Manna De
Surajit A. Bose
site I found the article so wonderful, I thought I'd post the whole thing
here.
***************
Walking Tall in a Field of Giants
A walk down memory lane with the inimitable
Manna Dey
By SANDIP ROY-CHOWDHURY
Aami je aator ogo
aatordaaney bhora
Amar kaaj holo je gondhey khushi kora
Ke taarey raakhey money
Phuraley haay gondho jey taar
Aami je jalsagharey
ãAnthony Firinghee
In his sprawling joint family in Calcutta, Probodh Chandra Dey's middle uncle,
Mejokaka, was the one who decided everything. He decided that "my brother
would be a doctor and then he told me `You must study law.' I was quite a
hooligan in those days. And he said `Your hooliganism must stop. If you do
well I will send you to England and you can come back a barrister.'"
Probodh Chandra Dey smiled as he recollected the incident and shook his
head. "But I was always attracted to music," he said simply, "because of
my other uncle."
His "other uncle" was Bengal's legendary singer-actor-composer, the blind
Krishna Chandra Dey. His nickname for Probodh was Mana. Bombay turned that
into the one that would make him famousãManna. The elder Dey was part of
the heyday
of New Theatres in Calcutta. His nephew recalls, "We were young men then.
We were naturally star-struck. People like Prithviraj Kapoor, Saigal would
come to our house all the time. Musically there were Raichand Boral and
Pankaj Mullickãthey would all come to kaka to learn singing. Nowadays, a
business place is a business place. It wasn't like that then. Big
directors like Nitin Bose and Pramatesh Barua worked there. But I was
amazed at how well they all worked together. Every thing that was made was
a work of art."
But in the 1940s Bombay's star was already rising. A Gujarati producer
formed Lakshmi Productions with some of the cream of Calcutta's talent. He
got Phani Majumdar as his director, Rabin Chatterjee as the sound
engineer, Bibhuti Laha as the cameraman, stars like Pahari Sanyal and
Leela Desai. For his music director he chose Krishna Chandra Dey. But
someone needed to accompany the blind singer to Bombay. Normally Manna
Dey's elder brother would have accompanied him. But the singer recalls, "I
told him `Don't go, let me go instead.' That's how I came to Bombay. So
there I became my kaka's assistant and learned the work from him."
Tujhe suraj kahoon ya chanda
Tujhe deep kahoon ya tara
Mera naam karega roshan
Jag mein mera raj dulhara
ãEk Phool Do Maali
Manna Dey still speaks about his uncle in awestruck tones. "I understood
from the start his extraordinary genius, his superb voice control and
above all his
indefatigable desire to learn. For almost as long as he lived, he was
learning from some ustad or the other. That was why it was instilled in
me, that to sing well one must learn singing well. And from the beginning
my aim was to not just master Bengali songs, but songs from all over
India. I did not want to stay in Bengal like a frog in the well. So I had
many gurus, like Aman Ali Khansaab, Ghulam Mustafa Khansaab and Tulsidas
Sharma. And of course there was kaka who was such a hard taskmaster. I
will say I was so singularly lucky to have been born as his nephew and
raised as his son. The pursuit of excellence was instilled in me. He would
say, don't desire anything if you don't deserve it."
At first Manna Dey concentrated on honing his skills as a music director,
when filmmaker Vijay Bhatt requested K.C. Dey to sing for the sage Valmiki
in the film Ram Rajya. K.C. Dey, however, only sang in films in which he
himself played the part. So he turned Bhatt down, who was very dejected
because Dey's open-throated style was unique. Dey told him, "Why don't you
use my nephew? He can sing in that style." Bhatt looked at him and said,
"He is just a kid." But at Dey's urging he decided to give it a shot. So
at 22, Manna Dey ended up being the voice of the venerable sage Valmiki
for the princely sum of 150 rupees.
Manna Dey did not think too much about it and went back to working as assistant
music director with composers like Khemchand Prakash, Anil Biswas, and S.D.
Burman. But the shadow of Valmiki lingered. Manna Dey recalls, "When someone
becomes successful one is typecast. So they all started thinking, for this
kind of song get Manna Dey. I was happy to get the song (Chale Radherani)
in Bimal Roy's film Parineeta because Bimal Roy was a famous director. But
when I saw the film, it was again an old man singing. I kept getting songs
like that. That was not something I enjoyed very much, and I was thinking
of moving back to Calcutta. I was thinking of ending that career."
Door hai kinara
Gehri nadi ki dhara
Tooti teri naiya majhi
ãSaudagar
It was at that time that S.D. Burman asked him to sing a song in the film
Mashaal where Manna Dey was working as his assistant. The song "Upar gagan
vishaal," sung in K.C. Dey's open-throated style, became an instant hit.
His voice became so associated with his uncle's style that when he changed
it to sing "Ae mere pyaare watan," for Bimal Roy's Kabuliwala, the sound
recordist complained "O Manna, teri awaz aaj yeh phoos haiãkoi dam hi
nahin hai, kya ho gya? (Oh Manna, your voice is so down today, there's no
energy in it. What happened?)" Bimal Roy explained that the Kabuliwala
probably stayed with twelve other people in a single room. At the end of
the day when he sat in a corner and remembered his homeland, he could not
sing in an open throated voice. So he told the recordist, "Jo Manna babu
ga rahen na, wohi chahiye. Yeh gaana nahin hai, yeh gungunana hai. (We
need it the way Manna babu is singing. This is not to be sung, it's to be
hummed.)"
Though Manna Dey's voice became inextricably associated with Balraj
Sahni's Kabuliwala, many heroes were reluctant to work with him because
they felt his
voice suited only older character actors. "Heroes like Dilip Kumar would always
want Talat Mehmood. Likewise Rajesh Khanna would always ask for Kishore.
Others like Shammi Kapoor would ask for Rafi. When would my turn come? And
you know being a Bengali was a disadvantage. Bengalis don't pronounce Hindi
words right. It took a while for people to realize that I could pronounce
Urdu and Hindi words as well as or better than anyone else. All things in
my life came to me, but somewhat delayed." He shrugs. "It was good in a
wayãI had to work for it."
His attention to language and pronunciation bore fruit years later when HMV was
looking to record Harivanshrai Bachchan's famous poem "Madhushala" under the
music direction of Jaidev. They initially thought of Mohammad Rafi but Bachchan
said, "Rafi is Punjabi. It will be hard for him to pronounce all these words and
Madhushala ki jo bhavnaye hain woh samajhke nahin gaa paayega (he will not be
able to understand the emotions in Madhushala and sing). HMV then thought of
Mukesh but this time the composer Jaidev demurred. Finally Jaidev suggested they
go to Bachchan and ask him. Many years earlier, when the Bachchans had first
moved to Bombay and were living in a small rented house in Juhu, Bachchan would
go on morning walks and he would always stop at the door of his neighbor Manna
Dey and listen raptly to him doing his riyaz. Remembering his old neighbor,
Bachchan said "Koi gaayak se gawaiye jo unka jo saaransh hai woh samajhke gaaye.
Mere kheyal se Manna Dey ko bula sakte hain. (Get someone to sing who will
understand its meaning. In my opinion you can ask Manna Dey.)"
But that was many years later. Manna Dey's first lucky break came in the Raj
Kapoor film Boot Polish. "Now there again I was doing playback for an old
man, David. But I became associated with Raj Kapoor and started singing
for him in films like Chori Chori and Aawara." He credits Raj Kapoor's
favorite composers Shankar Jaikishan for having the greatest impact on his
career with songs like "Pyaar hua ikrar hua" and "Aaja sanam madhur
chandni mein hum."
Then he pauses and says, "But you know the real reason why I stayed on in
Bombay? I met Sulochana, my wife." Manna Dey's face still lights up when
he talks about his wife. "She has been my beacon light. But for her I
might not have stayed. She changed the course of my life. She was a
masters student in English Literature from Bombay University. Though she
is from Kerala, she has a great love for Rabindrasangeet and that's how I
met herãon a platform at a Rabindra Jayanti function. She encouraged me
that you have to go to the top. She knew what material I was made of."
Sulochana Dey laughs as she remembers, "He taught us Rabindrasangeet for
that function. And I remember I was awed by how proficient he was and yet
how modest. And when he sang, that awe turned to worship. You know, from
my childhood we always had Bengali friends and I used to admire everything
Bengali_from the way they dressed, to the songs."
Kaun ayaa mere man ke dwaare
paayal ki jhankar liye
Aankh naa jaane dil pehchane
suratiya kucch aisi
Yaad karoon to yaad na aaye
muratiya yeh kaisi
Paagal manwa soch mein dooba
Sapnon ka sansar liye
ãDekh Kabira Roya
Gradually Manna Dey acquired a reputation for tackling the most difficult, most
intricate songs from Roshan's "Phul gendwa na maro" (Dooj ka Chand) to R.D.
Burman's comic "Ek chatur naar" (Padosan). But he gets tired of the label
semi-classical applied to so many of his songs. "Every song is classical,"
he says sharply and sings a line from his famous Bengali song "Aami je
jalsagharey" and then hums "kaise kaatey raat" and traces the notesãre ga
ma pa dha ma. "People who have not learned what sa re ga ma pa dha ni sa
is will not be able to sing this. Andaaz se kabtak gaatey rahoge (how long
will you keep singing by guess work)? To be a singer you have to do your
homework first."
But despite his obvious talent, the bulk of the work still went to singers like
Mohammad Rafi and later Kishore Kumar. In fact, there are very few Hindi films
where all the hero's songs have been sung by Manna Dey. Reflecting about his
contemporaries, he says "Rafi Miyan was the biggest, most wonderful singer. He
could mold his voice to sing anything. Mukesh would sing goody goody songsãhe
had his own place. Similarly Talat had his own soft style. Kishore was not
there at all then. Initially music directors did not much like his style,
because he could not prove to music directors that he could sing anything
they gave him. Then time passed by and the style of music changed. And
after `Roop tera mastana' in Aradhana he shot up like a rocket. He was
great."
Looking back, Manna Dey says candidly, "Mostly I was chosen to sing the songs
that the others wouldn't sing. I think I was in a field of music where
there were giants. Any song that came to me was of utmost importance to
me. If I had sung that any other way I would be replaced by them. So
naturally I had to give my best. Every song that I sang I never never
relented anywhere."
Yet sometimes confidence in the world was not enough. Manna Dey realized that
when he was singing for Basant Bahar. Music director Shankar told him he would
have to sing in a competition with another man and defeat him. Manna Dey said
that was fine, for he had sung many such songs. Then Shankar said the man he
would have to sing with was renowned classical vocalist Bhimsen Joshi. Dey
chuckles as he takes up the tale. "I came home and told my wifeãlet us abscond
from Bombay. We should go away and no one should know about it because I don't
want to sing that song. She said `Shame on you. You have to sing.' So I called
Shankar, asked for a little time and then did it. After I recorded it
Bhimsen Joshi said `Manna Saab, aap classical kyon nahin gaate? (Why don't
you sing classical?)' I said `Aap log ke hotey hue main classical gaake
kya karoonga? (what can I do singing classical with people like you
around?)'" But then he adds frankly, "The fact is, if I had taken
classical music very seriously, I could have done well. I had that much
confidence. But I didn't want to be a classical singer. Those were the
days when classical singers were starving. There was no glamor about
classical singing. We were all glamor-struck because my uncle was very
much in the film business. We wanted fame, we wanted name, we wanted
money."
But the fame and the name he was building up in the industry did not
translate into many awards. Manna Dey has only one Filmfare Award to his
name for "Ei bhai
zara dekhkey chalo" in Mera Naam Joker. He says ruefully, "All my good songs
have gone unnoticed. Take `Laaga chunri mein daag'ãwho could sing that song?
`Poochho na kaise main rain bitayi'ãI was not chosen for any award whatsoever.
Likewiseã`Kasme vade pyaar wafa.' I remember the song I sang for V. Shantaram's
Diya aur Toofan. Shantaramji told me, `Manna, this year's Filmfare award will be
yours.' I was not even considered. Of course it hurt me. But I never took
it to heart. Award leke kya karenge? (What will I do with awards?) I had
to prove a few things, and I did in no uncertain terms. If someone said,
`Yeh gana Manna Da ke siva koi nahin gaa sakta (no one besides Manna-da
can sing this song)' that
was good enough for me."
Ora jey gonyo manyo
desh barenyo
Dasher pranam oder paayey
Orai rater bhromor hoye
Nishipadmer madhu je khaay
Jaa khushi ora boley baluk
Oder kathay ki aashey jaay
ãNishipadma
Meanwhile, in his hometown, Calcutta, the undisputed superstar of the screen was
Uttam Kumar and Hemanta Mukherjee was his voice. When Sudhin Dasgupta
(Kalobabu), the music director for Uttam Kumar's film Shankhabela, wanted
to use
Manna Dey as the playback singer, everyone was aghast. Manna Dey smiles, "It
was a calamity. The producer and distributor said, `Impossible. It has to
be Hemant Kumar.' Kalobabu said, `OK. I'll create some other characters
and give his songs to Manna Dey.' Eventually the producer gave in. The two
songs from Shankhabela `Ke prothom kaachhe eshechhi' and `Aami agantuk'
were runaway hits. After that there was no looking back in Bengal with
hits from films like Anthony
Firinghee and Nishipadma. I was going to Calcutta every week."
In an ironic twist, in the film Stree, Manna Dey did the playback for
Uttam Kumar while Hemanta Mukherjee sang for co-star Soumitra Chatterjee.
Manna Dey says, "Hemanta was a great singer, a very good friend of mine,
had a beautiful voice, but he didn't really have musical training. When
Uttam Kumar found that I was such a versatile singer, I could sing for any
character that he played, he would insist on using me, and it was really
worth singing for him because he gave lip to songs wonderfullyãhe used to
sing himself." In Calcutta, Manna Dey's non-film songs quickly became just
as famous as his film songs. The song about Calcutta's famous coffee
house, "Coffee houser shei addata," is one of the most famous Bengali
modern songs. Manna Dey ascribes its success to Gauriprasanna Majumdar's
lyrics, "The coffee house was a much sought after place. That was where
the intellectuals all met and Gauriprasanna captured that very well."
After that the hits did not stopã"Amar bhalobashar rajprasadey," "Shey
amar chhoto bon," "Jodi kagoje lekho naam."
Not content with Bengali, Manna Dey started singing in many other Indian
languages. He recalls one of the hardest was Tulu. But one of the
languages he most enjoyed singing in was Bhojpuri. He recites with great
relish, "Kaasi hiley, Patna hiley, Kalkatta hilela, jab tohori lachake
kamariya duniya hilela." He picked up Bhojpuri accent so well from
observing Biharis in Calcutta, that he even had to deliver a few lines for
Amjad Khan in one of his Bhojpuri films.
But some other accents were trickier. Manna Dey recalls tackling Malayalam
for the award-winning Kerala film Chemeen. All the songs were being sung
by southern
singer Yesudas but the producer wanted Manna Dey for one soulful song. The
film's music came from the famous Bengali music director Salil Chowdhury.
Chowdhury came to Bombay and taught him the song. But Manna Dey chuckles,
"Salil was very bad in pronouncing every language except Bengali. He
taught it to me like a Bengali song. After the rehearsal he was gone. Then
my daughters said,
`Daddy, you sang all rubbish.' I was very angry and said, `What are you saying?
They just okayed the song.' They said, `Whenever mummy and we speak
Malayalam we don't speak it like that.' Then Sulochana asked me gently to
sing it, and then because she was a teacher started patiently correcting
it. Eventually, it was
only because of her that I was able to sing that song, `Manasa maine
varu.' It went on to almost become the national song of Kerala."
Nowadays Manna Dey has no desire to sing for films anymore. When asked what
his last film was, he says disinterestedly, he does not remember. When he
hears DJ Sunny Sarid remade his classic "Ei mere zohra jabeen," he shrugs
philosophically. "Let them earn their bread. At least he is making an
effort. After all, to sing my songs he must be putting in his best." But
he is much harsher towards the current generation of composers. He shakes
his head, "How do these people compose? Jinko sur ka koi pata nahin hai
(those who have no idea of melody)? Who cannot even play the harmonium?
Naushad's songs sound so melodious, easy going but to be able to sing the
way Naushad saab wanted you to sing was very difficult. Today's composers
take a bit from here and a bit from there and say `Aisa gaayiye ki ekdum
hit ho jaaye. (Sing such that it becomes an absolute hit.)'"
Sur na saje kya gaoon main
Sur ke bina jeevan soona
ãBasant Bahar
He closes his eyes and says, "I remember the way the songs were made, how
they evolved. All this comes back to my mind as I sing it. Each and every
song I sang I used to give my whole heart, every time. Every time there
was a recording, I would never stay in the house after ten. The music
director would say, `Dada
bahut jaldi aa gaye (Dada, you have come too early).' And I would say,
`Arre tumko kya aklif hai? (What's your problem?)' And I would sit and
listen. I would love to see the birth of the song. It would take about
three or four hours to prepare everything and then the turn of the artist
would come. Then they would say `Manna-da sing this that way.' You know,
like you would sing `Ichak dana bichak dana' and they would say `Achha woh
jo dana hai na, pahela dana bahut accha hua but second dana phirse
gaaiye.' (The first dana was very good, but please sing the second dana
again).' It would take 6/8 hours to record. Now you can take a bit from
the first, and a bit from the second, and put it togetherãit's completely
mechanical."
But he is reluctant to sit and tear his hair out over the state of modern music.
"Everyone asks what is happening. What is happening? What people want, that is
what they get. I don't think we should philosophize too much about what we have
left behind."
But to his fans each song is a classic and imbued with special memories. Manna
Dey remembers singing "Bin saavan nayan bharey ab saavan se kya hoga" at a
party. And a gentleman started weeping uncontrollably and left the room. He says
gently, "It must have brought up some memories. I was just giving a
recital." Then he remembers the famous Bengali song "Tomaar shesh bicharer
aashay boshey
aachhi." When the famous Rabindrasangeet scholar Shailajaranjan Majumdar was
on his death bed, he would only ask for that song. When Manna Dey's own uncle
K.C. Dey was ill and dying he would say, "Mannar shei gaanta laagiye dao (Play
that song of Manna's)." "Now I have only one sister," says the singer. "Her
husband, who is 85, asked me to give him that song on a tape and he
listens to it all the time. Now I can't sing it anymoreãit makes me too
emotional."
Zindagi kaisi hai paheli hai
Kabhi to hasaaye, kabhi to rulaye
Kabhi dekho man mein hi jaage
Peechhe peeche sapnon ke bhaage
Ek din sapnon ka raahi
Chala jaaye sapnon ke aage kahan
ãAnand
Songs that bring solace to people on their deathbeds. Songs that made composers
shake their head in awe. Songs in languages he himself does not
understand, but are still hummed by thousands. I wonder what is the
greatest gift that his music has given him.
He answers without hesitation. "My wife," he says gently placing his hand
on hers. "We met while singing."
What about that Padma Shri awardãwhen was that?
"Who cares?" he smiles, still looking at Sulochana Dey.
Tere naina talaash karey jisey
Woh hai tujhmey kahin deewaney
ãTalaash
***********
Sandip Roy Chowdhury's fiction and non-fiction has been published in anthologies
like Contours of the Heart: South Asians Map North America, Men on Men 6,
Q and A: Queer in Asian America, A Part Yet Apart: South Asians in Asian
America. He won the first prize in the Katha Indian-American fiction contest of
1998.
Ashok
says...
>
>Somebody had posted the URL of this article on RMIM. When I visited the
>site I found the article so wonderful, I thought I'd post the whole thing
>here.
So wonderful? Better than the general run of articles. Great title, I
agree. Personal vignettes are very nice. But musical and professional
side is not covered well. The author muddles up the timeline thoroughly.
Thanks for posting it, that too with readable formating.
>Walking Tall in a Field of Giants
>
>A walk down memory lane with the inimitable
>Manna Dey
>
>By SANDIP ROY-CHOWDHURY
>
>
>Gradually Manna Dey acquired a reputation for tackling the most difficult, most
>intricate songs from Roshan's "Phul gendwa na maro" (Dooj ka Chand) to R.D.
>Burman's comic "Ek chatur naar" (Padosan).
The Dooj Ka Chand song is also a comic one.
But he gets tired of the label
>semi-classical applied to so many of his songs. "Every song is classical,"
>he says sharply and sings a line from his famous Bengali song "Aami je
>jalsagharey" and then hums "kaise kaatey raat" and traces the notes脚e ga
>ma pa dha ma.
Which song is this: "kaise kaate raat"?
>Eventually, it was
>only because of her that I was able to sing that song, `Manasa maine
>varu.' It went on to almost become the national song of Kerala."
Anyone else feel that Salil has inserted way too much "crying" by
the singer in that song?
>But to his fans each song is a classic and imbued with special memories. Manna
>Dey remembers singing "Bin saavan nayan bharey ab saavan se kya hoga" at a
>party. And a gentleman started weeping uncontrollably and left the room. He says
>gently, "It must have brought up some memories. I was just giving a
>recital."
Which is this song: "bin saavan"?
Ashok