Manna Dey

Biography

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.
Dey was especially acclaimed for blending classical music elements with popular compositions, a style that played a significant role during the golden era of 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.
For his contribution to Indian music, Dey received numerous honours. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1971, the Padma Bhushan in 2005, 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 received his early education at Indu Babur Pathshala, a small pre-primary school. He started doing stage shows in school from 1929. He attended Scottish Church Collegiate School and Scottish Church College. 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.

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.

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.

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.