Pyaar hua ekraar hua, Ye raat bheegi
bheegi, A ja sanam madhur chandni mein hum… Ae Bhai Zara Dekh Ke Chalo….
Guess
what is common in these super hit songs? Well you have guessed it right they
are all hit songs of legendary actor cum filmmaker Raj Kapoor but on focusing
little more you will observe that all these songs are sung not by Mukesh,
considered the voice of Raj Kapoor but they are all sung by the great genius and
versatile singer Manna Dey.
So
how did Manna Dey and the Raj Kapoor Jodi germinate? Well it was surely not an
easy task but thanks to music director Shanker (of the Shanker-Jaikishan team)
and Raj Kapoor’s insistence that did the trick.
Raj
Kapoor who had an ear for good music was overwhelmed by the classical genius of
Manna Dey and it was he who first trusted Manna Dev and offered him the popular
dream sequence song Ghar Aaya Mera
Pardesi …. in AWARA.
However
the acid test came when Raj Kapoor tried to promote Manna Dey in other production
house. The movie was AVM’s CHORI CHORI and the song was Yeh Raat Bheegi Bheegi…..
Music
director Shanker in an interview informed, “Actually film producer Avichi V
Meiyappan (AVM) first choice was Mukesh but I and Raj felt Manna Dey will do
better justice to the song so were started recording with Manna Dey in his
absence but to our surprise on the day of recording AVM sahab landed in our
recording room and was quite angry. Where is Mukesh? He demanded.”
“However Raj Kapoor insisted on Manna Dey and
to calm AVM Sahab Raj Kapoor convinced AVM Sahab that if he does not like the
song then he will re –record the song in Mukesh’s voice at his own expense,”
added Shanker.
“But
when AVM sahab heard the song he was bowled over and ordered all the songs to
be sung by Manna Dey,” a delighted Shanker informed.
May
1, marks the birth anniversary of Padma Bhushan and Dada Saheb Phalke Award winner
Manna Dey; Ragaa.Com pays him our humble homage.
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