Manna Dey (English: Manna Dey, original name: ‘Prabodh Chandra Dey’, born: May 1, 1920 – death: October 24, 2013) was a famous playback singer of Hindi and Bengali films in the Indian cinema world. His fame was at its peak between the 1950s and 1970s. The number of songs sung by him is more than 3500. He was selected for the prestigious ‘Dada Saheb Phalke Award’ in 2007. The Government of India honored him with ‘Padma Bhushan’ in the field of arts in 2005. Manna Dey spent 50 years of his life in Mumbai.
Prabodh Chandra Dey alias Manna Dey was born on 1 May 1920 in Kolkata. Manna Dey’s father wanted him to become a lawyer, but Manna Dey was inclined towards music. He wanted to make his career in this field. He learned classical music from ‘Ustad Abdul Rehman Khan’ and ‘Ustad Aman Ali Khan’. Manna Dey received his initial education in music from his uncle ‘KC Dey’.
There is an interesting incident from Manna Dey’s childhood days. Ustad Badal Khan and Manna Dey’s uncle were once practicing together. Then Badal Khan heard Manna Dey’s voice and asked his uncle, who is singing? When Manna Dey was called, he said that I just sing like this. But Badal Khan recognized the hidden talent in Manna Dey. After this he started taking music lessons from his uncle.[1]
Manna Dey studied his childhood in a small school ‘Indu Babur Pathshala’. After studying from ‘Scottish Church Collegiate School’ and ‘Scottish Church College’, he completed his graduation from ‘Vidyasagar College’, Kolkata. His singing talent came to the fore during his Scottish Church College days. Then he used to sing and entertain his fellow students. This was the time when he stood first in ‘inter-college singing competitions’ for three consecutive years. Since childhood, Manna was fond of wrestling, boxing and football and he excelled in all these sports. He has a very cheerful personality and keeps joking with his friends and colleagues.
It was music that introduced Manna Dey to his life partner ‘Sulochana Kumaran’. On 18 December 1953, Manna Dey married Sulochana Kumaran from Kerala. They had two daughters. Suroma was born on 19 October 1956 and Sumita was born on 20 June 1958. Both daughters Suroma and Sumita did not enter the field of singing. One daughter is settled in America.
First they were Was with C. Dey and later became assistant to Sachin Dev Burman. Later he worked with many other music directors and then started directing music alone. Even while directing music in many films alone, Manna Dey continued to take lessons in Hindustani classical music from Ustad Aman Ali and Ustad Abdul Rehman Khan.
Manna Dey died in the early morning of 24 October 2013 in a hospital in Bangalore city after a prolonged illness. 94-year-old Manna Dey was admitted to Narayana Hrudayalaya five months ago due to respiratory problems. He breathed his last at 3:50 am. His family members told that his daughter Shumita Dev and his son-in-law Gyan Ranjan Dev were present near Manna Dey in his last moments. Manna Dey has two daughters. One daughter lives in America.