END OF THE DAY FOR DEY

The entire country was stunned to learn that the legendary singer, Manna Dey (May 1, 1919- Oct 24,20013) breathed his last in the wee hours of Oct 24 in Narayana Hrudayalaya, a private hospital of Bangaluru. After a long illness of lungs infection, he died of cardiac arrest. He was 94. At the last moment, his daughter and son-in law were beside him.

His family name was Probodh Chandra Dey whom the music lovers lovingly called Manna Dey. He graduated from Scottish Church Collge and took interest in music since his school days.His uncle, the famous music director, K.C. Dey encouraged him to take to music. Besides his uncle, Manna Dey also learnt music from Ustad Dabir Khan. With K.C. Dey, he came to Mumbai in 1942 and started his career as an assistantmusic director of his uncle. Simultaneously, under the patronage of renowned classical musicians like Ustad Aman ali Khan and Ustad Abdul Rahman Khan, he started delving into  the depth and nuances of the art and sharpening his knowledge of the ‘ragas’.

Manna Dey made his singing debut in Tamanna in which the music director was none else than his uncle. It was a hit duet with another legendary figure, Suraiya. He sang  some 4,000 songs in different languages under every important music director  and sang duets with all background singers, male or female. However, his favourite directors were Sachindeb Burman and Anil Biswas.

His forte were classicl and folk based songs which proved immortal. His songs in Do Bigha Jamin, Devdas and Teesri Kasam proved blockbusters. Manna Dey was given Padmashri in 1971, Padmabhushan in 2005 and Dada Saheb Falke Award in 2007. On the heels of the departure of the first generation of  great men of Indian film music like K.L. Shagal, K.C. Dey, Pankaj Roy etc came the trio of Md Rafi, Manna Dey and Kishore Kumar who took the art to  its zenith. Rafi and Kishore Kumar died earlier. Thus with the sad demise of Dey, a chapter of the film music has closed. It is an irreparable loss to the music world. At heart, we wish the soul of this great man to rest in peace.