Manna Dey remains one of my favourite singers- very versatile & classy.His songs and his persona -both have left a deep impression on my mind.

In 1994 -I think it was 13th or 14th September-I had the good fortune of interviewing him at his place-"Anandam’ in Bombay. Those three hours spent in his company will be treasured for life.

I found him to be an extremely intelligent, knowledgeable and forthright person. He was not at all averse to give his piece of mind whenever necessary (and take your "peace of mind).Interviewing such people is always a delight for the interviewer as many of their quotes make a good 'hard copy'!

But what differentiated Mannada from other colourful, quoteful interviewees was the basic decency of the man. Here was a man who was 75-plus & with a fairly long and distinguished career behind him. He was not some cheap publicity seeker. In fact he had made it sure beforehand that he was not talking to some disinterested journalist going through with the motions of an interview but to a genuine fan. Whatever he was speaking at the time of the interview was spontaneous- coming straight from the heart. It was not at all with malice or venom. Just in a cool, factual manner.

Nobody should try & draw some crooked inferences from what he said. I believe everyone has a right to express his opinions, likes & dislikes- however unpleasant or unpalatable they might seem to the people who don't share them!

OK-That's enough for the intro. Over to Mannada.

Following are the excerpts of this interview:

On his choice- not to be a purely classical singer but to pursue popular music:

 "I was born & brought up in a musical household. I was greatly influenced by my uncle-K.C.Dey-the great blind singer of Bengal. He not only used to sing classical but had mastery over popular music- Bhajans,Kajari,Thumari,Ghazal....

I used to accompany him in all his programmes.That time I realised that people appreciate that music which they could understand!

Rather than his classical songs my uncle’s lighter songs were appreciated more & also they brought in more money.

That was the time when I had this fixed in my mind that to sing well I must know classical music well. But if I have to make music my livelihood then it is better to turn to popular music. While doing that I used my classical base wherever I could- I think that’s what set me apart."

On his not following the Saigal style of singing:

 "In those days it was an accepted norm to follow Saigal style of singing in popular music. Rafi,Kishore,Mukesh-all started their careers following Saigal’s footsteps. I was more influenced by Bangla singers like K.C.Dey & Pankaj Mullick. This Bengali school of music even might not have been of the national standard. But in terms of teaching the naunces of music I would consider it to be of the highest standard. Naturally I never copied Saigal."

On his first break in Hindi films:

 
"I started singing earler than Rafi,Mukesh or Kishore. In 1943 I sang my first song in ‘Ramrajya’ under the baton of Shankarrao Vyas. In those days the records did not carry the singer’s name on their labels. Hence nobody noticed ‘Manna Dey’ in spite of the songs becoming popular.

I myself was not too serious about these songs as I was taking classical training then. Also I was more inclined towards establishing myself as a music director.

In those days I was working as an assistant to many MDs like my uncle, S.D.Burman, Anilda & Khemchand Prakash. All of them made me sing a lot of songs. I don’t even remember those songs now.

In Sachinda’s ‘M