age of 94. And he was suffering from various illness. All the
well-wishers and admirers prayed for his recovery, but the inevitable
death claimed him.
Manna Dey, the legendary singer reigned the Indian scene of music
industry for many many decades. Even he ventured to sing and record
some new songs this year at the age of 94. Song was the life of him
and I love his songs since childhood.
I remember, when I was 10, I had to listen 'Anurodher Asar' of Kolkata
AIR. 'rimjhim jhim bristi' was the newly released song of Manna Dey
that year. I used to listen it again and again and noticed the tone
and accent of the singer. It was somewhat peculiar to me. And I asked
my elder brothers, is this singer non-Bengalee? I asked it because the
singer adopted a very lively approach to give the song ease. And it
was very novel at that time.
I fell in love with the গায়কী of this singer since then. Every year,
Manna Dey used to record 2 basic songs for HMV and I used to wait
eagerly for his songs. He recorded "lolita oke aaj chole jete bolna"
and it became history. It became his most famous Bengali song. Radio
of Kolkata started to play this record every Sunday.
After the school life, Manna Dey used to sing in my college life too.
When I stare in the class room at her, the song "o kano ato sundari
holo" or "ki dekhle tumi amate" was being played on the loudspeaker
far away. When I listen "katha dao abar asbe" or "apobaad hok na aro,
boyei galo" on radio, I had to thought her - my beloved.
In short, Manna Dey used to control the emotional world of my love.
His songs remained immortal in my life. I started to observe 1 May -
the birthday of Manna Dey by listening his songs. And by this way,
Manna Dey and his songs became part of my life. Forever.
Manna Dey was born to father, Purna
Chandra and mother, Mahamaya
Dey on 1 May 1919 in Kolkata. Besides his
parents, his youngest paternal
uncle, Sangeetacharya Krishna
Chandra Dey highly inspired and
influenced him. He received his
early education in Indu Babur
Pathshala, a small pre-primary
school in North Kolkata. He did stage shows as a
child singer in school since
1929. He attended
Scottish Church Collegiate School
and Scottish Church College . He
participated in sports events like
wrestling and boxing in his college
days. He graduated from
Vidyasagar College of North Kolkata .
Manna Dey began taking music lessons
from Krishna Chandra Dey and
Ustad Dabir Khan. During this
period, he stood first for three
consecutive years in three different
categories of inter-collegiate
singing
competitions.
In 1942, Manna Dey accompanied Krishna
Chandra Dey on a visit to Bombay .
There he started working as an
assistant music director first under
Krishna Chandra Dey, 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.
Dey started his career in playback
singing with the movie Tamanna, in
1942. The musical score was by
Krishna Chandra Dey and Manna
sang a duet named "Jago Aayee
Usha Ponchi Boley Jago" with
Suraiya which was an instant hit.
His songs like "O Prem Diwani
Sambhal Ke Chalna" from 1944 film
Kadambari composed by Anil
Biswas, "Dil Churaney Ki Liye from
Dur Chaley" (1946) composed by
Jafar Khurshid, his duets with
Amira Bahee like "E Diniya Jara
Suney" from Kamala (1946) and
duet song "Aaj Bor Aayee" with
Meena Kapoor from 1947 film
Chaltey Chaltey became
chartbusters in respective years.
Between 1945-47 many Manna
Dey-Rajkumari duets like "Hay
Gagan Me Badal Tharey" in 1945
for the film Vikaramaditya , "Aowji
Morey" from Insaaf (1946), all 4
duets from the film Geet Govind
composed by Pandit Indra - "Kit
Ho Nando Kumar", "Chorr Sakhi Aaj
Laj", "Apney Hi Rang", "Lalit Labang
Lata" from Geet Govind became
popular. He sang for first time
songs composed by Sachin Dev
Burman, Upar Gagan Vishal an
d
Duniya Ke Logo in the 1950.
And then, he never looked back.
--
A. B.
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