Like many leading ladies of the past, Suraiya's entry into the world of movies was more accidental, than otherwise. In 1941, she had accompanied her uncle Zahur (then a popular actor) to Mohan Studios to see the shooting of Taj Mahal. A child was needed for a particular shot and Suraiya stepped in. The shot was a success but it did not launch her career. She went back to her studies and occasionally took part in children's programmes for All India Radio. Here she met actress Shammi and Raj Kapoor -- a relative unknown in the filmworld. The young Raj used to teasingly call her `Kallu'.From radio, Suraiya moved on to playback singing -- Sharda, Station Master, Sanjog and Kanoon -- and in a surprising volte face one day, Suraiya found herself facing the camera. She first caught the eye of filmgoers in Bombay Talkie's Hamari Baat. Then came DRD Productions Ishara and Suraiya had a chance to act opposite old friend Raj Kapoor's father -- Prithviraj.Soon, Suraiya became synonymous with musical pictures like Phool, Samarat Chandragupta, Anmol Ghadi, 1857, Aaj Ki Raat, Dard, Dillagi, Natak, Afsar, Kajal, Vidya, Jeet, Dastan, Sanam and Char Din.
But Suraiya experienced the greatest thrill of her screen career when K L Saigal strayed onto the sets of Jayant Desai's Chandragupta, where she was rehearsing a song. He asked Desai to cast her against him in Tadbir and Suraiya finally realised one of her greatest dreams. A Saigal fan, she had longed to co-star with him -- a dream that came true again in Omar Khayam and Parwana.
Luck continued to favour this singing sensation. Suraiya was completely besotted by Hollywood's heart throb Gregory Peck -- in 1954, she had a chance to meet him. When Peck broke journey at Mumbai, on his way to Ceylon for the shooting of Purple Plain, he stopped in to meet his most beautiful fan.
But her luck did not hold out in her personal life and Suraiya faced her biggestdisappointment. She first met Dev Anand in 1948, when she was just 19 years old. They were co-starring in the film Vidya and on the second day itself cupid struck. And when he saved her from drowning during the filming of the song `Kinare Kinare Chale Jayenge', Suraiya was convinced that she had met her cosmic mate. But her Nani thought otherwise. She banned meeting, telephone calls and even talking on the sets. The 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, Dev Anand finally proposed to Suraiya and gave her a diamond ring worth Rs 3,000 -- a princely sum for a fledgling star. But even that memento was snatched away from her when her grandmother saw the ring and threw it away into the sea. She also burnt all of Dev Anand's letters in front of Suraiya's eyes. Her objection to the romance: Dev Anand was a Hindu. A hunt for a Muslim husband began but marriagewas not in Suraiya's fate. In 1951, Dev Anand married Kalpana Kartik -- ending one of the silver screen's greatest romances.
Today, she neither gives interviews nor makes public appearances. The walls and mirrors of Krishna Mahal flat on Marine Drive, are the only objects that set their eyes on this star of yesteryears. But she broke her self-imposed exile when she made a rare appearance at the Screen Videocon awards when Sunil Dutt presented her the Lifetime Achievement award. Radiant in a white salwar kameez she carried herself with the grace of a much younger woman.
The gentle sway of her hips spoke of her delicate style of dancing. The only thing that had remained completely unchanged was her voice. Tremulous with emotion, Suraiya's voice was choked with emotion when she took her award.
She spoke of her long association with the film world and she was deeply touched that audiences still remembered her. But when Javed Jaffery pressed her to sing or just hum -- she refused. As a star shestill remembers the meaning of letting a legend live. Heroines are captured forever on the silver screen and the public's memory must never be updated.
All archival material and photographs courtesy Subhash Chheda
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
