MANNA DEY
He did not
sing for the movies. He did not sing for the composers. He neither sang for
great actors of Hindi and Bengali films.
He sang for us. Just
us.
Many of his
songs were philosophical reflections laced with messages. But if there was any
message in his songs it was only the call of music straight sinking to our
heart. Or it could a power rod hitting
us- as in one the best hummings in Indian film songs-the one at the beginning
of “Sur na saje”. When Manna Dey sings
the communicative value is ever-changing depending on the mood of the listener.
Manna Dey was nobody’s singer and also
everybody’s singer. Perhaps this beguiling nature was laden in the song “Kasme
wade pyar” which rebounds with the sad reality of hypocrisy and deceptiveness.
He did not promise anything, his plan being nothing else, but music.
Manna Dey
could be enjoyed, felt, inspired or
motivated by as with the listener. If
you are in an early romance “Yeh raat
bheegi bheegi..” is sung just for you with all the crispness that moment
demands. Or an extra load of love could be felt by listening to “Aaja sanam
madhur chandni….” Listen to “Pyar hua
ikraar hua” and you are head over heels in love. This master trickster has up
in his sleeves the other extremes, ready to capture your sunken sadness.
“Poocho na kaise maine
rain bitayi…” Don’t ask me how I spent the night’ Ironically
there is a prefix to this song on screen , the dialogue being ‘there is
only one call, Its name is music”! When
he pinches your heart with the lines ‘bhor bhi aans ki kiran na laaye’ don’t
trust him. Your next door neighbors who are in high spirits are celebrating the moods of “Yeh dosti thodenge hum nahi”. More than
versatility and wide range, the provision by Dey sahib is not only just his
natural penchant for singing but not keeping it within himself. It is bliss
unleashed. He has made it clear in his song
Sur na saje “….swar ki sadhna Parameswar ki…” That is it. Sing. Just dissolve
in the divine.
Such is his
uncanny skill that no words are uttered by him which does not get impinged with
his personally special ‘bhaav’. Listen to “Hasne ki chah ne…” and check the
word ”rulaya hain”. The explicit is his highly vibrant but intelligently
controlled voice. Equally he was very open in his style. He could easily shift
the high gears of classicals to ‘people friendly’ rustic or romantic. “Waquif
hoon khoob” with Rafi and Lata would suffice as an example. Or just the humming
prelude to “Ai meri Zohra jabeen’, which leads to a soft but reverberating
rumbling of sweetness. But then “mein
teri –mein teri ankho mei paa gaya ”–he
explodes. It is not Manna Dey’s but my own soul openly singing “Yaari hai
imaan” . An unusual Manna Dey could be
heard in “Zindagi aisee hai paheli”. You cannot be blamed if you have a secret
wish to get out and sing “Dil ka haal sune dilwala” on the streets in gay
abandon. “Ee bhai zara dekh chalo” is not sung by a high caliber classical
singer but one of your college class mates and you are happy to keep him as
your friend. A search for inspirational
voice will lead you to “Nadiya chale
chale” but definitvely not lacking luster.
Many of the
characters or situations in the movies do not make a one-on- one affair with
his rendering and are not in order with his sublime voice quality. Branded as a
“classical singer” he has a huge repertoire –“Jhanak jhanak tori baaje payaliya”,
“Laga chunri mein”, “Sur na saje”, “Re man sur
mein gaa”, “Cham cham baaje paayaliya”-the long list rolls out. His ability to shift to higher octaves and to
sustain was supernatural. On screen many
of these songs conformed to the marketing needs of Hindi films, but Manna Dey
rendered them for the eternal, not for the caricature by Shammi Kapoor. Those
were decisions made by the demands of film production. Now these songs are not
to be looked at but just heard. This detachment was not intended but Manna
Dey’s strength broke the shell. These
songs acquire unique individuality alienating the creators. The singer as he
is. Sliding to the other extreme is his Padosan songs-both ‘Sanwariya….” and
“Ek chatur naar’. Both are heavily set in classic structure. In “Chatur naar” he is quickly shifting to
the “Kishor Kumar mode” and competing with him gaining the final victory
although the character in the movie looses. Not that this was an allowance to
his integrity. Versatility? Not an enough word.
When
Harivansh Rai Bachchan’s Madhushala was to be set to tune, composer
Jaidev had no doubt that Manna Dey was the only choice to vocalize. No other
throat would deliver highly existentialistic philosophy laden with romance,
pathos, cajoling, exhilaration, and survivalist modalities. Although it has
become a cliché at a musician’s eternal departure that music was his soul and
substance, in the case of Manna Dey it is ironic that his own voice has embodied
the following lines about intoxicating
music being the bare truth- just
at death too.
After my death
Let my lips be laden
with not Tulsi leaves but wine glass
Touch not my tongue with the waters
of the Ganges but with wine
On my funeral procession, you all remember this!
Call not “Ram naam hai saty ”, but call to the truth that is Madhushala.
On my funeral procession, you all remember this!
Call not “Ram naam hai saty ”, but call to the truth that is Madhushala.
मेरे अधरों पर हो
अंतिम वस्तु न तुलसीदल प्याला
मेरी जीव्हा पर हो अंतिम वस्तु न गंगाजल हाला,
मेरे शव के पीछे चलने वालों याद इसे रखना
राम नाम है सत्य न कहना, कहना सच्ची मधुशाला।
मेरी जीव्हा पर हो अंतिम वस्तु न गंगाजल हाला,
मेरे शव के पीछे चलने वालों याद इसे रखना
राम नाम है सत्य न कहना, कहना सच्ची मधुशाला।