Kerala mourns loss of singer Manna Dey

Thiruvananthapuram: When Bengali singing sensation of many decades Manna Dey passed away on Thursday in Bengaluru, millions of Keralites, too, shared in the country’s grief.

With just one unforgettable song in the legendary Malayalam movie, ‘Chemmeen’, Dey had endeared himself to Keralites forever.

Dey, who passed away at the age of 94, had been invited by Chemmeen’s award-winning director Ramu Karyat to lend his voice to the song, ‘Maanasa Maine Varoo’. Incidentally, the music composition for the song was by fellow Bengali Salil Chowdhary and the lyrics were of Vayalar Rama Varma. Dey’s Bengali-Hindi accent was palpable in the singing, but it only seemed to add to the charm of the song that Keralites took to heart.

Those who remember the making of ‘Chemmeen’ say Dey was initially reluctant to sing in Malayalam with which he was hardly comfortable, but egged on by the ‘Chemmeen’ team and his family members, Dey rendered what would turn out to be one of the most popular Malayalam film songs ever.

Dey’s other connection with the state is his wife Sulochana, who hails from Kannur. The couple, who got married in 1953, have two children, Shuroma and Sumita. Sulochana passed away last year, and Dey then moved from Mumbai to Bengaluru.

Dey sang for another Malayalam movie, ‘Nellu’, alongside popular Malayalam singer Jayachandran, but the song ‘Chemba chemba’ did not hit the popularity high that ‘Maanase Maine Varoo’ did.