Manna Dey Death Anniversary: The 3,500-Song Legacy Bollywood Never Quite Celebrated

  • Admin
  • 5 hours ago
  • 6 minutes read

October 24 marks another year without him - a voice so vast, so layered, that even legends whispered his name in awe, yet somehow the spotlight kept missing him.

Ask a random cabbie in Kolkata or a chaiwallah in Mumbai about “Manna Dey,” and you’re bound to get a passionate lecture before your change comes back. There’s something raw, unfiltered about their memories - like the scratch at the beginning of an old LP.

Coffee House,’ the iconic song by Manna Dey, remains a beloved classic — cherished not just by Bengalis, but by anyone who loves melody, nostalgia, and coffee.

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Yet for all that, Bollywood seemed cagey about making him its headline act. Was it the classical training, perhaps too rigorous for the whiskey-swilling studios? Or just bad luck of timing? You can sense his voice straining against typecasting in “Ek Chatur Naar,” where Kishore Kumar steals the show, or “Na to karvaan ki talash hai,” Rafi pipping him at the post. Dey was the solid wall, others the flashy paint.

Manna Dey sings ‘Ek Chatur Naar’ opposite Kishore Kumar in what you could call today India’s first rap battle.

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The Oddly Twisted Ladder

“Ae Bhai Zara Dekh Ke Chalo” - a favourite across generations - was sung by Manna Dey for the 1970 film ‘Mera Naam Joker.’

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Born as Prabodh Chandra Dey in Calcutta, 1919, to say he was “encouraged” by his uncle Krishna Chandra Dey feels like calling a monsoon “a bit of rain.” He learned music splayed across his uncle’s knees, absorbing ragas like others caught marbles. Wrestling and football? Sure, he trained at Goabagan akhra in Calcutta. You wouldn’t expect a gentle qawwali singer to stay up with Gobar Guha. Yet, he did.

Manna Dey, The Voice of Romance.

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College was Scottish Church, then Vidyasagar. By college’s end, stage shows and music competitions became bread and butter. His Bollywood debut “Jaago ayi usha panchhi boley” for “Tamanna” (1942) didn’t exactly make radio waves, though soon enough, “Upar gagan vishaal” (Mashaal, 1950) rolled in and caught the wind. Perhaps not instantly, not with Rafi, Mukesh, and Kishore jostling for microphone space.

Manna Dey's "Ke Tumi Nandini" marked a shift in Bengali film music, incorporating a Western rock-and-roll style with a distinctly Bengali feel.

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Sometimes one wonders : Was he simply too adaptable for studio machinery? The guy did 3,500 songs in 18 languages. Name another singer who could go from Bengali ballads to Hindi zesty numbers and then throw in the odd wrestling anecdote for good measure.

Manna Dey sings a Gujarati folk song.

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More Than a Pretty Melody

Manna Dey sings “Ketaki gulab juhi” in a musical duel, “jugalbandi”, with Pt. Bhimsen Joshi. Movie: Basant Bahar.

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Classical prowess? Sure, but dots and lines miss his sly sense of rhythm. Listen to “Ketaki gulab juhi,” that epic musical duel with Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, and you’ll hear him push, pull, tease - not just notes, but the very idea of what a playback singer should sound like. Or the philosophical rumble in “Zindagi kaisi hai paheli,” a song that really could have doubled as a memo to studio bosses who, for some reason, couldn’t make up their minds to give him the top spot.

A favourite melody voiced by none other than Manna Dey from the movie ‘Anand’.

(@thesuperstarkaka/Instagram)

That’s the irony, perhaps the heartbreak - this is no tragic hero story, though. Bollywood’s big brass always reserved starring numbers for trendier voices. Manna Dey, meanwhile, got relegated to "special numbers" - ironically, the tracks that other singers couldn’t pull off. My favorite tidbit? Rafi, possibly the biggest name of all time, famously said he listened most to Dey’s songs, even if the masses didn’t always.

“People listen to my songs, but I only listen to Manna Da’s songs.” - Mohammad Rafi.

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Not Just Nostalgia - A National Treasure

Where Manna Dey learnt music from his uncle Krishna Chandra Dey.

(@RakshandhaJalil/X)

Dey got the Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, Dadasaheb Phalke Award, but didn’t become anyone’s automatic “hero’s voice.” Still, ask anyone what truly defines the Golden Age -  they’ll probably mention Manna Dey somewhere in the mix, just after Rafi and Kishore, but always with a touch of reverence.

On this birth anniversary, spare a moment to let his catalog play - not just for nostalgia, but to recognize a talent Bollywood undervalued for far, far too long. Some voices, I believe, need no megaphone. They linger. They haunt. Manna Dey does both - sometimes in ways even film historians can’t explain.

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