After I had covered the best songs of Kalyanji-Anandji for Mukesh and Rafi, I once browsed through their songs for ‘other’ male singers for a lark. I was amazed to find an enormous variety of singers they had chosen. Though all the songs were well-known it had not registered in my mind instantly. The result was a post on Kalyanji-Anandji’s best songs for ‘other’ male singers. That was, of course, KA1.0 (up to 1970).READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Manna Dey
Nathli se toota moti re: Manna Dey’s Non-film Hindi Gems
Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav as a tribute t0 Manna Dey on his 103rd birth anniversary (1 May 1919 – 24 October 2013)
(Manna Dey has been described by some as an enigma among singers. That was a reference to his apparent defensiveness about his place among the contemporary playback singers, despite having the most solid training in classical music. I take it as his modesty and accepting the reality that singing in films is different from classical music, and that there was something in Rafi which he didn’t have. I contrast it with the public grumbling by the later era Suresh Wadkar, how thorough was his training in classical music, yet Bollywood has been so unfair not to give him his due.
Manna Dey was a man of many parts, and he was a singer of many parts. One important part of his singing – non-film songs – has not yet been covered on this blog. Ashok M Vaishnav identified this omission and fills the gap by this article.
Ashokji is a retired engineer, and now a freelance management professional. He is a keen lover of different forms of music and a prolific writer on this blog. Thank you Ashokji for this comprehensive article – AK)
Among his contemporaries of the 1950s Manna Dey was considered as versatile as others. His voice had unique strength even when being inherently soft. Devoid of any jerks, his voice radiated a feeling of eternal peace despite the extreme passion embedded in the rendition. As such the connoisseurs of film music fondly credited his voice to be capable of delivering the poetry along with music and melody. He was considered artist among fellow artistes and a singer of singers. It was perhaps his being so respectfully perched on a high pedestal that kept him away from being considered as ‘popular’, ‘mass’ singer.
However, I was lucky that my awareness, and in turn liking, for Manna Dey’s voice occurred during the very early years when I was unconsciously getting groomed to liking the films songs, much before I started reading about those divergent views about Manna Dey’s singing. As a result, all that I read about his singing never affected my very own liking for that enchanting voice.
Dattaram Part 1: Under the shadow of big banyan tree with songs of Mukesh and Manna Dey
A big banyan tree gives shelter and protects you from elements. But this may become a trap because one may be deterred from venturing out on one’s own for the risks involved. But a human being also has an urge to venture out and stand on his own. That involves a vertical progression from earning from one’s skill to being an entrepreneur: Mason to a contractor; dancer to a choreographer; instrumentalist/ arranger/ assistant to becoming an independent music director; paid employee to a free-lancer.
Remembering a special singer Manna Dey
A tribute on Manna Dey’s 101st birth anniversary (1 May 1919 – 24 October 2013)
Manna Dey was one of the great playback singers of the Golden Era. I missed to acknowledge him on his birth centenary last year. This omission is symptomatic of his relative place in the film music. He was the most rigorously trained singer in classical music among his peers. He is outnumbered only by two male playback singers, Rafi and Kishore Kumar. He sang about 50% more Hindi film songs than Mukesh, three times as many songs of Talat Mahmood and five times of Hemant Kumar, yet there are possibly more passionate fans of the last three singers than him. I remember someone wrote an article titled ‘An Enigma Called Manna Dey’. He mentioned the word ‘enigma’ in a somewhat similar sense.
Ravi’s many-splendoured genius with the ‘other’ singers
We now come to the end of the series on Ravi. In my opening post in the series we saw him as a many-splendoured genius with a large number of songs for themes and occasions, which have acquired an iconic status, many of which made the readers exclaim, Oh, this is also composed by him! Yet when some of us hesitated in bracketing him among the ‘greats’, Hans Jakhar was not pleased and challenged that at the end of the series we would concede that Ravi deserves to be called a ‘great’ music director. Without getting stuck on the semantics, please recall subsequent posts in the series: Rafi’s solos, Rafi’s duets, Asha Bhosle’s songs by him, Ravi’s special partnership with Shakeel Badayuni, Ravi’s songs for Lata Mangeshkar, and Mahendra Kapoor. That is a massive list of superhit songs with most of the major playback singers. But that is not the end of his work. He composed great songs for other playback singers too, and in this respect he ranks with those music directors whose special strength was their diversity in working with different playback singers, unlike some who were fixated on a couple of their favourites.
Roshan’s songs for ‘other’ singers
A tribute to Roshan on his 51st death anniversary (14 July 1917-16 November 1967)
DP Rangan started a tandem series on Madan Mohan-Roshan on July 14 which, in a unique coincidence, happened to be the birth anniversary of one, and the death anniversary of the other. I have since written a number of posts on their association with their main singers Rafi, Mukesh, Talat Mahmood, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, and their qawwalis. As the year end approaches, it is time to pay a final tribute to Roshan on his 51st death anniversary with his songs for ‘other’ singers. Later, I plan to end the year with a similar tribute to Madan Mohan with his ‘other singers’.
The Master of Qawwali Roshan and some hidden qawwalis of Madan Mohan
While Roshan and Madan Mohan generally proceeded in tandem, one or the other created a special niche for himself in some genre. Roshan became known as the undisputed master of qawwalis, whereas Madan Mohan became a byword for ghazals. The essential difference in the two forms is not one of content, but of singing style. Therefore, it would have been surprising if Madan Mohan had not composed any qawwalis. And a search does lead to some nice qawwalis by him. Of course, Roshan’s several qawwalis have achieved everlasting fame.
Manna Dey’s songs by Shankar-Jaikishan
A tribute to Manna Dey (1 May 1919 – 24 October 2013) on his 97th birth anniversary
Mumbaikar8 has rightly pointed out that Manna Dey has not yet got the importance on SoY he deserves. That in a way is also a reflection of his career. Recognised as an unparalleled singer of classical songs, he sang songs ranging from classical to romantic to comic, from devotional to patriotic to qawwalis which became synonymous with his voice. Yet his voice could not be identified with any top hero on a sustained basis, unlike Mukesh for Raj Kapoor, Rafi/Talat Mahmood for Dilip Kumar or Kishore Kumar for Dev Anand. Along the way, Rafi, with his range and fluidity, became the voice for almost every major hero, which mantle was taken by Kishore Kumar post-70s. In this marketplace, Manna Dey somehow became typecast as a niche singer. Yet, in this not a very happy scenario for him, if Manna Dey was especially beholden to any music director for doing the most for his career, it was Shankar-Jaikishan.
Remembering SD Burman’s Manna Dey
Mera sab kuchh mere geet re sang Manna Dey for SD Burman in Zindagi Zindagi. In a sad coincidence, in the midst of my SD Burman series, Manna Dey passed away exactly a week ago at the age of 94 (b. 1 May 1919, d. 24 Oct 2013). Today happens to be SD Burman’s death anniversary (b. 1 Oct 1906, d. 31 Oct 1975). It is deeply mysterious how people, who are connected in various ways, also get connected in their birth or death anniversaries. Both from Bengal, they were both trained by Manna Dey’s uncle, the legendary singer-actor-composer, KC Dey, which led to their close friendship even though SD Burman was 13 years senior to Manna Dey in age. Both shared the Bengali’s characteristic passion for football.