K. C. Dey Biography 
K. C. Dey was a leading singer and actor from Bengal during the early talkies. He was also a music composer and teacher who hailed from Kolkata. Dey is best known as S.D. Burman's first musical teacher and mentor, the music composer who later gave magnificent contributions to Bollywood cinema in the 1950s and 1960s till his death in mid-1970s. Dey lost his eye sight in his early teens, and was completely blind throughout his life till his death in 1962. Dey gave magnificent contributions to devotional music in the form of Keertans, apart from his work as a singer-actor in the early talkies. Famous Bollywood playback singer Manna Dey was his nephew, who took early music lessons from him.
His real name is Krishna Chandra Dey, and he was born in Kolkata in the year 1893. In 1906 he lost his eye sight at the age of 13. He worked for various theatre groups, and later shifted to New Theatres in Kolkata in 1940. Dey sang and composed music for movies from 1932 till 1946, and also worked as an actor during the same period. He used to sing regularly for several elite families of Bengal and was a leading name in the field of singing in the pre-independent era. He sang and recorded songs in Bengali, Hindi, Urdu and Gujarati languages, and also recorded several Keertans and 8 Naats.
Throughout his professional career, he used to extensively travel between Mumbai and Kolkata. In 1942 he permanently moved to Mumbai. However after mid-1940s, his quality of work started depleting and he finally quit from movies in 1946, just before Indian independence. He died in Kolkata on 28 November 1962. He was seen in supporting roles in movies such as Puran Bhagat, Dhoop Chhaon, Devdas (1935), Devdas (1936) etc, and he frequently worked with K. L. Saigal, a legendary singer-actor of early talkies. He also composed songs, and did playback singing. His deep and melodious voice is still unforgettable.
Published: N/A
Updated: April 04, 2018
