Manna Dey - a tribute from a nobody

Manna Dey!

Today the last of the great legends of playback singing from the 40s to the 80s passes away.  A time to mourn, a time to celebrate, a time to remember, a time to cherish, a time to forget ourselves and lose ourselves in the golden age of film music.

I believe, and rather strongly too, that Rafi, Kishore, Mukesh, and Manna Dey were the greatest male playback singers Hindi film music ever had. The era in which they sang also saw some of the best composers and lyricists who between them took time, rehearsed, planned each note and verse, and executed them with meticulous detail. Some of the greatest Hindi film music came from the late 50s to the late 70’s – two decades of unforgettable songs that have enriched us, entertained us, enlivened us, and taken us to heights never imagined.

A humble down-to-earth man, Manna Dey acknowledges in many interviews to the press that he considered Rafi a much better singer than he himself ever could be and confesses that he was always overawed by the effortless ease with which Rafi, Lata, and Asha could sing their lines, when he (felt he) had to struggle to get his lines right. But that was probably the perfectionist in Manna Dey which prompted him to say this.

His songs have a magical quality about them. If Rafi sang “Aiya aiya suku, suku” or “Aa-aa-aaja” you would think it was Shammi Kapoor singing them. If Mukesh sang, “Mera joota hai japaani” or “Awaara hoon”, you would immediately think of Raj Kapoor and may be forgiven for mistaking the song being sung by the actor. But with Manna Dey, it was Manna dey all along. Be it “Laaga chunri mein daag” (c’mon, it can’t be Shammi Kapoor on screen!), or “Tu hai mera prem devta” (was it Bharat Bhushan? I thought it would always be Rafi for Bharat Bhushan), or “Ae mere pyaare watan” (hmm, maybe Balraj Sahni could be identified with Manna Dey) it was always the singer and his melodious voice that transported you to the picture that the lyricist wanted to convey. One never tried identifying the actor mouthing the songs on the screen. It was futile. In Manna Dey’s case, it was Manna Dey off-screen and always off-screen. To see some of the sequences on screen, one may find that the song picturisation didn’t do justice to the voice, tune or raag.

Manna Dey was never an actor’s voice, he was his own voice. He gave playback music the much needed classicism for neophytes like me who couldn’t identify a raga, but who could enjoy the music for the lyrics and tune ; for the melodious voice and perfect diction.

Among my all time favourites of Manna Dey would be the following:

1. “Ae mere pyaare watan”. Haven’t I heard this song when away from home? It is bound to bring some home-sickness in us when we listen to this song. The slow pace, haunting music, fantastic lyrics, all combine to bring out the emotions welling inside us to get back to our motherland.
2. "Tum gagan ke chandrama ho, mein dhara ki dhool hoon". A fantastic song from "Sati Savitri". Lyrics by Bharat Vyas, who was one among the rare lyricists who would avoid Urdu words in his lyrics. Pure Hindi words derived from Sanskrit. One of Lata's lines runs like this... "Tum Mahaasaagar Ki Simaa, Main Kinaare Ki Lahar; Tum Mahaasangit Ke Svar, Main Adhuuri Saans Huun". I wonder if Lata would ever have acknowledged this to anyone!
3. “Laaga chunri mein daag”. A rare song for Shammi Kapoor, for whom Rafi was the voice. I think this movie was before Shammi became the superhit star. And that is how he didn’t have any control over who would sing for him. Lyrics has a subtle hint of double entendre about it; but not too obvious as in present day “choli ke peeche kya hai”  or “Sheela ki jawaani” or “beedi jalai le” types. If it were, I doubt if the composer would have got Manna Dey to sing it for him!
4. “Ae meri  zohra jabeen”. Even now when Waqt plays on TV, I tend to watch this song with rapt attention. Because for Balraj Sahni, I cannot imagine any other singer singing. If at all any actor was there for whom one could identify Manna Dey’s voice, it had to be Balraj Sahni.
5. “Tu pyaar ka saagar hai” Again on Balraj Sahni. A wonderful song.
6. “Ketki gulab juhi” with Bhimsen Joshi. He planned to run away from Mumbai when S-J called him up to tell him that he had to sing with Joshi and “win” the contest. ‘How can I win a song competition with Bhimsen Joshi?’ remarked Manna Dey to his wife and asked her to pack their bags to run away to Pune for about 10-15 days till S-J found another singer! Sulochana, Manna Dey’s wife, persuaded him that it was not anything like that…just a movie song…the sequence demanded that the hero, Bharat Bhushan, to whom Manna Dey was lending his voice, had to win the contest.
7. “Ek chatur naar”. Playful, taunting, excellent combination with Kishore da. RD set this song to tune and rehearsed for 6 hours with Mehmood, Manna Dey and Kishore Kumar to get it just right. They again recorded for 6 more hours with Kishore Kumar improvising at every turn and making the song better. That’s probably why it is among the most listened to song by the young guys even today.
8. “Sur na saje kya gaaoon mein”.  No he wouldn’t have sung any song if the “sur” didn’t combine well.
9. “Dharti kahe pukaar ke”. From “Do Bigha Zameen”. Made all the more wonderful by the innovative picturisation by the director, Bimal Roy. Though the central character is Balraj Sahni walking along fields and making his way somewhere, the words are mouthed by various characters who he sees on the way – working on the fields. So appropriate for the movie.
10. “Aao twist karen”. This song on Mehmood. I remember it from my school days. The movie, “Bhoot Bangla” always mesmerised me. Though I didn’t see the movie, I would imagine a huge house with a group of boys and girls twisting away to glory. Was it really Manna Dey who sang this song? Did he have the range for such songs? Obviously, he was not a “devotional bhajan” singer as he was once typecast. He had to struggle to get away from that by singing unconventional songs.
11. “Tu chupi hai kahaan, mein tadapta yahaan”. What a song! The music, the lyrics, the tune, the orchestration. If ever there was a perfect song, it had to be this. I remember this song too from my school days and recording it from the radio on a cassette player that my sister brought home from Hyderabad when she came for a short stay in Ranchi.
12. “Kasme vaade pyaar wafa sab”. Picturised on Pran, whom Manoj Kumar transformed from a villain to a character artiste, this song was a superhit.
13. “Kaun aaya mere man ke dwaare” Was a pure classical song and in which Manna Dey excels himself.
14. “Phool gendvaa naa maaro, na maaro” was a song picturised on a comedian, Aagha, who sang it much fervour and emotion, just as Manna Dey had recorded it. I used to thoroughly enjoy the “saap, saap, saap ri maa” just merging with the alaap!