Suraiya: Remembering Hindi cinema’s first singing star on her 22nd death anniversary 22 : Bollywood News

When Suraiya passed away on January 31, 2004 the nation was stunned into silence. There are many immensely gifted singers, and there are many immensely gifted stars. But no individual combined the two seemingly incompatible worlds in such a magical web of melody and histrionics.

Suraiya: Remembering Hindi cinema’s first singing star on her 22nd death anniversaryIf Suraiya was a very accomplished singer, she was also one of the most popular and acclaimed actresses of her time. Almost all her songs were self-sung on screen. That again made her unique. In a world where actresses soon came to project beauty on screen through predominantly one voice, the voice of Lata Mangeshkar, Suraiya was her own person. Stately coy and compelling.

If Suraiya remained untouched by the sweeping sonority of the Nightingale’s voice, it was because she created her own idyllic world of spiritual synthesis between body and soul in one persona.

And look at the breathtaking lineup of songs that Suraiya sang to ever-lasting fame… From ‘Ek tu ho ek main hoon’ in Kanoon in 1943 to ‘Yeh kaisi ajab dastaan ho gayi’ in Rustom Sohrab in 1963… Suraiya Jamal Sheikh ka kamal remains bemisal!

Suraiya exuded an uncultivated sophistication conveying an aura of stardom. Everyone in the film industry recognized her sleek car. She would go home after her shootings in the evenings and then come for recordings in the morning. In her heydays in the 1950s, she was simply dressed sin a light-coloured salwar-kameez, often with a blue dupatta.

Suraiya went into voluntary retirement from singing and acting. After a long gap in 1983 when Noor Jehan visited India, Suraiya shocked the industry with her garish appearance in a flashy saree with lots of ornaments.

Suraiya had a very endearing habit. She would laugh ostensibly for no reason at all, sometimes in the middle of a take. Suraiya sang mostly her own songs on screen. She hardly did playback singing for others. She was a very refined actress. Truly gifted… Her acting was subtle and sensitive. She always looked dignified and cultured. She was incapable of seeming faltu on screen.

Born in Lahore, Suraiya made her debut as a child artiste in Taj Mahal. She was launched as a grownup singing-dancing star in 1944 in Hamari Baat…and the hits just flowed! A sublime voice, perfect diction, effortless rendering… But she still insisted she was no singer.

Suraiya was a lonely heart till the end. She insisted she was no great shakes as an actress. She had an immense regard for other peoples’ feelings. In the later part of her life, she chose solitude. As a singer, she could imbue a sense of pride and dignity into the most common words, and she did all of this without being the least aware of her power.

Ravishingly reticent, Suraiya represents an era when grace and grandeur could be expressed in song-form without a trace of pomposity. There was no one quite like Suraiya. There’s no one quite like her. Her performances on screen were perfectly matched by her singing. In Mehboob Khan’s 1946 blockbuster Anmol Ghadi, Suraiya’s vocal and on-screen performance were pitched against the indomitable Noor Jehan. Suraiya sailed through with numbers like ‘Socha tha kya ho gaya, Man leta hai angdai’ and ‘Main dil mein dard basaa laai’.

She was indeed the diva of the ditty before the term ‘diva’ was invented. It wasn’t just the singing that took our breath away. The melodies were done up in a way that suggests a deep-rooted connection between ‘sight’ and sound. For Suraiya, it wasn’t only about getting the sound right. It was also about sounding right.

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