Cineplot Music

Suraiya – Memories

Suraiya

I had the privilege of meeting actress Suraiya and having lengthy conversations with her on several occasions during my tenure as chief representative of our national airline in Bombay, in the nineties. It was during those meetings that she narrated several interesting anecdotes concerning different phases of her career and the impact of some of the master composers on her style of singing. Such as how Anil’da (Biswas) taught her to breathe in while singing so that it was not caught by the microphone or how Khwaja Saheb (Khursheed Anwer) would lean over the harmonium, with his long hair covering half of his face, while singing a tune to her: Naushad Saheb put her to rigorous rehearsals even when she used to be dead tired after marathon shooting schedules: or how while recording her first song as a child she was made to stand on a wooden stool in order to reach the height of the microphone.

She often recalled fondly the days when as a child from her Marine Drive residence she would walk down to All India Radio (A.I.R.) studio to participate in the children’s programme 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.
Suraiya entered the film industry as a child actress 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.

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). It was quite an incidence per force, that many years later in a female duet situation in Shama (1961) besides singing for herself, she became the ghost voice for Nimmi as well when 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.

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. In Anmol Ghadi she was the third angle of the love triangle, the other two being Noor Jehan and Surendranath. She sang three songs in it.

There is no denying the fact that 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.

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 – Sultan Arshad

Singing Stars