Manna Dey: Recalling a Colossus

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Manna Dey’s 11^th death anniversary falls today, October 24. And I start this tribute piece with his comment when I met him the second time. “Mohammed Rafi and I were the only singers who would be called to sing any and every kind of song. The rest were great singers, but had their limitations!”

And if you thought that this remark had an arrogant air, his next reply will rid you of that misconception. I asked whether it did not hurt that Rafi got many more songs, especially for all the heroes, while he was often restricted to songs of comedians, character artistes, devotionals, background songs and so on.

“No!’ came his simple reply. “Because Rafi was a better singer than me!”

I persisted: “But Manna-da, you are the most highly classically-trained singer in the industry. How can you say that?” And he massaged my shoulder and stated, “I  am saying this! That’s enough for you!” The admiration was mutual, and Manna-da smiled and added, “‘Rafi once told a journalist, ‘You listen to my songs. I listen only to Manna Dey! But that only showed his greatness!’”

Now that was the legend, the Dadasaheb Phalke laureate Manna Dey at the core: a man frank to the point of bluntness, but immensely secure and humble. And Manna Dey sang every kind of song with equal brilliance.

He explains, “Maybe I was typecast because my first truly popular song was Chale Radhe rani from Parineeta that was filmed on a very old man!” Let us also recall that his first breakthrough was with Oopar gagan vishal from the 1950 Mashal, composed by S.D. Burman, who at one time assisted Manna-da’s composer-single uncle, Krishan Chandra (K.C.) Dey, also Manna-da’s guru.

And he is right about his opening statement above—for let us look at Manna Dey’s limitless range. He said, “Raj Kapoor opened my horizons with the astounding pains he took over the creation and enactment of songs. And Mehmood was one of my favourites too.”

For a man extensively known for philosophical peaens and litanies, Manna-da was brilliant at light songs, proving yet again that a solid base in Hindustani classical (his gurus were, besides his uncle, Ustad Aman Khan, Ustad Dabir Khan and Ustad Abdul Rahman Khan) could make an artiste take on anything with ease.

The fun element in his singing first surfaced not so much with a comedian but with Raj Kapoor. Mukesh and Raj Kapoor were like body and soul, but specific songs always went to Manna Dey, beginning with Tere bin aag yeh chandni (Hindi cinema’s first dream sequence, in the 1951 Awara) and light songs like Dil ka haal sune dilwala and Mud mud ke na dekh (with Asha Bhosle) both from Shree 420 and Dattaram’s Mama o mama (with Rafi / Parvarish). And the crowning glory was Ae bhai zara dekhke chalo (Mera Naam Joker) with many others in between, in films like Chori Chori and Dil Hi To Hai.

Mehmood, of course, helped consolidate Manna-da’s comic image. An assortment of composers created an amazing diversity of fun songs for the Manna-Mehmood combo, like Aao twist karen (Bhoot Bangla), Ek chatur naar (Padosan), Tujhko rakkhe Ram (with Asha in Ankhen) and Khali dabba khaali botal (Neel Kamal), the classic Jodi hamari (with Asha) in Aulad, O meri maina (with Usha Mangeshkar in Pyar Kiye Jaa), Do diwane dil ke (with Rafi in Johar Mehmood In Goa) or Main tere pyar mein and Pyar ke aag mein in Ziddi.

The comic streak even went beyond Mehmood, with Shankar-Jaikishan getting Manna Dey in for Mere bhains ko danda (Pagla Kahin Ka) and Yeh umar hai kya rangeeli (Professor), both Shammi Kapoor delights. Another example was Babu samjho ishaare in Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi for Ashok Kumar.

“Playback is about observation and my experience in choirs must have helped. My wife Sulochana was also responsible for teaching me a lot of Western nuances,” Manna-da had told me once.

For someone deeply into classical, Manna-da loved Western music and was brilliant at such songs as well, part of which expertise he attributed to his singing in the choirs of his Scottish Church College in Kolkata.  Songs like Nineteen fifty-six (Anari), the waltz Dil ki girah khol do (Raat Aur Din), both with Lata Mangeshkar, were among such ditties. And Manna-da revealed that he used Western nuances even in Aye mere pyare watan in Kabuliwala!

“In a way, I came here to sing classical numbers, which I got in abundance. I could sing classical better than anyone else!” he remarked. The frank legend was right! Come hero, character artiste or comedian (in old Hindi film cinema the last two were diverse categories!), Manna-da was plain magnificent at semi-classical and classical songs.

His piece-de-resistance was Shankar-Jaikishan’s Basant Bahar where he dominated the score with all-time masterpieces like Bhay bhanjana, Ketaki gulab juhi (with Pandit Bhimsen Joshi), Sur na saje and Nain mile chain kahaan. Manna Dey and Rafi dazzled together in Tu hai mera prem devta (Kalpana), a semi-classical song composed by the musically-untrained O.P.Nayyar.

Kisne chilman se maara (Baat Ek Raat Ki), Laaga chunari mein daag (Dil Hi To Hai), Pooncho na kaise maine (Meri Surat Teri Ankhen), Jhanak jhanak tori baaje payaliya (Mere Huzoor), Chham chham baaje re payaliya (Jaane Anjaane), Tere naina talash kare (Talash), Aayo kahaan se Ghanashyam (Buddha Mil Gaya), Re man sur mein gaa (Lal Patthar), Dharti ambar neend se jaage (Chaitali), Ek rut aaye (with Lata in Sua Saal Baad), Tum gagan ke chandrama ho (with Lata in Sati Savitri) and Bhor aa hi gaya and Tum bin jeevan (Bawarchi) were among the cream of his raag-based rockers.

The range of this peerless legend obviously imparted so much luster to multiple genres of songs. Devotionals, patriotic songs, philosophical paeans, multi-singer songs and not to forget a legion of romantic rhapsodies and even lullabies and children’s songs were all in the Manna mould. And you could have had separate CDs of each category in the physical music era!

A special—very special!—forte was the qawwali, which no one could sing like (Rafi and) Manna-da. Na to karvaan ki talash hai and Yeh ishq ishq hai, both multi-singer songs for Barsat Ki Raat, Vaaqif hoon khoon ishq ke (with Rafi and Asha) in two parts in Bahu Begum, the stunning Parda uthe salaam ho jaaye (with Asha) in Dil Hi To Hai, Main idhar jaaoon ya udhar jaaoon (Palki), Tumhein husn deke (Jab Se Tumhe Dekha Hai), Tu mere pyaale mein (with Kishore Kumar in Amir Garib) and of course the cult Ae meri zohra jabeen (Waqt) and Yaari hai imaan (Zanjeer) all showed what an astounding range the man had.

Folk songs (Bichhua in Madhumati, Chunari sambhaal gori in Baharon Ke Sapne, both with Lata, Chalat musafir from Teesri Kasam, Dukh bhare din with Asha, Rafi and Shamshad Begum in Mother India, the Pathan-flavored Kasme vaade pyar wafaa in Upkar) were also a part of his comprehensive-in-genre repertoire.

Happily, Manna-da did get to sing for most of the heroes, besides being a second-line favorite for Raj and Shammi Kapoor. The rarer names included Manoj Kumar (Reshmi Roomal), Kishore Kumar as actor (Begunaah, Duniya Nachegi), Dev Anand (Chhupa Rustom), Sanjeev Kumar (Sachaai and Jyoti), Rajendra Kumar (Zindagi), Shashi Kapoor (Pyar Kiye Jaa, Juari), Randhir Kapoor (Ponga Pandit and Hamrahi), Shatrughan Sinha (Ganga Tera Pani Amrit, Khaan Dost, Kranti and more), Sunil Dutt (Jwala), Vinod Khanna (Nehle Pe Dehla, Zameer) Jeetendra (Umar Qaid and Samraat), Rajesh Khanna (Anand, Mehbooba, Baharon Ke Sapne), Feroz Khan (Raat Aur Din) and even Amitabh Bachchan (Sholay).

Singers may be born every day, but a Manna Dey comes once in a century.

Major honors for Manna Dey

National awards for Mere Huzoor /1969 & Nishi Padma (Bengali / 1971)

Padma Shri / 1971

Lata Mangeshkar Award from Madhya Pradesh / 1985

Allaudin Khan Award from West Bengal / 2003

Lifetime Achievement by Government of Maharashtra / 2005

Padma Bhushan / 2005

Dadasaheb Phalke award / 2007