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Suraiya – Naushad Collaboration

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Back to Legends – Suraiya

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Naushad and Suraiya

Naushad was Suraiya’s mentor and Suraiya sang some of the best songs of her career under Naushad’s baton. It was Naushad who introduced Suraiya as a playback singer for Mehtaab in Sharda (1942) and then later 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.

Naushad on Suraiya

Suraiya with Naushad

Suraiya, unlike the others, was never a trained singer. She had never taken any lessons in music but till date, it is very difficult to find a voice like her’s. It has that next door appeal, a voice that bears natural tonal quality. Of course, unlike other established singers, her voice had a very narrow range and she needed a number of rehearsals. Had her limitations been kept in mind while setting tunes to adapt to her tonal quality, she was unbeatable.

I introduced her to films almost six decades back as a playback singer. When she grew up and started accepting heroine’s roles, naturally all the music directors of that period including myself made her sing the songs. She was almost reigning supreme as a singing star in the forties. But when a fresh band of female singers started growing up in the decade of 1950s, slowly Suraiya started declining and perhaps due to the age factor she retired from acting and singing in due course.

Only a couple of years ago I asked her to stage a comeback and sing for “Chanakya” but she politely turned down my request saying, ‘I gave up singing a long time ago. If I begin again and if my voice is not up to the mark, people will hear my bad voice and lose whatever respect they have for me. So please don’t force me to stage a comeback”.

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