Unmatched musical genius Manna Dey passes away

Manna Dey, who gave us innumerable heart rendering songs, breathed his last at 3.50 am this morning at a hospital at Bangalore. He died of a cardiac arrest, he was 94. While one of his two daughters is based in America, the other daughter and her husband were beside him when he breathed his last. Manna Dey married Sulochana Kumaran from Kerala in 1953 and they have two daughters Shuroma and Sumita. Having started his singing journey in way back in 1942 in Phani Majumdar’s Tamanna, this Padma Shri (1971) Padma Bhushan (2005) and Dadasaheb Phalke Award (2007) winner had the distinction of recording more than 4000 songs mainly in Hindi and Bengali in his illustrious career. Having come on a visit to Bombay in 1942 with his uncle Krishna Chandra Dey (K C Dey), Dey started working as an assistant music director first under his uncle and then under Sachin Dev Burman. Later, he assisted other music composers and then started to work independently. While working independently as a music director for various Hindi movies, Manna Dey continued to take musical lessons in Hindustani classical music from Ustad Aman Ali Khan and Ustad Abdul Rahman Khan. In between in the same year (1942), his nephew K C Dey gave him a break when he sang a duet Jago Aayee Usha Ponchi Boley Jago along with Suraiya. This song turned an instant hit and then there was no looking back for Dey. In the post independence period, after 1947, Dey’s services were used regularly by music composers Anil Biswas, Shankar Rao Vyas, S.K.Pal, S.D.Burman, Khem Chand Prakash and Mohd.Safi. Later between 1948-1954, Dey established his versatility by singing not only the classical-based film songs and also crooning such film songs which were fusion of Indian classical music and pop music and by giving classical music concerts. In 1953, Dey became nationally famous after the release of Do Bigha Zamin in in which he sang two songs under the music direction of Salil Choudhury. So much did Salilda like his work that he worked with Dey right from 1953 to 1992 in Hindi films and made Dey sing even in Bengali and Malayalam films. Dey’s association with Shankar-Jaikishan and producer Raj Kapoor, that beganfrom Awara, continued with Boot Polish in 1954, Shree 420, Chori Chori and Mera Naam Joker among many others. A genius of sorts as far as classical songs were concerned, Dey later spread his wings working with musicians like C. Ramchandra, Suresh Talwar, A.R.Quereshi and Anil Biswas who were dishing out music in that period. Later, he worked extensively with other music directors like Naushad, K.Dutta, Vasant Pawar, Vasant Desai, Ravi, S.K.Pal, Avinash Vyas, S. N. Tripathi, Sanmukh Babu, Nissar Bazmi, Husanlal Bhagatram, B.N. Bali, Sushanta Banerjee, O.P. Nayyar, G.Ramanathan, T.G.Lingappa, Nirmal Kumar, Ghulam Mohhammed, Bipin Dutta, Rabin Banerjee, Roshan, Sapan Jagmohan from 1954 to 1968. Till then it so happened that Dey’s voice was only used for other characters and not the heroes, and that became his grouse for the noted singer. Then Raj Kapoor asked Dey to playback for him in Shree 420 (Mud Mud Ke Na Dekh), Chori Chori (Yeh Raat Bheegi, Jahan Main Jati and Aja Sanam), Parvarish (Masti bhara hai sama), Dil Hi To Hai (Laga chunari mein daag), Mera Naam Joker (Ae bhai zara dekh ke chalo). Later when Jaikishan of the Shankar Jakishan duo expired in 1971, Kapoor used Dey’s voice in Ek Paon Chal Raha Hai in Kal Aaj Aur Kal the same year with music by R.D.Burman. Panchamda also used the voice of this versatile singer and recorded hit songs with Manna Dey regularly from 1965 in films like Bhoot Bangla, Gomti Ke Kinare, Chandan Ka Palna, Baharon Ke Sapne, Padosan among many others. Another versatile singer of those times was Kishore Kumar. And for a sort of news to music aficionados, Manna Dey and Kishore Kumar recorded only 6 songs together till 1968. Among them were Tubhi Piya Chikara Hoon and Tu Jaam Liye Jaa from Bewakoof, Babu Samjho Ishaare from Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (1958) all three composed by S.D.Burman and Baheta Pani Baheta Jaye from Dhaake Ke Malamaal composed by C.Ramachandra, Jiyo Jiyo Mere Lal composed by S.K.Pal in 1952 and their first duet together - Subaho Ki Paheli Kiran in 1951 from Anadholan. In1968 R.D.Burman brought them together for Ek Chatur Naar song in Padosan. Not only with Kishore Kumar, Dey sang duets with singers like Mukesh, Mahendra Kapoor, Talat Mahmood, Amit Kumar, Shailendra Singh, Krishna Kalle, Shardha Rajan Iyengar, Aarthi Mukherjee, Chandrani Mukherjee, Anuradha Pudwal, Hemlata, Minu Purushottom, Bhupinder Singh, K.J.Yesudas, Suresh Wadkar, Kavita Krishnamoorty, Alka Yagnik, Antara Chowdhury, Preeti Sagar, Dilraj Kaur, Yunus Fazmi, Jaspal Singh, Anwar, Manhar Udhas, Joginder and Mubarak Begum. After 1992, Dey withdrew himself from Hindi film music citing lack of good quality of music and bad picturisation. But he continued to sing in Bengali movies, bhajans and ghazals in different languages and concentrated on giving live performances from 1992-2012. His last live performance was in 2012 in Mumbai. Taking all his songs into account, Dey sang 611 songs in Bengali films, sung 356 Bengali non-film songs. He also sang 46 Rabindra Sangeet songs in Bengali, three Dwijendra Geet, 84 Shayam Sangeets, 35 film songs in Bhojpuri, 2 in Magadh and one song in Maithilee language. He also sang songs in Punjabi, Assameese, Oriya, Gujarati films and Marathi. In the South Indian languages he sang 2 songs in Kannada and an equal number in Malayalam. Among the noted songs Dey sang were Puchho na kaise maine rain beetaiyee, Kasme Wade Pyaar wafa sab, Kaun aaya mere dilke dwaare, Laga chunri me daag, Sur na saje, Zindagi kaisi hai paheli among many others. To summarise, the man who sang Zindagi Kaisi Hai Paheli has left the world without answering the same!!!