Manna Dey, a name which is not heard so often in the Indian households but revolves robustly in the Indian Music Industry.
Primarily known as Prabodh Chandra Dey (1 May 1919 − 24 October 2013), he got his first break in the song “Upar Gagan Bishal” composed by S D Burman for the film Tamanna in 1942. This led him to the pinnacle of the music industry for which he sang over 4000 songs till 2013. He was felicitated with the Padma Shri in 1971, the Padma Bhushan in 2005 and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2007 by the Government of India (GoI).
It was on May 1, 1919, that Manna was born in Kolkata. He was born to Mahamaya and Purna Chandra Dey. Not only was he guided and influenced by his parents but also his youngest paternal uncle, Sangeetacharya Krishna Chandra Dey
From the primary level only, i.e. at school level of education, Dey started to become a part of shows and plays. Later, he went to a Scottish Church Collegiate School and Scottish Church College. Dey imbibed music during his music lessons from Krishna Chandra Dey and Ustad Dabir Khan. What’s not surprising is that he topped for three consecutive years in three different categories of inter-collegiate singing competitions.
Dey songs ranged from Hindi, Bhojpuri, Magadhi, Maithili, Punjabi, Assamese, Odia, Konkani, Sindhi, Gujarati, Marathi, Kannada, Malayalam, and Nepali.
In December 1953, Manna Dey tied the knot with Sulochana Kumaran. They had two daughters – Shuroma and Sumita. Sulochana died in January 2012 out of Cancer.
As life does it to all, Dey also suffered from diseases. He was admitted to the ICU in a Bengaluru hospital on 8 June 2013. He suffered from the chest infection which engendered a slew of other complications. The chest infection got bettered and he vacated the hospital soon. It was in 2013 that he was hospitalized again in the October first week in the Narayana Hrudayalaya hospital in Bengaluru. He then died of a cardiac arrest at 3:45 pm on 24 October at 94 years of age.
His cremation in Bengaluru was observed by a slew of notable people like musicians, politicians, cricketers and other notable persons.
