Manna Dey recently gave interview in Zee Bangla.

Manna Dey recently gave interview in Zee Bangla.

Manna Dey gave recent interview before Anurag Basu in a program held in Zee Bangla on 1st July, 2010. Anurag Basu had hosted the program for more than a month now. Notable celebrities like Pritam, Shaan, Prasenjit Chatterji, Konkona Sen Sharma had been interviewed in the program. Questions were asked to the fans of the celebrities.

Manna Dey when asked between himself, Rafi and Kishore Kumar, where would he rank himself. He said that he would keep Rafi at no. 1 because according to him no one had sung sugam sangeet to the level of perfection of Rafi. He had kept Kishore Kumar at 2 and mentioned that after Rafi he was versatile and modulated the voice brilliantly for decades. He kept himself at no. 3. He said his songs were difficult to sing as they were classically oriented, but listeners enjoyed them. He sang the song “hey bhai zara dekh ke chalo” from Raj Kapoor’s film Mera Naam Joker in the program. He talked about lyricist Pulak Banerjee who had died some time back, but had given majority of songs to Manna Dey.

Manna Dey had a very sweet relationship with Sudhin Dasgupta. He was used by almost all the leading composers of Bengal namely Anil Bagchi, Nochiketa Ghosh, Salil Choudhury and others. But probably his westernized andaz was used to the limit by Sudhin Dasgupta.

Sudhin Dasgupta used Manna Dey in Uttam Kumar’s film Goli Theke Rajpoth with the song “lag lag lag lag bhelkir khela”. Manna Dey’s songs “ami agantuk” and “ke prothom kache esechi” composed by Sudhin Dasgupta in Uttam Kumar’s film Shankhabela created sensation in Bengali celluloid in 1966. Manna Dey’s songs “ami kon pothe je choli” and “bachao ke acho” in Uttam Kumar’s film Choddobeshi became super hit as well.

In the 70s, Manna Dey’s songs “esechi ami esechi”, “lekha porata shikhe phele” and “paye paye joriye rakho” in Uttam Kumar’s film Har Mana Har created sensation as well. Uttam Kumar gave the lips of his lifetime in the film Har Mana Har. While major success of Sudhin Dasgupta came in Uttam Kumar’s films, he made major contribution in Soumitra Chatterji’s films as well. The songs “ei shohor theke aro anek dure”, “hoyto tomari jonyo”, “jibone ki pabona” in the film Teen Bhubaner Pare, composed by Sudhin Dasgupta and sung by Manna Dey showed the westernized orchestration of the giant composer.

Sudhin Dasupta’s songs in Soumitra’s films Prothom Kodom Phul and Bosonto Bilaap were equally successful. Manna Dey’s all round musical skills were used to perfection in these films. Even the song “ogo tomar sesh bichare asay” sung by Manna Dey in bayul andaz in Kali Banerjee’s legendary film Dak Horkora, and composed by Sudhin Dasgupta made the viewers speechless.

Manna Dey sang many numbers of solo songs as basic discs under the compositions of Sudhin Dasgupta. One of the notable songs included “ami taar thikana rakhini”. The songs of Sudhin Dasgupta and Manna Dey combination should be preserved and restored.

Manna Dey received Dada Sahab Falke award and really deserved it. He is probably the last living legend. Viewers and listeners owe their respect to the versatile singer.