A late but fitting award for Manna Dey!

New Delhi: Prabodh Chandra Dey, better known by his nickname Manna Dey or Manna Da, has been at last nominated for the prestigious Dada Saheb Phalke award for the year 2007.  A renowned playback singer, Manna Dey, who sang evergreen songs like Ae mere pyaare watan, Laga chunari me daag, and Zindagi kaisi hai paheli, etc., has been selected for the Dada Saheb Phalke- the highest honour in Indian cinema.  The 90-year-old versatile singer will be conferred the award in a ceremony on October 21st by President Pratibha Patil.

 Born in a Bengali family on 1st May 1919, Manna Dey could undoubtedly be hailed as one of the greatest playback singers in Indian cinema, who ruled the playback music scene from the 1950s to the 1970s alongside other stalwarts like Mukesh, Mohammad Rafi and Kishore Kumar.  Till date, Manna Dey has sung more than 3,500 songs in Hindi and Bengali films after starting his career in playback singing with the movie, Tamanna, way back in 1943.

Manna Dey can be termed as a true versatile singer.  The ease with which he rendered the romantic and philosophical songs to fun-filled light hearted songs to complicated Raga based compositions is unparalleled.  His talent as a playback singer made him the preferred choice of composers for the complicated raga-based melodies in the 1950s and 60s.  He would sound equally well suited for Raj Kapoor as well as Mahmood.  A famous quote by legendry singer Rafi just describes the talent of Manna Dey where he had said to certain journalists- “You listen to my songs.  I listen to Manna Dey’s songs only.”

Manna Dey came to Mumbai from Kolkata in the year 1942 in the company of his uncle and guru Krishna Chandra Dey on a visit to Mumbai.  There he started working as an assistant, first under Krishna Chandra Dey, and then under SD Burman. Later he assisted other music composers and then eventually started to work independently.

Many would believe that Manna Da, who has previously been honoured with National Film Awards, the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan, has been conferred this award a little too late.  However, Manna Dey is highly appreciative of the honour bestowed upon him and said that he wasn’t upset that the recognition has come to him so late in his career.  But one thing is for sure- Manna Dey has been recognized for his sheer talent even though this has come late in his career.  Long live the legend!!!