Mukti pradaayak punyamay vaani jan jan kee
Posted by: Atul on: August 14, 2025
This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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Today’s song is from a Mythological story – Shuk Rambha-1953.
It was directed by an expert in such films – Dhirubhai Desai and the music was given by Manna Dey. Yes, you read it right. The MD of this film was Manna Dey. many playback singers secretly desired to become MDs, but only few dared and fewer still succeeded. It was a case of reverse too – like most MDs tried their hands at singing. Some dared and few succeeded.
It is seen that the human mind always craves for something done by his superiors, like actors wish to direct films, directors wish to produce films and producers want to direct films. Remember the Gujarati proverb- ” Jeno kaam teno thaay, bija kare so gotha khaay” ? ( जेनो काम तेनो थाय, बीजा करे सो गोता खाय ). Most artists wisely give up what they feel they are not skilled to do. Manna Dey, G.M.Durrani, S.D.Batish, Snehal Bhatkar, Amirbai Karnataki, Shanta Apte, Kishore Kumar and few others learnt the lesson in short time and went back to their real expertise field !
Manna Dey was one of my favourite singers in Hindi films. I have always felt that he never got his dues from the industry. True to our tradition of branding and categorising people,he was also branded as ” fit only for classical songs and bhajans”. The fact is,if you see some of his songs he sang for Raj Kapoor(romantic), for Mehmood(comedy), for Balraj Sahni(serious songs) and a host of other Genres, Manna Dey has always given his best. Still he did not get what he deserved. A lot has been written about Manna Dey, so there is no point repeating his Biography. Instead, here are 10 special points about Manna Dey….
1. Manna Dey’s singing talent came to the fore while he was studying at Scottish Church College. Later he started taking singing lessons from his uncle Krishna Chandra Dey as well as Ustaad Dabir Khan.
2. Manna Dey’s career as a playback singer started with the movie Tamanna in the year 1943. His uncle, Krishna Chandra Dey composed the musical score and he paired up with the well-known Suraiya to sing this wonderful duet. The entire nation loved this song and Manna Dey became a household name.
3. Mohmammad Rafi had famously said that though the world listens to his songs, he only listens to Manna Dey’s songs.
4. Manna Dey sang two hugely popular song with the evergreen Kishore Kumar- Yeh dosti(Sholay) and Ek chatur naar (Padosan)
5. In his playback singing career spanning over seven decades, Manna Dey sang in many languages, mainly Bengali and Hindi. He sang more than 1200 songs in Bengali, 85 songs in Gujarati films, 55 songs in Marathi, 35 in Bhojpuri and several others in ten more different languages.
6. Dey had teamed up with Bhimsen Joshi and belted out the classic number Ketaki Gulab Juhi.
7. His autobiography, Jiboner Jalsaghorey, has been published by renowned Ananda Publisher in the year 2005 which has been translated in English as Memories Come Alive, in Hindi as Yaden Jee Uthi and in Marathi as Jiboner Jalsaghorey.
8. Manna Dey is one of the rarest singers who have worked with more than 100 music composers.
9. He sang a record 160 songs with Asha Bhosle and 101 duets with Mohd Rafi.
10. Dey was a huge fan of Rajesh Khanna. “I loved the way he picturised music. The success of a song depends upon how an actor picturises it. He was the number one in picturising songs. I will be indebted to him,” said Dey about the first superstar of the country.
From one of his rare interviews to RMIM, I give herewith a portion of it in which Manna Dey has expressed his opinions and impressions about few composers with whom he had worked with.
Q : You sang many of R.D. Burman’s early songs. What was your impression of him? How long did you know him?
A : I knew him from the day he was born. He was definitely one of the most creative and innovative of our music directors. My first song for him was “Allah jaane main hoon kaun, kya hai mera naam” from “Pati Patni”. The combination of R.D, Mehmood, and myself was particularly good, because we had such fun in the recording room. I did whatever vocal gags I thought were appropriate, and sometimes the three of us would just fall down laughing. But underneath all the playfulness Pancham was a serious and dedicated music director. Did you know he was well trained in classical music?
Q : Who in your opinion was the music director most fun to work with?
A : As I’ve already said, R.D. Burman.
Q : The most capable?
A : It depends on what you mean by capable.
Q : I suppose it refers to a music director who was thoroughly able to give the film’s director exactly what he wanted, in terms of the song situation in the film.
A : That would be Shankar-Jaikishan. There were absolute masters in delivering the goods exactly the way the director wanted.
Q : And the strictest?
A : C. Ramachandra. C.Ramachandra and Naushad are both hard taskmasters and knew how to extract work from a singer, and there was no fooling around with them. (*Another aside. In a previous meeting I had asked Manna Dey why although both he and Naushad were inclined towards classical music, there had hardly been any collaboration between them. I could only think of “Dukh bhare din” from “Mother India”, and a duet with Rafi in “Palki”. He seemed reluctant to discuss it, but told me that even though sound recordist Minoo Katrak had strongly recommended him to Naushad, the maestro preferred Rafi over Manna for his compositions, for whatever reason. Still, Manna
holds Naushad in great esteem as one of our supreme music directors*)
Q: In songs based on classical music which require a singer to perform a few complicated phrases or taans, typically what fraction of these are pre-composed? How much is the singer allowed to do impromptu? Is the singer asked to emulate classical artists or styles? What happens if the artist is not familiar with the raag?
A: There is always scope for improvisation, and a good music director will always be receptive to suggestions. I can confidently say that in all my songs, my own contribution has been at least 25%. Yes, we were asked occasionally to imitate the styles of great classical singers, but I’ve never done it.
Q : Does this mean that the taans at the end of “Laaga chunari mein daag” or “Phulgendwa na maaro” were yours?
A : That’s Roshan! No, never with the likes of Roshan or Naushad. For those two songs Roshan had the whole thing down pat and I just did what I was told. What a composer! The question of improvising on such a masterwork never even arose.
In the period from 1951 to 1960,so many religious and Mythological films were made that at times there was a shortage of appealing stories. Ramayana and Mahabharat popular stories were exhausted beyond revival and it was not prudent to repeat them frequently. In this period, Nirupa Roy and Trilok Kapoor,probably were the busiest stars. Besides the usual popular and usual stories, producers made films on rare subjects like Shanidev, Nal-Damayanti, Kach Devyani, Ekadashi, Navnaths, Kaali, Laxmi, Vikram and Vetal etc.
One of the Producer-Director Shri Dhirubhai Desai took up a totally unknown and obscure topic from the Vedik ” Shuk Rambha Samvad “. I appreciate his guts. I did not see this film and I do not know how many people must have seen this ‘never heard’ type of film. The cast of the film included Bharat Bhushan who had become famous after the Blockbuster film ‘Baiju Bawra’ in 1952. Anjali Devi from south was his Heroine. There were the other usual artists of this genre like Lalita Pawar, Krishnakumari, Niranjan Sharma, Tiwari, Kusum Thakur etc. The role of young Shukdev was performed by Raajkumar.
Normally, not many people would know who Shuk was. Of course everybody would know about Rambha, that she was an Apsara like Menaka and Urvashi etc. Rishi Shuk or Shukdev has an interesting story about his birth. Once Devi Parvati wanted to know the secret of being Amar or immortal. Only Shiv ji knew about it. When she was after him to know the secret, he agreed to tell her. While Shiv ji was explaining the details, Parvati went to sleep, but a bird-Shuk (Parrot), sitting on a tree branch outside listened to all the details. When Shiv ji realised this, the bird flew straight into the yawning open mouth of the wife of maharshi Vyas. It remained there safe for 12 years and then took birth. He was named Shuk. He left home to gain Brahma Gyan. Devarshi Narad took him again to Vyas. He taught him and then sent him to king Janaka, who was supposed to be ‘Jeevanmukta’,i.e. free from worldly emotions even though he was in a human form. After this discourse, Janak advised Shuk to take up grihasthashram, as Bramhadnyan was incomplete without that knowledge. Shuk met Rambha who got interested in him and started to lure him. There took place the famous Vaidik “Shuk Rambha Samwaad”. She was teaching him the benefits of spending time with beautiful women and he was contesting her arguments.
Here is some additional information on Shuk. ……
Shuka (also Shukadeva, Shuka deva, Suka, Sukadev, Sukadeva Gosvami) was the son of the sage Vyasa (credited as the organizer of the vedas and Puranas) and the main narrator of the Bhagvata Puran. Most of the Bhagavata Purana consists of Shuka reciting the story to the dying king Parikshit. Shuka is depicted as a Sanyasi, renouncing the world in pursuit of Moksha (liberation), which most narratives assert that he achieved.
According to Mahabharat, Shuka was churned out of a stick of fire after one hundred years of austerity by Vyasa, born with ascetic power and with the Vedas dwelling inside him, just like his father. The Mahabharata also recounts how Shuka was sent by Vyasa for training to King Janaka, who was considered to be a Jivanmukta, or one who is liberated while still in a body. Shuka asked Janaka about the way to liberation, with Janaka recommending the traditional progression of the four ashramas, which included the householder stage. After expressing contempt for the householder’s life, Shuka questioned Janaka about the real need for following the householder path. Seeing Shuka’s advanced state of realization, Janaka told him that there was no need in his case.
A place called Shukachari is believed to be the cave of Shuka, where he disappeared in cave stones as per local traditions. Shuka in Sanskrit means parrot and thus the name is derived from the large number of parrots found around the Shukachari hills. Shukachari literally means abode of parrots in the Sanskrit language.
Today’s song is sung by Master Gopal and Chorus.
Song-Mukti pradaayak punymay vaani jan jan kee(Shuk Rambha)(1953) Singer-Master Gopal, Lyrics-Bharat Vyas, MD-Manna Dey
Chorus
Master Gopal + Chorus
Lyrics
mukti pradaayak punyamay
vaanee jan jan kee
katha bhaagwat kee suno o
vyatha mitey ae ae man kee
chaar ved sakal gyaan
ashtaadash shubh puraan
in sab se uttam hai
shrimadbhagwatpuraan
jan manranjan bhavbhaybhanjan asurnikandan narayan
jan manranjan bhavbhay bhanjan asurnikandan narayan
narayan bhaj narayan
narayan bhaj narayan
narayan bhaj narayan
narayan bhaj narayan
jab jab bheer padee bhaktan par
baar baar avataar liya
aa aa aa aa
aa aa aa aa
bhaar mita kar dhartee ka
gau braahman ka uddhaar kiya
haa haa haa haa haa
kunj bihaaree giridhar dhaaree giridhar dhaaree
narayan
narayan bhaj narayan
jan manranjan bhavbhaybhanjan asurnikandan narayan
narayan bhaj narayan
narayan bhaj narayan
hua ??vat gaika taaree ahilya ka uddhar kiya
aa aa aa aa aa
ajaamil se paapee jan ka pal mein beda paar kiya
aa aa aa aa aa
?? udhaari ?? sanchaaree mangal kaaree narayan
narayan bhaj narayan
narayan bhaj narayan
narayan bhaj narayan
ved vyas virachit yah gaatha
harshit ho kar shuk gaaye
pravan kare kaliyug mein jo
wo mukti amar pad phal paaye ae
narayan bhaj narayan
narayan bhaj narayan
narayan narayan
narayan bhaj narayan
narayan narayan
narayan bhaj narayan
narayan narayan
narayan bhaj narayan
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4 Responses to "Mukti pradaayak punyamay vaani jan jan kee"
August 19, 2025 at 9:08 am
Good Morning,
Very pleasant song.
Thanks for sharing.
Regards
Uma
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Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
August 14, 2025 at 8:46 pm
Arun Ji
Thanks for the interesting post. I loved the few lines of the interview with Manna Dey. Truly a nice human being apart from being an excellent singer. He could have taken credit for improvising Taans in ‘Laaga Chunary..’ But he did not and was in full praise for Roshan.
I am thankful to you for your writing about Shuka ‘muni’ , in such details ( that I was not aware of.). I was only aware of his discourse to Parikshit
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August 14, 2025 at 9:12 pm
Thanks.
-AD
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