RMIM Archive Article "367".
From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian
#
# RMIM Archives..
# Subject: Suraiya - for the sake of love
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# Posted by: Neha Desai
# Source: indiaxs.com
# Author: Lata Khubchandani
#
For the Sake of Love
The question of free will has remained an open one through the ages,
does destiny rule our lives or do we shape our destiny - this question
comes up again as one rewinds to the life of the singing sensation of
the 40s and 50s - Suraiya. She seemed to have been introduced into
the film industry at a time when she was much too young to decide what
she wanted from life. Once there, she worked very hard under the
vigilant eye of her grandmother and reached a position where she
commanded respect, affection and awe. She had never been trained to
sing, nor did she have an overwhelming love for singing. It was just
that she was a quick learner. "Her voice was that of the girl next
door. It was homely voice and unsophisticated. One you could identify
with it," comments Music director Naushad Ali.
Today, Suraiya refuses all offers to sing or perform on stage. "I
haven't sung a note since I retired from films," she says. Having
retired, Suraiya has never shown any desire to return. She wants to
make up for all that time she had to spend working, getting up early
for shootings and never being able to do what she liked. She wants to
even out those years of discipline when she was at the top.
Suraiya's life took a turn when she got her priorities mixed up at a
crucial time. Dev Anand, the only man she had ever loved, proposed to
her and asked her to give up acting. She hesitated a little too long;
only she knew how hard she had worked to reach the top. Dev accused
her of being too fickle, of caring more for her career than for him
and that was the end of their fabled love story. But nothing about
Suraiya suggested then or now that she was a career-oriented person.
Today, as she lives alone, she is known for her good nature, and
lively sense of humour. One wonders whether it was this same person
who had second thoughts about marriage when it was pitted against her
career? Perhaps she has asked herself this same question before.
Legends have a way of growing larger than life, larger than reality
and this happens when they become victims of their own images. We've
had a tragedienne like Meena Kumari whose tragic persona became so
important to her that it spilled over into her personal life and she
could not detach herself from it. We've heard stories of Madhubala
whose laughing, ever beautiful image was so much part of her
personality that she could not come to terms with her illness. And we
have a Suraiya who remains a recluse for no better reason than "I'm
too fat now. I want people to remember me as I used to be." And people
remember her as a lively nymphet, always ready to burst into laughter,
a quality she retains even today.
Music director Naushad Ali takes one down the years to talk about this
artiste who entered the industry too young and left it very
early. "Suraiya was ruled by a martinet of a grandmother who took
complete charge of her life, accompanied her everywhere and never let
her out of her sight - she was completely responsible for making
Suraiya what she was".
"We were making a film for Prakash pictures and needed a girl to play
the heroine's younger sister, someone who could sing as well. The
singer G M Durrani suggested Suraiya and one day a young girl dressed
in a frock holding her grandmother's hand walked into the office. The
director of the film C M Lohar asked me to take her audition. The girl
had no training in music but she was very intelligent. She sang two
songs for the film Station Master. One was a chorus yeh rail hamare
ghar ki chuk chuk, and a solo number saajan ghar aaye. It was her
debut, both as an actress and as a singer. She was just nine years
old. I introduced her to A R Kardar, in whose film Nayi Duniya, she
gave playback music for the first time. Then came Sharda, another film
by Kardar. The heroine was Mehtaab and Suraiya gave playback for the
song Panchi ja piche raha hai bachpan mera. Her playback singing for
Mehtaab became so successful that people thought it was Mehtaab
herself singing."
For Naushad, she sang in films like Dillagi, Dastaan, Dil-e-Nadaan,
Dard, Deewana and Anmol Ghadi. According to Naushad, "Suraiya was
gifted with a naturally melodious voice. Her tonal quality was very
good. Her singing was non-professional, but she learn't fast. In those
days, music directors composed songs to the artiste's range so that
the voice wouldn't appear distorted. It is unfortunate that she
retired too early."
Says co-singer Talat Mahmood, "Even if she had become a little heavy,
she should not have given up singing. I made two films Maalik and
Waris with her and we shared a fantastic rapport. Waris even
celebrated a silver jublee, a rare thing in those days and our songs
from those films still remain very popular. She was as good a singer
as she was a human being."
Today she follows a leisurely lifestyle says a friend. Repeated
attempts to meet her are met with rebuffs from a "female watchdog" who
seems to guard her. She refuses to even come on the phone and almost
never meets the press. Her pleasantly worded excuse is always the same
- that she doesn't want to be seen as she looks now. But she refuses
to shed those extra kilos even for the sake of her image. But no talk
of Suraiya would be complete without a mention of Dev Anand and their
love affair.
Suraiya Jamal Sheikh met Dev Anand during the filming of Vidya. She
was then an established star and he a very raw newcomer. But she found
him sedate, cultured and very handsome. It was during the shooting of
the song Jaayi khushi ki duniya, hansti hui jawaani in which she had
to rest her head on Dev's shoulder and realised that no one had made
her feel this way before. However, the relationship was resented by
her family.
Suraiya did not know how to deal with pressures around her; her family
insisted she have nothing to do with Dev, while he insisted that she
marry him and retire from films. As she was not yet an adult, her
uncle threatened to have Dev arrested on grounds of her being a minor,
if she contemplated marrying him. The fear that they'd harm Dev,
coupled with the thought of giving up everything she'd done to reach
the top, made her waver. It was this hesitation that made Dev doubt
that she had ever loved him. Mounting family pressures made her give
up all thought of marrying the one man she cared for.
Dev Anand however prefers to retain those beautiful moments in his
private file. Says he, "We were involved, so I'm obviously going to
say only good things about her. When I entered the industry she was
already a big star. She was a lovely person and a very good
singer. Today when I look back, it seems that time has gone by in a
jiffy. Suraiya used to laugh a lot and her singing was
effortless. Anil Biswas, was a very good music director in those
days. I remember he'd give her the lines and she'd pick up the tune
immediately and sing. I'm out of touch with Suraiya now, but I
remember meeting her sometime back. She's put on a lot of weight and
she wears a lot of jewellery. I have good memories of her, she was
very nice but she was always surrounded by this retinue of people."
Born in Lahore, in June 1929, Suraiya is young by today's standards,
but this singing star who delighted the audiences for such a long time
refuses to come out of hiding. She held her own among stalwarts like
Nur Jehan, Khurshid, Zohra Bai, Amirbai and others without the benefit
of any music training. She has given us numbers like Nain Diwane, the
outstanding Woh paas rahe ya door rahe, frothy numbers like Kise
maloom tha and the beautiful Nuktachin hai ghame dil. Her career
spanned a little over two decades but she has left behind a vast body
of work for audiences to delight in. One wonders what it was she
gained from her association with the industry. A broken love affair, a
life of loneliness; her mother and grandmother passed away, the rest
of her family migrated to Pakistan and today she lives alone. Her
strength, her courage, her good temper and generosity (she acted with
newcomers when she herself was at the top, when she could pick and
choose her co-stars) make her a human being above the
average. Whatever destiny willed for her, she accepted - and today she
has become a legend in her own right.
Lata Khubchandani
From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian