942) where he sang a duet Jago Aayee Usha Ponchi Boley Jago with Suraiya. His songs like O Prem Diwani Sambhal Ke Chalna, Kadambari and Dil Churaney Ki liye, his duets with Amira Bahee like E Diniya Jara Suney and Aaj Bor Aayee were all chartbusters of those years.
He also lent his voice for poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan’s Madhushala which stands till date as the best recorded version of the poem.
Dey established his verstality between 1948-1954 by not sticking to only classical based film songs but also singing songs which were a fusion of Indian classical music and pop music. This led to an increase in singing offers for him in 1955. He began singing ghazals in Hindi films and became a music composer in Hindi films. He is also credited for popularising classical based solo and duet songs to the masses like the duet with lata — Pritam Daras Dikhao. His rendition of Kasame Vaade Pyar from Upkar (1967) won accolades for the singer-composer.
Mohmammad Rafi had famously said that though the world listens to his songs, he only listens to Maana Dey’s songs.
Manna Dey sang two hugely popular song with the evergreen Kishore Kumar — Yeh Dosti (Sholay) and Ek Chatur Naar (Padosan).
In his playback singing career spanning over seven decades, Dey sang in many languages, mainly Bengali and Hindi. He sang more than 1200 songs in Bengali, 85 songs in Gujarati films, 55 songs in Marathi, 35 in Bhojpuri and several others in ten more different languages.
His autobiography, Jiboner Jalsaghorey, has been published by renowned Ananda Publisher in the year 2005 which has been translated in English as Memories Come Alive, in Hindi as Yaden Jee Uthi and in Marathi as Jiboner Jalsaghorey.
Dey is one of the rarest singers who have worked with more than 100 music composers.
