Kuldeep Manakਕੁਲਦੀਪ ਮਾਣਕ

Early life

Kuldeep Manak was born Latif Mohammed on 15 November 1951 in the village of Jalal in Bathinda district, in Punjab’s Malwa region, into a Mirasi family of musicians — his father Nikka Khan was a singer himself. The boy’s voice was extraordinary from the start, and at a school prize-giving, Punjab’s then chief minister Partap Singh Kairon was so struck by it that he penned the name ‘Kuldip Manak’ for him — the name the world would know.

He was a keen hockey player at Jalal Government High School, but singing pulled harder. His ustad drilled him in raags and the hazuri raagi style of Sikh devotional singing, giving his voice a classical grounding that would set him apart from every other folk singer of his generation.

The voice of kali

Manak became the undisputed master of kali (plural kalian or kaliyan), a rare and demanding Punjabi folk form — long, narrative songs sung at a high pitch with minimal accompaniment, telling stories of love, valour and tragedy. His voice, strong and piercing, seemed built for it. In 1968, at seventeen, he got his first break singing with the popular singer Seema, and his first record — featuring ‘Jija Akhian Na Maar’ — was a runaway success.

His first album, Teri Khatir Heere, was released by HMV, and his first LP in 1978 carried the songs that would define him: ‘Tere Tille Ton,’ ‘Chheti Kar Sarwan Bachha’ and ‘Ghar Mukhda Ve.’ ‘Tere Tille Ton,’ with lyrics comparing a village belle’s beauty to the legendary Heer, became one of the most famous Punjabi folk songs ever recorded.

Peak years

Through the late 1970s and early 1980s, Manak was widely regarded as the finest Punjabi singer alive. His repertoire drew on the great Punjabi qisse — Yusuf Zuleikha, ‘Gadeya Millade Sohne Yaar,’ ‘Dulleya Ve Tokra’ — sung in the kali style with a dramatic intensity no one could match. Lyricists like Debi Maksoospuri, Dev Tharikewala and Jandu Litranwala wrote for him, and his records sold across Punjab and the diaspora.

He also sang for Punjabi films and acted in a few, but it was the stage — the akhara — where he was king. His live performances, voice soaring over the dhol, were legendary, and he influenced a generation of singers including Jazzy B, who has often called Manak his idol and mentor. Even as newer, flashier styles of Punjabi pop emerged in the 1990s, Manak’s audience stayed loyal; his was a voice that belonged to the soil, and his listeners knew it.

Later life and legacy

In his later years Manak battled kidney disease, and he died of pneumonia in a Ludhiana hospital on 30 November 2011, at the age of sixty. Thousands gathered at his village of Jalal for the burial, and the Punjab police gave him a guard of honour.

A statue of Manak stands in Ludhiana near his former home. He is remembered as the ‘Baadshah of Kaliyan’ — the king of a form that might have died without him — and as one of the greatest voices Punjabi music has ever produced. His son Yudhvir Manak has carried the family name into a new generation of singing.