Manna Dey: The last connect to the golden era is gone

Manna Dey is no more. With this, the sublime sextet of Talat Mehmood,  Mohd. Rafi, Mukesh, Hemant Kumar, Kishore Kumar and Manna Day have become a page in history which may not repeat itself.  Manna Dey was the eldest of them and lived the longest.  He was a trained classical singer in a field that was abounding with Rafi’s versatility, Talat’s mellifluence, Hemant’s loftiness, Mukesh’s simplicity and Kishore’s flamboyance.  Manna Dey poised the field, gave it a balance.

Manna Dey was masterly in mutating and rendering the classical ragas into songs of mass acceptance. Despite its classical trappings,  laga chunri mein daag yet remains a hugely popular number. He, along-with Rafi, gave soul to arguably the best Qwaalli ever Na to caravan ki talaash hai He was as good as the maverick Kishore in punch-for-punch duet ek chatur naar.  The Sri 420 duet pyaar hua ekrar hua and the duets in Chori Chori Yeh raat bheegi bheegi.., Aaja sanam… and Jahan  main jaati hoon.. have a timelessness about them.

Manna Dey’s was not a typical voice of any hero, though, for a while, he lent his voice to Raj Kapoor, as a Mukesh’s  replacement. However, his singing attained a new height, and depth, in O meri Zohra zabeen (Waqt), Kasme vaade pyaar wafa (Upkaar) and Yaari hai imaan mera ( Zanjeer ) has added to the acting stature of Balaraj Sahani and Pran. 

There is a number from the film Bandini – Mat ro mata lal tere bahutere.. I play it and find myself in complete empathy with the freedom fighter on his way to the gallows, such is the fusion and fury of music, words and cinematic backdrop. I shall be reincarnate when the Ganga flows free and the tricolor flutters atop Himalaya. It is sublime, it cleanses.  Manna Dey was at his creative best.

The number from Kabuliwala Ae mere pyaare watan, Ae mere bichude chaman   is another of my favourite. It brilliantly brings out the pain of a man long separated from his motherland. Manna Dey’s voice carries conviction and pathos.

Manna Dey seemed to flow as he handled songs of quasi spiritual contents, conveying the metaphysics of life and death, or life after this life. Listen to the number from Do Bigha Zameen : Apni kahaani chhod ja, kuch to nishaani chhod jaa ..

The prayer in the film Seema -  Tu pyar ka saagar hai – is my next pick in this genre.  The prayer penned by peerless Shailendra, given lilt by arguably the best composer duo of Shanker and Jaikishen,  and given soul by the voice of Manna Dey, takes one to the threshold of the larger question whether the life and its karma now are but part of a birth-after-birth continuum.. And more I tune to this number, more I find it gaining in sublimity.

Zindagi kaisi he pehli hai – the Anand number – mesmerizes, speaks of a life yet to attain its fruition, yet to realize its dreams,  intercepted and cut short by the chanciness called death. The number, a creative crescendo, is as much a tribute to Rajesh Khanna, Yogesh and Salil Chaudhary as to Manna dey.

Manna Dey is no more. But do singers really die ? Certainly not , at-least not the  one who was part of the golden sextet. Manna Dey will come alive, and young, day after day, year after year, both to the connoisseur and the evolving music lovers.