Manna Dey

Prabodh Chandra Dey (; 1 May 1919 − 24 October 2013), known professionally as Manna Dey, was an Indian playback singer, music director, and musician. With a strong foundation in classical music, he is widely regarded as one of the most versatile and celebrated vocalists in the Indian film industry. He is also credited with bringing Indian classical music into mainstream Hindi cinema.

Over a career spanning more than five decades, Dey recorded about 3,500 songs. While most were in Bengali and Hindi, he also sang in 14 other Indian languages, including Bhojpuri, Punjabi, Assamese, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, and Chhattisgarhi. His peak popularity was during the mid-1950s to the 1970s. and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2007. He belonged to the Bhendibazaar gharana and trained under Ustad Aman Ali Khan. Early life Dey was born in a Bengali family to Mahamaya and Purna Chandra Dey on 1 May 1919 in Calcutta (Now Kolkata). Besides his parents, his youngest paternal uncle, Sangeetacharya Krishna Chandra Dey highly inspired and influenced him. He participated in sports events like wrestling and boxing in his college days, taking training from Gobar Guha. He graduated from Vidyasagar College.

Dey began taking music lessons from Krishna Chandra Dey and Ustad Dabir Khan. During this period of learning, he stood first for three consecutive years in three different categories of inter-collegiate singing competitions.

Career

Early career (1942–1953) Before singing his first film score, Manna Dey's uncle Krishna Chandra Dey suggested him to take the stage name "Manna Dey." K. C. Dey was a music director. Manna Dey was influenced by music from his early years.

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.

Shankar Rao Vyas taught Manna Dey the songs and he chose to sing them in his uncle's distinct style. And thus started the illustrious career with his first solo song "Gayi Tu Gayi Seeta Sati" from the film Ram Rajya in 1943. The song remarked then Dey as a singer of devotional songs, and got the attention of music composers. The song was the only film song that Mahatma Gandhi heard. thumb 1968–1991 He received a fresh lease of life in his playback singing career from 1971 after Rajesh Khanna allowed music directors to picturise or feature songs sung by Dey in films with Khanna in lead role beginning with Anand, composed by Salil Chowdhury. For Rajesh Khanna, Dey had sung songs "Zindagi kaisi hai paheli" (Anand, 1971), "Tum bin jeewan kaisa jeewan" and "Bhor Aaye Gaya Andhera" (Bawarchi, 1972), "Nadiya Chale Re" (song sung with Rajesh and Dey), "Hasne ki chah ne kitna mujhe" (Avishkaar, 1973) and "Gori tori paijaniya" (Mehbooba, 1976). Later in a 2012 interview, Dey said, "I loved the way he picturised music. The success of a song depends upon how an actor picturises it. He was the number one in picturising songs. I will be ever indebted to him."

In 1983, Manna Dey sang the Bengali song "Coffee Houser Sei Addata", penned by Gauriprasanna Mazumdar and composed by Suparna Kanti Ghosh in a studio in Mumbai.

His first duet with Usha Khanna was "Janemon Janemon Tum Din Raat" from film Haye Mera Dil (1968), composed by Kalyanji Anandji. His first song with S. Janaki was "Itna Manta Tu Mera" from Aashiq C.I.D (1973) and with P. Susheela was "Joy Ho Gaanga Maiya Ki" from Gangaa Ki God Mein (1980). He recorded his first song with Vani Jayram, "Rataiya Baba, Rajania Baba" for the film Ratnaa Dakoo in 1972 and their other popular duets include "Mitwa More Man Mitwa" from the film Parinay (1974), composed by Jaidev. Dey also sang with singer/composer, Hemant Kumar (Hemanta Mukherjee), in Bengali movies, and also with some other Bengali composers like Nachiketa Ghosh and Sudhin Dasgupta. He sang a duet, "Ke Prothom Kachhe Esechi", with Lata Mangeshkar in the movie Sankhyabela. He also performed Rabindra Sangeet and recorded over 4000 songs till 2012. In addition to film songs, Dey released several albums of devotional songs of Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj.

1992–2013

He sang duets with singers like Kishore Kumar, Md Rafi, Mukesh, Sandhya Mukherjee, Mahendra Kapoor, Talat Mahmood, Hemant Kumar, Amit Kumar, Shailendra Singh, Krishna Kalle, Shardha Rajan Iyengar, Arati Mukherjee, Chandrani Mukherjee, Anuradha Pudwal, Hemlata (singer), Minu Purushottom, Bhupinder Singh, K.J. Yesudas, P Jayachandran, Suresh Wadkar, Kavita Krishnamoorty, Alka Yagnik, Antara Chowdhury, Preeti Sagar, Dilraj Kaur, Yunus Fazmi, Jaspal Singh, Anwar, Manhar Udhas, Joginder and Mubarak Begum. He worked with more than 102 music directors in Hindi film industry from working with Krishna Chandra Dey in Tamanna in 1942 to music composer Shamir Tandon in 2006.

List of songs recorded by Manna Dey

Personal life In December 1953, Dey married Sulochana Kumaran. She was originally from Kannur, Kerala. Together they had two daughters – Shuroma Herekar (1956–2016), a US based scientist and Shumita Dev (b. 1958), a Bengaluru-based businesswoman. Sulochana died in Bengaluru in January 2012. She had been suffering from cancer for some time. After her death, Dey moved to Kalyan Nagar in Bengaluru after spending more than fifty years in Mumbai.

Death

On 8 June 2013, Dey was admitted to the ICU in a Bengaluru hospital after a chest infection gave rise to other complications. His health gradually improved and about a month later doctors took him off the ventilator support. Later, he was discharged from the hospital.

He was hospitalised again in the first week of October 2013, and died of a cardiac arrest at 3:45 pm on 24 October at Narayana Hrudayalaya hospital in Bengaluru, aged 94. Musicians, politicians, cricketers and other notable persons issued statements on his death. He was cremated in Bengaluru.

Media

Dey's Bengali language autobiography, Jiboner Jalsaghorey, has been published by Ananda Publishers in the year 2005 which has been translated in English as Memories Come Alive, in Hindi as Yaden Jee Uthi and in Marathi as Jivanacha Jalasagarat.

Jibaner Jalsaghore, a documentary on Dey's life, was released in 2008. Manna Dey Sangeet Academy is developing a complete archive on Manna Dey. In association with Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata, the Manna Dey Music Archive has been developed in the Sangeet Bhawan.

He also lent his voice for Madhushala, composed by Harivansh Rai Bachchan.

Awards

1965 Bengal Film Journalists' Association Award 1967 Bengal Film Journalists' Association Award – Best Male Playback Award for Sankhyabela 1968 Bengal Film Journalists' Association Award – Best Male Playback Award for Antony Firingi 1968 National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer for the Hindi Film Mere Huzoor 1969 Bengal Film Journalists' Association Award – Best Male Playback Award (Hindi) for Mere Huzoor 1970 Bengal Film Journalists' Association Award – Best Male Playback Award for Chira Diner 1971 National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer for the Bengali film Nishi Padma and Hindi film Mera Naam Joker 1971 Padma Shri by Government of India 1972 Filmfare Award for Best Male Playback Singer for Mera Naam Joker 1973 Bengal Film Journalists' Association Award – Best Male Playback Award for Stree 1979 Kalaimamani 1983 Tulsi Samman by Government of Madhya Pradesh 1985 Ordre des Arts et des Lettres awarded by Government of France 1985 Lata Mangeshkar Award awarded by Government of Madhya Pradesh 1988 Bengal Film Journalists' Association Award – Best Male Playback Award for Lalan Fakir 1988 Michale Sahittyo Puraskar awarded by Renaissance Sanskritik Parishad, Dhaka 1990 Shyamal Mitra Award by Mithun Fans Association 1991 Sangeet Swarnachurr Award awarded by Shree Khetra Kala Prakashika, Puri 1993 P.C.Chandra Award by P.C.Chandra Group & others 1994 Fukuoka Prize by Government of Japan 1995 Kalidas Samman by Government of Madhya Pradesh 1999 Kamala Devi Roy Award by Kamala Devi Group 1999 Zee Cine Award for Lifetime Achievement by Zee Group 2001 Anandalok Lifetime Award by the Anandabazar Group 2002 Special Jury Swaralaya Yesudas Award for outstanding performance in music 2003 Alauddin Khan Award by the Government of West Bengal 2004 National Award as Playback singer by Government of Kerala 2004 Hony D. Litt. Award by the Rabindra Bharati University 2005 Lata Mangeshkar Award by Government of Maharashtra 2005 Padma Bhushan by the Government of India 2007 First Akshaya Mohanty Award by Government of Orissa 2007 Awarded the Dada Saheb Phalke Award by the Government of India 2008 Hony D. Litt. Award by Jadavpur University 2009 Mirchi Music Lifetime Achievement Award 2011 Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award 2011 Banga-Vibhushan by Government of West Bengal 2012 Annanyo Samman given by 24 Ghanta TV channel for his lifetime achievement. 2013 Conferred with Sangeet Maha Samman by Government of West Bengal. 2013 Deshikottama by Visva-Bharati(posthumously). 2015 Honorary D.Litt. by University of Cambridge(posthumously).