Subject: Suraiya : A Genuine Actress- Singer in Hindi Cinema from 1942 to 1951
Worded by : Yogesh Gogwekar
Address : Mahim, Mumbai
While watching the film Dillagi made in 1949, I came across the famous duet song ”Tu Mera Chand, Mei Teri Chandani” whose music was composed by Naushad and lyric was penned by Shakeel Badayuni. In this song, one can easily find that the song was sung in a very comfortable way and also the listener did not have any difficulty in understanding the song. Female voice in this song was very much impressive and sounded naturally on lower notes. I liked the presentation of this song especially in female singing. This song was picturized on such actor and actress who were also the singers. Male singer and actor was Shyam and Female actress and singer was Suraiya. Even Shyam sang well, I liked the voice of Suraiya. She was a really genuine actress-singer during her period. From this song, one can imagine her abilities to imagine the character’s singing. Suraiya had also sung near about six songs in this films like Muraliwale Murali Baja, Suniya Kya Jaane , Lekar Dil Chupake Se Kiya Majboor and her two evergreen songs Nirala Mohabbat Kaa Dastur Dekha and Char Din Ki Chandani .
Suraiya Jamal Sheikh was born on 15th June 1929 to Aziz Jamal Sheikh and Mumtaz Sheikh in Lahore. When Suraiya was one year old, her family decided to migrate to Mumbai along with her maternal uncle M Zahoor who was famous for negative role in the Mumbai Film Industry. They resided at Krishna Mahal at Marin Drive, Mumbai and Suraiya stayed there till her death. She attended J B Petit High School for Girls in the Forth Area. She started her acting career at the age of seven as a child actor with the help of her uncle M Zahoor. At the age of six, she started singing for the All India Radio for children program. In one particular program music composer Naushad heard her voice and selected her for giving her voice to the actress Mehtab in the film Sharda which was made by Abdul Rashid Karder in 1942. That time she was just thirteen year old. Thus, Naushad became her mentor and she recorded many songs under his composition which became very much hit.
When she was working as a child actress, she was also singing and recorded her voice for films Tamanna and Station Master which had been made in 1942. After seeing her talents as an actor and as a singer, head of Bombay Talkies and a great actress of that time, Devika Rani, signed her for a five year contract at Rs.500/- per month. And her voice was recorded for duet song with an actor and singer Arun Kumar for song, ‘Bistar Bicha Diya Tere Ghar Ke Samane’ in the film Hamari Baat which was made in 1943. This song became very much popular. After seeing her performances as a singer and also as an actor, K Asif had given her an offer of Rs.40000/- to act in his film Phool made in 1943. In this film, Prithaviraj Kapoor was the hero and Suraiya had played the role of his sister. For this, Suraiya requested Devika Rani to make changes in contract and the same had been done. Later on, at the age of fourteen, she became the heroine in JK Nanda’s film Ishara in which Prithaviraj Kapoor was a hero.
She became very much popular as a singer rather than actress. At the time of recording her song for Jayant Desai’s film Samrat Chandragupta in 1945 in which she was also an actress , that time famous singer and actor , K L Saigal recommended Jayant Desai to consider her his heroin and also a singer for the his next film Tadbeer. Along with K L Saigal, she had done another two films like Omar Khayyam and Parwana. Both these films were made in 1946. But all her solo songs became so popular which were composed under music director Khawaja Kursheed Anwar. Even though Naushad had introduced Suraiya as a singer, Khawaja Kursheed Anwar made her a genuine actress-singer. She also worked as co-star in the film Anmol Ghadi in 1946 and in Dard in 1947. She became very much popular in the film Pyar Ki Jeet in which she did her performance as a heroine with leading star Rehman. Her role in this film became so popular that a lot of crowd started gathering near her residence at Marine Lines, Mumbai and Police were called for her protection. Similar things had again happened during the premier show of the film Badi Behan in which she played the main role along with Rehman.
Suraiya became a leading star in 1948 and she was the highest-paid actress. In 1948, on the set of Vidya, she met such an actor with him she involved romantically and their love affairs were on air and had become news for the third page of newspapers. She did seven films with him. Other than Vidya, she did films like Jeet and Shair in 1949, Afsar in 1950, Nili, Do Sitare and Sanam in 1951. And that actor was no one else but Dev Anand. Their romance continued for four years. For this love, Suraiya was ready to give up her acting and singing career. They even planned to marry in a temple with the help of actress Durga Khote and cinematographer Dwarka Divecha. Dev Anand proposed to her and even presented her an engagement ring. Maternal grandmother, Badshah Begum, came to know about the same. She first threw this ring into the sea and with the help of her maternal uncle opposed the marriage by saying that Dev Anand was Hindu and dragged her from the scene and threatened her to get Dev Anand Killed. During the shooting of film Nili, Dev Anand asked her for marriage but she refused. Angry Dev Anand slapped her and called her coward. Even after that she did not change her decision as she did not want to make his life miserable. Dev Anand became upset and both did not do any films together thereafter. Thereafter, Dev Married with Kalpana Kartik; but Suraiya remained unmarried for the rest of her life. At the time of watching the interview of Dev Anand which was taken by Simi Grewal in her show Rendezvous with Simi Garewal, Dev Anand became emotional about his relations with Suraiya and told Simi Garewal that he was not aware that Suraiya was coerced to say no to him by her grandmother.
After her failure of her love affairs with Dev Anand, Suraiya acted in some films like Bilwamangal, Waris, and Shama Parwana in 1954, Kanchan and Imam in 1955, Lambu in 1956, Trolly Driver in 1958 and many other films. Her last film was Rustam Sohrab which was made in 1963. From1963, she stopped working in film permanently. It is being said that her best performance was in the film Mirza Ghalib which was made in 1954 and she won the National award as a best actress and best singer for this film of that year. After seeing this film, First Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru told her that she has brought the soul of Mirza Ghalib back to life. Her grandmother, who played a major role in her life, left Suraiya with her mother Mumtaz Begum alone and went to Pakistan in 1963. Suraiya’s mother was everything for her. Her mother used to take care of likings and continued till her death in 1987. After that, Suraiya was staying alone in her flat at Marine line, Mumbai till her death on 31st January 2004. She had very few friends like Nirupa Roy, Jairaj and Tabassum. Her personal life became miserable due to religious conflict in her love life and that is the only reason for subsequent withdrawal from the film industry.
Suraiya was also known for her songs also. In the beginning, she had done the playback singing for others but latter on she sang for herself only. She was not having an official training of Music. Her voice was neither thin nor broad and one can make out its strength in pronunciation of individual words. Her voice does not enjoy remarkable range, but it was adequate for maintaining the relationship between continuity with speech. She was quick in utterance and did not face any difficulties at the time of singing fast-paced songs. For that one can check her song, ‘Man Leta Hai Angdai in Anmol Ghadi whose music was composed by Naushad. One of her singing qualities was that she was able to maintain fluidity of projections without any jerks. Check her song, “Tere Naina Chori Kiya” in the film Pyar Ki Jeet whose music was composed by Husnalal Bhagatram.
All Playback singers are expected to do vocal enactment at the time of singing and Suraiya had done the same effectively in the song Door Papiha Bole in the film Gajre under music composition of Anil Biswas. Similarly, she had put a little extra weight on the last syllable of word in the song Door Jane Wale in the film Pyar Ki Jeet. It looks due to her acting background; she was able to sing effectively suppressed sob song. She was used to sing such songs without taking any pause in the melodic line for creating sorrowful moments. Yad Aa Rahi Hai in film Amar Kahani and Dekh Duniyawalo are best examples of these songs,
Suraiya was the highest paid actress and singer of her time. She was a classic beauty but not trained in classical music. Aalap is an elaboration of musical ideas which may involve sustained tone-production and subtle and sudden changes in pitch. Suraiya was not at all comfortable with aalap element in music, but still she can be considered as an instrument in evolving the actress-singer to high standard. We cannot forget her contributions in Hindi film industry as an actress-singer. I always like her songs “Who Pass Rahein, Ya Door Rahein” and “Tere Naino Ne Chori Kiya “.
Mumbai
20/12/2020
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