The legend on record

“You want to speak for half-an-hour on the phone?!” he thunders on the line from Bengalooru, with both a question and an exclamation mark in his tone. And we ask Manna Dey, “Sir, what would you suggest?” And the voice that has not sung a false note in 60-plus years of recordings roars, “I cannot suggest. You tell me!”

We settle for 15 minutes, and placidly Mannada agrees that if needed we can speak again for the same length of time the following day. But at the appointed day and time, almost 40 minutes pass as the legendary singer provides insights into music and his amazing career. Manna-da made his debut with a song in Tamanna (1942) composed by mentor and uncle K C Dey (“He was everything to me — a second father and a teacher. Though blind, he achieved so much!) followed by his first being noticed for his songs in Ram Rajya (1943). His final breakthrough was in S D Burman’s Mashal in 1950 (“Because that’s when I first sang for a major star — Ashok Kumar!”) and since then Manna Dey has recorded over 3,500 songs in Hindi, Bengali and many other languages across all genres of music.

Manna Dey was born Prabodh Chandra Dey on May 1, 1920 in a joint family in Kolkata. Music arrested his attention from an early age and his singer-composer uncle took him under his wing, even as Manna-da (the pet name given by his uncle) sang in his college choir. A keen sportsman, Manna Dey was into both football and wrestling, and chose music when he had to make a choice between law and music as a career. “My parents were not happy with my choice,” he had said in an earlier meeting. “But my uncle supported me!”

He naturally does not recollect our first meeting at the 1991 recording for ‘Hamari hi mutthi mein akash saara’ from Nana Patekar’s Prahaar, his last significant Hindi film song. “Oh, that was a beautiful number!” he recollects. “I remember Nana Patekar was after me for days insisting that only I could sing that song. He even wanted me to enact it on screen. I flatly refused to the latter part and also told him that my voice wasn’t what it was. Then Laxmi (Laxmikant of Laxmikant-Pyarelal) called up and requested me to come home and listen to the song.”

But did he not record after that for a few Hindi films? “Please do not mention any of those songs!” he thunders. But the veteran singer clarifies that he is very familiar with today’s music. “Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy are doing some nice work. Anu Malik has also given some good music over the years. Sound has improved tremendously — but that’s more to the credit of the arrangers. However, arrangements minus a good composition mean nothing.”

Among singers, Manna-da rates Sonu Niigaam and Shreya Ghoshal as very good. “In every state of our wonderful country there is so much rich music,” says Manna-da. “But when you switch on the television, do you get to listen to anything nice?”

So where does he think the malaise lies? “Look, music is dictated by the films being made, which is decided by filmmakers. Good singers like Udit Narayan have few takers. A singer of the calibre of Kavita Krishnamurthi (Subramaniam) hardly records.”

Manna Dey says that he had a truly wonderful time recording with so many musical titans.  Enumerating some of his great associations, he says, “Shankar-Jaikishan were sheer magic — with Raj-saab they went even further. They even pitted me against Pandit Bhimsen Joshi in ‘Ketaki gulab juhi’ in Basant Bahar. Laxmikant-Pyarelal have given me such fantastic songs right from ‘Tum gagan ke chandrama ho’ in Sati Savitri — what a song that was! — to Prahaar. Madan Mohan gave me few but such soulful songs as ‘Kaun aaya mere man ke dwaare’ (Dekh Kabira Roya) that I am indebted to him. Pancham (RD Burman) was so good. ‘Ek chatur naar’ was his concept from beginning to end, and Kishore and I just executed it to out best.”

He goes on, “Naushad-saab did give me some great songs in Palki, Shabab and Mother India. Very few could match Naushad-saab in classical songs and he was such a perfectionist. SD Burman gave me brilliant songs too — he was very fond of me and we knew each other from the time when he too was learning from my uncle. Kalyanji-Anandji composed some beautiful songs for me like ‘Kasme vaade’ (Upkar) and ‘Nadiya chale’ (Safar). Roshan was a master and gave me fabulous songs too.”

The Padma Bhushan awardee admits that he was typecast for songs of old men and comedians despite his versatility and the fact that he sang playback for every major actor with the exception of Dilip Kumar.

Finally, which were the actors who best brought his songs to life on screen? “Raj-saab is my favourite, not just for the incredible way he enacted songs like ‘Ae bhai zaraa dekhke chalo’ (Mera Naam Joker) and ‘Laaga chunari mein daag’ (Dil Hi To Hai) but for the way he would conceive a song and work on it as a filmmaker.