94. THE MOST MEMORABLE FOUR MINUTES…………..

Thousand Moon: Shri Ravindra Palkar

Contributed by: Dr. Raghunath Boradkar

Shri Ravindra Palkar is 82 plus. He loves hindi film music and especially likes old film songs.His favourite singers are K L Saigal, Pankaj Mulick and Manna Dey. I  think I should better quote him here,and these are his words. ‘My age is 82 and along with my childhood friends ,I enjoyed singers like Saigal,Pankaj MalikManna Dey and many others  and still enjoy.’

Here he narrates what he calls the  ‘ Most memorable four minutes’ in his life and also pays tribute to the great singer late Shri Manna Dey.

Shri Ravindra Palkar stays in Kothrud Pune.

And now his actual  writeup.

THE MOST MEMORABLE FOUR MINUTES…………..

Born Prabodhchandra Day but famous as Manna Dey or Manna Da to all music lovers left  this world at the age of 94 on 24^th October 2013. The news crowded my mind with tunes of his sad, classical, peppy and romantic songs. Manna  Da sang Bhajans as well as westernized songs and I feel he sang comedy songs in classical form.He sang Marathi Natya sangit too ,but it was his song Dharati kahe Pukarake from Do Bigha Jamin that made him famous nationally.

Two or three years back a Musical programme was held at Ganesh Kala Krida Manch  Pune where Manna Da presented a number of solo songs and a few duets with a local singer Mrs Mategaonkar . I was fortunate enough to attend the programme. I witnessed that the crowd was thoroughly enjoying the programme.

During the interval I requested the organizers of the programme for my personal meeting with Manna Da ! And my luck! I could meet him only for four minutes but those were the most memorable four minutes for me. After paying respect to him ,I requested him to sing a song from New Theatre’s Devdas .He asked me ‘Who has sung that song?’. I replied ‘Late K C Dey has sung it.’ K C Dey means Krishna Chandra Dey who was Manna Da’s uncle. He appreciated my choice but asked me to excuse saying ‘My uncle K C Dey was the right person to sing that song’. He shook hands with me and expressed his inability to sing that song. I saluted him and while going out requested him to sing the very famous song ‘Ai Meri Johar Jabi’ from ‘Wakt’ and to my pleasure he sang the song . I enjoyed the rest of the programme.

I was overwhelmed with joy and speechless for some time. While going home I kept thinking ‘Was it a dream or Reality?’ The magnificent thing about the evening was.that I could shake hands with the legendary playback singer of Indian Cinema. Manna Dey has sung more than 4000 songs. His songs haunted me so much that I did not know when I slept that night. ‘ Hasane ki chahne Kitna muze Rulaya Hai’ from ;Avishkar’ ‘Puchho na kaise maine rain bitayee’ from ‘Meri surat Teri Ankhe’ and ;Lapak chhapak tu are Badarva’from ‘Boot Polish’ are a few of his songs that are very close to my heart due to the heartbreaking sadness and naughtiness expressed by them. People will remember Manna Dey for years together because  HE HAS VERY SUCCESSFULLY CROSSED THE BRIDGE BETWEEN THE CLASSICAL AND FOLK SONGS.   MAY HIS SOUL REST IN PEACE.

Ravindra Palkar