“Sur Na Saje Kya Gaon Mein”

7th death anniversary of Popular classical singer Manna Dey is today. He was died of a cardiac arrest at 3:45 pm on 24 October at Narayana Hrudayalaya hospital in Bengaluru, aged 94.

Manna dey was born in a Bengali family to Mahamaya and Purna Chandra Dey on 1 May 1919 in Calcutta (Now Kolkata) as Prabodh Chandra Dey, was an internationally acclaimed Indian playback singer, music director, musician and Indian classical vocalist. As an classical vocalist, he was belonged from Bhendibazaar gharana. He was trained under Ustad Aman Khan. He is considered one of the most versatile and celebrated vocalists of the Hindi film industry. He was one of the playback singers credited with the success of Indian classical music in Hindi commercial movies.

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.

But it was only in 1943 that he got his first solo break with Ram Rajya with the song “Gayi tu gayi Seeta sati.

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 and 1947 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 and Duniya Ke Logo in the 1950 movie Mashal, which became popular and from here his association with S.D.Burman began. Its lyrics were written by Kavi Pradeep. In 1952, Dey sang for a Bengali and a Marathi movie with the same name and storyline, Amar Bhupali. This established him as a leading playback singer in Bengali films and Marathi films as well by 1953.

After the song “Upar Gagan Bishal” in film Mashaal, composed by S D Burman he saw success and went on to record more than 4,000 songs till 2013.

In the post independence period, after 1947, Manna Dey was regularly used by music composers Anil Biswas, Shankar Rao Vyas, S.K.Pal, S.D.Burman, Khem Chand Prakash, Mohd.Safi from 1947 to 1957. Dey-Anil Biswas combination gave hit numbers from films like Gajre (1948), Hum Bhi Insaan Hai (1948), Do Sitaare (1951), Hamdard (1953), Mahatma Kabir (1954),Jasoos (1957) and Pardesi (1957). Though Anil Biswas worked with Dey in very few films, their songs remain famous. He recorded his first duet with Shamshad Begum, who was the Hindi female singer most in demand from 1940 to 1961, “Phoolon Ka Swapna” in the films Girls School (1949) composed by S.K.Pal.

His first duet with the then upcoming singer Lata Mangeshkar was “Lapat Ke Pot Pahaney Bikral” composed by Vasant Desai for Narsingh Avtar (1949), and with Kishore Kumar it was “Subaho Ki Paheli Kiran” from 1951 film Anadolan composed by Pannalal Ghosh. His first duet with Geeta Dutt was “Dhonyo Dhonyo He Ayodh Puri” from the film Ram Vivah (1949) composed by Shankar Rao Vyas, first duet with Umadevi (Tun Tun) was “Hay Ye Hain” from Jangal Ka Jaanwar (1951) composed by Ghantshala. His first duet with the then struggling singer Asha Bhosle was “O Raat Gayee Fir Din Aya” from 1953 film Bootpolish.

Manna Dey established his verstality between 1948 to 1954 by singing not only the classical based film songs but also singing such film songs which were fusion of Indian classical music and pop music and by giving classical music concerts. His experimentation with western music too produced many unforgettable melodies resulting in an increase in singing offers in films from 1955. He began singing ghazals in Hindi films from 1953. He became a music composer in Hindi films when he composed music along with Khemchand Prakash for both Shri Ganesh Janma (1951) and Vishwamitra (1952).

The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri in 1971, the Padma Bhushan in 2005, Padma Vibhusan in 2012 and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2007.

Dey sang in all the major regional Indian languages, though primarily in Bengali and Hindi Dey also sang in Bhojpuri, Magadhi, Maithili, Punjabi, Assamese, Odia, Konkani, Sindhi, Gujarati, Marathi, Kannada, Malayalam, and Nepali. His peak period in Hindi playback singing was from 1953 to 1976. His singing was simple and always had a classical touch. Kishore Kumar with his versatile singing according to mood overshadowed him in 70s and 80s. Finally he had to withdraw singing Hindi songs because of inability to improvise as per changing trends in Bollywood.

Here is the list of His most popular films: