Legendary playback singer and Dada Saheb Phalke Award winner Manna Dey passed away at a Bangalore hospital in the wee hours of Thursday. He was 94.
Dey had over the last few years been staying at Bangalore. In the late 40s he had relocated to Mumbai. During the course of his musical career travelled extensively between Kolkata and Mumbai.
In June this year, he had been admitted to a Bangalore-based hospital with heart ailment. Sources told a news channel that Dey was suffering from heart and kidney ailments because of which he had to be admitted. He, however, passed away following a cardiac arrest.
His last rites are likely to be completed by today.
Born as Prabodh Chandra Dey (born 1 May 1919) in Kolkata, he was better known by his nickname Manna. He has recorded over 3500 songs in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali over the course of his career.
Along with Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar and Mukesh, he dominated Indian film playback music between the 1950s and 1970s.
With Lata Mangeshkar, Manna recorded 113 duets including all time hits like "Yeh raat bhigi bhigi","Pyar hua iqrar hua", "Aja sanam madhur chandni mein hum", "Ritu aye". He sang a duet, "Ke Prothom Kachhe Esechi", with Lata Mangeshkar in the movie Sankhyabela.
With Asha Bhosle, Manna recorded more than 100 duets including "Re man sur me ga", "Tu chupi hai kahan", "Zindegi hai khel", etc.
Dey also sang with singer/composer, Hemant Kumar (Hemanta Mukherjee), in Bengali movies, and also for some other Bengali composers like Nachiketa Ghosh and Sudhin Dasgupta.
Some of Manna Dey's all time solo hits include "Zindagi kaisi hain pehli janam" (Anand), "Pucho na kaise maine rain betayi", "O meri zohra zabin", "Aye mere pyare watan", among others.
His Bengali solo hits include the likes of "Ami je jalshaghar e..."; "Ke tumi Nandini" and "Coffee House er adda ta ar nei..." among others.
In 1942, Dey accompanied his uncle Krishna Chandra Dey on a visit to Bombay. Dey started his career in playback singing with the movie Tamanna in 1943.
Dey has been honored with various titles including the Padmshree and Padma Bhushan. In 2009, he was honoured with the Dada Saheb Phalke awards.