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Suraiya Biography

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Suraiya Jamaal Sheikh known as Suraiya(Urdu( ثریا)^[1]^[2]^[3] or Suraiyya (15 June 1929 - 31 January 2004) was a singer and actress in Indian films in the 40s and 50s. She was a popular actress and singer and was given the honorific title of Malika-e-Tarannum (Urdu: ملکہ ترنم, English: the queen of melody) in the sub-continent.Later the title was given to Noor Jehan 1930-1947,1963.

Born to the owner of a small furniture shop in Gujranwala, Punjab, (which is in modern dayPakistan). She was the only child of her parents. She was not formally trained in music; yet she went on to become a successful singing actress.

Eraly Life

Suraiya was born in Gujranwala, Punjab, (which is in modern day Pakistan),to the owner of a small furniture shop. Later her father moved to Lahore and Suraiya was taken to Bombay on the request of her mom, maternal grandmother and uncle. No one heard of Suraiya’s father again after that time.

She attended New Girls' also known as J.B. Petit High School for Girls, in Fort, Mumbai. She received religious Islamic teachings in Persian at home.

Career

Suraiya made her debut as a child artist in Usne Kya Socha (1937). She got a prominent role as a child artist with the help of her uncle Zahoor, who was then a popular villain actor. During a holiday from school in 1941, she accompanied him to Mohan Studios to see the shooting of the film Taj Mahal which was being directed by Nanubhai Vakil. Vakil noticed Suraiya and not having in his mind at that time any particular young girl to play the role of young Mumtaz Mahal in Taj mahal, selected Suraiya to play that role.^[4]

While she was sang for a children's program for All India Radio in which Raj Kapoor and Madan Mohan who later attained fame as an actor, a film maker and music director respectively, used to be her co-artists. The legendary Z.A.Bukhari was then the station director at the A.I.R. Bombay, Music Director Naushad Alionce heard Suraiya's voice and chose her to sing as a 13 year old for Mehtaab in Kardar's film Sharda[disambiguation needed]^[5] (1942). He was Suraiya’s mentor and she sang some of the best songs of her career under his baton. Later he gave hits after hits when Suraiya became full fledged singing star in Anmol Ghadi (1946), Dard (1947), Dillagi (1949) and Dastaan (1950). Naushad composed approximately 51 songs for Suraiya, coming at 2nd place after Husnlal Bhagatram for composing the highest number of songs for Suraiya.

As an Child artist, Suraiya entered the film industry with Taj Mahal (1941), for which maestro S.D. Burman, who was till then known for his Bengali songs, rendered his first Hindi song Prem ki pyaari nishani under the musical baton of Madhulal Master. Suraiya’s next assignment was for Tamanna (1942), for which she also rendered her first duet with then budding singer Mannadey – Jaago aayi usha. It was tuned by Manna’s uncle the well known singer, music director and actor K.C. Dey.

Suraiya graduated to adult roles with Ishara (1943), playing second lead opposite small-timer Satish with Prithviraj Kapoor and Swarnlata playing the leading roles. In this movie she had only two songs to her credit, a solo (Panghat pe muraliya baaje) and a duet (Baaghon mein koyal boli) with Satish. In Station Master and Ishara her voice was used for the character she played. As an adult, Suraiya initially played secondary roles in K. Asif's Phool (1944), Mehboob Khan's Anmol Ghadi (1946), which was written by Aghajani Kashmeri also Kashmiri, and Dard (1947).

She got a break as a heroine for the film Tadbir (1945) at the recommendation of K. L. Saigal, who liked her voice during a rehearsal. She went on to costar with Saigal in Omar Khayyam (1946) and Parwana (1947). Although by then she had a couple of hit songs, but the four solo songs which she sang in Parwana made her a genuine singer star. She considered Composer of these songs, Khawaja Khurshid Anwar as her favorite Music Director for whom she sang just thirteen songs during 1943 to 1949. More opportunities arose for Suraiya after reigning actresses Noor Jehan and Khursheed Bano migrated toPakistan following the 1947 partition of British India.

As an actress, Suraiya had an edge over her contemporaries Kamini Kaushal and Nargis because she could sing her own songs. After three hits Pyar ki jeet (1948), Badi Behen, and Dillagi (1949), she became the highest paid female star. But her reign at the top was brief; her films started flopping in the 1950s. She made a comeback in Waaris and Mirza Ghalib (1954). Rustom Sohrab (1963) was her last film.

In the late 1940s, she worked with Dev Anand. While shooting during the film Vidya, she became romantically involved with Dev Anand. The two of them were paired in seven films together: Vidya (1948), Jeet (1949), Shair (1949), Afsar (1950), Nili (1950), Do Sitare (1951) and Sanam (1951), all of which were successful at the box office. In these films, Suraiya was always first-biller in the credits, indicating that she was a bigger star than Anand.

She fell in love with him during the shooting of the song Kinare kinare chale jayen ge from the film Vidya—while shooting the scene, the boat they were in capsized, and Anand saved Suraiya from drowning.

Their entire affair was conducted in a clandestine manner, with friends like Durga Khote and Kamini Kaushal going out of their way to engineer secret rendezvous. On the sets of the film Jeet, Anand finally proposed to Suraiya and gave her a diamond ring worth Rs 3,000. Her maternal grandmother opposed the relationship as they were Muslim and Anand was Hindu, and so, Suraiya remained unmarried. They stopped acting together after her grandmother opposed their partnership.

In a career spanning 22 years, Suraiya sung in five or six films and acted in approximately 65 movies which do not include the incomplete ones like Jaanwar (with Dilip Kumar) and Paagal Khaana (with Bharat Bhushan).

From the late forties to the early fifties she remained the highest paid as well as the most worshipped star of the Indian cinema^[6]

^{Suraiya As Actor}

^{Suraiya made her debut as a child artist in Usne Kya Socha (1937).Suraiya entered the film industry as a child actress with Taj Mahal (1941), with the help of her uncle Zahoor, who was then a popular villain actor.}

^{During a holiday from school in 1941, she accompanied him to Mohan Studios to see the shooting of the film Taj Mahal which was being directed by Nanubhai Vakil. Vakil noticed Suraiya and not having in his mind at that time any particular young girl to play the role of young Mumtaz Mahal in Taj mahal, selected Suraiya to play that role.}

^{As a child artist, she acted in Tamanna (1942), Station Master (1942), Hamari Baat(1943).}

As an adult, Suraiya initially played secondary roles opposite to dancer Mumtaaz Ali, in the Devika Rani -Jairaj starrer Hamari Baat, in K. Asif's Phool (1944), Mehboob Khan's Anmol Ghadi (1946), which was written by Aghajani Kashmeri also Kashmiri, and Munnawar Sultana (Dard).

She got a break as a heroine for the film Tadbir (1945) at the recommendation of K. L. Saigal, who liked her voice during a rehearsal. She went on to costar with Saigal in Omar Khayyam (1946) and Parwana (1947). Then after, with movie Dard (1947) she rose to fame and soon in the ’48-’49 phase, with her trio of hits, Pyar Ki Jeet, Badi Behan and Dillagi, she became the highest paid female star who regularly broke hearts and records.

Yet her reign at the top was brief and most of her 50's films flopped till she made a short-lived comeback with Sohrab Modi’s Mirza Ghalib, in which she made vivid, the role of the married Ghalib’s lover.

Along with an emotionally fluid performance where her expressions of love, expectation and hurt just seemed to merge into one another, the queen of cadence also recorded what is still regarded by many as the definitive Ghalib. No less a personality than Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru praised her saying, `Tumne Mirza Ghalib ki rooh ko zinda kar diya,’ (You have brought Mirza Ghalib to life).

After Mirza Ghalib, she continued to work in movies as singing actress in movies like Bilwamangal (1954), Waris (1954), Shama Parwana (1954), Kanchan (which was scheduled to release in 1949 as Amar Kahani) (1955), Inam (1955), Mr. Lambu (1956), Trolly Driver (1958), Miss 1958 (1958), Malik (1958), Shama (1961) and Rustom Sohrab (1963) was her last film.

As an actress, she worked the most with director D.D. Kashyap in 5 films – Aaj Ki Raat, Badi Behan, Kamal ke Phool, Do Sitare and Shama Parwana; with A.R. Kardar in 4 films – Dard, Dillagi, Dastaan and Deewana and with M. Sadiq in 4 films – Jagbiti, Dak Bangla, Kajal and Char din. She shared great chemistry with director A.R. Kardar and 3 out of the 4 films they worked together were hits (Dard, Dillagi and Dastaan).

Suriya As Singer

Suraiya was not a trained singer yet she enjoyed fame as singing star. As a singing star, Suraiya started her career as a playback singer for actress Mehtaab. She sang for Mehtaab in Sharda (1942), Kanoon (1943) and Sanjog (1943).

As a child actress she sang songs for her movies like in Taj Mahal (1941), for which maestro S.D. Burman, who was till then known for his Bengali songs, rendered his first Hindi song Prem ki pyaari nishani under the musical baton of Madhulal Master. Suraiya’s next assignment was for Tamanna (1942), for which she also rendered her first duet with then budding singer Mannadey – Jaago aayi usha. It was tuned by Manna’s uncle the well known singer, music director and actor K.C. Dey.

After few other rather insignificant singing and acting assignments (Ujala, Station Master) maestro Naushad selected her as the playback voice for leading lady Mehtab in Sharda (1942). The movie became a turning point in Suraiya’s career as a singer, with two of her songs Panchhi ja, peechhe raha hai bachpan mera and Mere dil ko sajan samjhado becoming very popular. Incidentally, Mehtab was the only actress to whom Suraiya lent her voice in three movies (Sharda, Qanoon and Sanjog).^[7] Later, she continued to work with Naushad and in 1946 she worked with NoorJehan in this movie she sang three songs and Maan Leta Hai Angdai was a viral. In span of 22 years she had number of hits. In her Her honey-rich voice in songs like `Woh paas rahe ya door rahe’, ‘Tere naino ne chori kiya’, `Tu mera chaand main teri chaandni’, `Yaad karu tori batiya’ and the rare classical number, `Manmor hua matwala’, created hysteria.

After many years later rendering her voice, she also sang for Nimmi in Shama (1961) besides singing for herself, because the other singer Suman Kalyanpur failed to dub her portion of the song. Also two of her songs – Hawa uda kar layi, O bewafa karke jafa — (music: Dhani Ram) recorded for an incomplete movie of her’s, were later included in another film Taqdeer (1958) and picturized on its leading lady Shyama. Naushad Ali, Husnlal – Bhagat Ram and Khursheed Anwer played significant roles in Suraiya’s career but such stalwarts as Anil Biswas, S.D. Burman and Ghulam Mohammad also enhanced her popularity as a singer. Then there were other music directors she teamed up with just once or twice but rendered some extremely melodious though not so popular numbers.

Suraiya has the rare honor to work with many other singing-stars of her time including Noor Jehan (Anmol Ghadi), C.H. Atma (Bilwamangal), Talat Mahmood (Maalik and Waris), Mukesh (Mashuqa), K.L Saigal (Tadbeer, Omar Khaiyyam and Parwana) and Surendra (1857 and Anmol Ghadi).

^{Personal Life}

Suraiya was romantically involved with actor Dev Anand. The two of them costarred in six films between 1948 and 1951. During the shooting of the song Kinare kinare chale jayen ge of the film Vidya in 1948, a boat capsized and Dev Anand saved Suraiya from drowning.^{[citation needed]}

Suraiya was declared the first Melody Queen (Malika-e-Tarannum) in the sub-continent and much later Noor Jehan was awarded with the same title.

Her greatness can be judged by these comments. "You have put life in the soul of ‘Mirza Ghalib’", were the remarks of PanditJawaharlal Nehru, the first Indian Prime Minister.^[8] The Hollywood legend Gregory Peck was keen to meet Suraiya. In connection with the shooting of some film he happened to visit Mumbai where he was honoured by the great actress by meeting him.^[9]

^{Last Year And Death}

Suraiya lived in her apartment Krishna Mahal Marine Drive in Mumbai until her death due to cancer in 2004 at age 74.^[10]

She was burried at Badakabarastan in Marine Lines, Mumbai.

Suraiya