Thursday, October 24, 2013

A tribute to Manna Dey

The voice that gave us soul-stirring and immortal melodies such as "Laaga chunri mei daag chupaoo kaise" and "Puchho na kaise maine rain bitayi", has fallen silent.

Manna Dey passed away at a Bangalore hospital on Thursday morning after gifting music rasikas over 3,500 songs mainly in Hindi and Bengali. He was 94.
While "Laaga chunri" and "Puchho na kaise" were arguably his biggest hits and unmatched numbers in the classic music mould, over the years what has tugged at my heartstrings the most has been his mesmerising number "Ae mere pyare watan, ae mere bichhdey chaman, Tujhpe dil qurban".
And then, displaying the sheer breadth of his versatility Manna Dey also gave us, again filmed on Balraj Sahni, the lilting melody "Ae meri Zohra Jabeen, tujhe maloom nahi', which can give a run for their money to lively numbers of the ilk of "Kajrare kajkrare tere kaaley kaaley naina".
Dey also sang fast moving evergreen melodies such as "Yeh raat bheegi bheegi", "Aaja sanam madhur chaandni mei hum", and "Pyar hua iqraar hua".
For this one-man institution, the Dada Saheb Phalke award in 2007 came too late.
The best tribute one can pay this legend is from the lines he had so beautifully sung in Ae meri Zohra Jabeen:Yeh shokhiya heh baankpan jo tujh mei hei kahi nahi; Dilo ko jeetney ka phan so thujh mei hei kahi nahin…
Your voice… your music… were indeed unique and nobody can win our hearts the way you did…

 

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