Remembering Suraiya on her 18th death anniversary-Entertainment News , Firstpost

Besides Kishore Kumar, Suraiya was the only truly successful singing star of India. Others like Sulakshana Pandit tried. But failed. Suraiya dazzled the world with her unique combination of looks and singing skills. Sadly her passion for Dev Anand, later transferred to Hollywood legend Gregory Peck because the two men resembled one another, eroded and almost destroyed her stardom.

In the 1950s Dev Anand was madly in love with the then-ruling superstar Suraiya. “She was truly the love of my life,” Dev Saab once told me. “I couldn’t breathe without her.”  Sadly Suraiya’s tyrannical grandmother made every effort to break them up and eventually Suraiya and Dev Anand parted ways. But he could never forget her.

Gregory Peck perhaps didn’t even know about this Indian actress’ secret crush until he visits India when he was introduced to Suraiya. The two hit it off as though they knew one another from another life.

Suraiya’s grandmother, who guarded over her like a hawk, encouraged the Suraiya-Peck liaison in the hope that it would make Dev Anand disappear. It was the grandmother’s selfish protectiveness that prevented Suraiya, one of the most beautiful women in the country, from finding a life partner. The debonair Dev Anand eventually married Kalpana Kartik his co-star of Taxi Driver. They remained in a loveless marriage till Dev Saab’s end. As for Suraiya, she remained loveless all her life till the End.  

Another man who was head over heels in love with Suraiya was the late O.P. Dutta. In an interview with me, the late writer O P Dutta(father of filmmaker J P Dutta) said, “Suraiya, Bano to me, was a bundle of unforgettable qualities. A sublime voice, the ring in the voice, the perfect diction, the effortless rendering. But she always insisted that she was no singer. She brought joy to millions but what about her? She never talked about it but I knew intuitively what was going on in that pretty little head of hers. I had a peep into her heart and mind the day I saw her rendering the song ‘Tum mujh ko bhool jaao, ab hum na mil sakenge’ for ‘Bari Behan’. The cry was loud and clear – the cry of a lonely heart. And lonely it remained till the end.”

O P Dutta directed Suraiya in one of her many musical hits   Pyar Ki Jeet. “We made a movie together titled ‘Pyar Ki Jeet’. We were like two children playing ‘cinema-cinema’, and surprise of surprises, the movie was a big hit. There were congratulations all around. But Suraiya insisted she was no great shakes as an actress. The argument was over when she gave a sterling performance in ‘Bari Bahen’. The success made Suraiya smile that unforgettable smile that could send a thousand hearts aflutter. She was right at the top and I was very happy for her.”                                                          

Melody Queen Lata Mangeshkar is a close friend of Suraiya.

Lataji once shared her impressions of Suraiya with me: “My eyes mist over when I remember Suraiyaji’s stardom. Oh-ho-ho ho!  Kya naam tha unka. I used to just gaze at her long sleek car. I remembered her car’s number by heart. Humlog sochte thay kitne bade artiste hain. People say Suraiyaji’s death is a big loss to the film industry. But who went to see her when she was alive? We didn’t meet that often….but whenever we did Suraiyaji was great fun. I remember she’d go home after her shootings and then come for recordings. How simply dressed she used to be, in a light-coloured salwar-kameez often with a blue dupatta…When I met her after a long gap in 1983 when Noorjehan visited India, I saw Sauraiyaji in a dark-coloured sari with lots of ornaments….I suddenly remembered her simple appearances at our recordings….She would get down from her trademark car and join us. She had a very endearing habit. She would laugh ostensibly for no reason at all, sometimes in the middle of a take, God knows why. Even I’d join her. Once when we were singing a chorus song a third singer got annoyed by this habit of Suraiyaji’s and said, ‘Jab dekho hansti rehti hai. Mera gana disturb kar diya.’ But I loved her laughter.”

Lataji also thought very highly of Suariya as a singer. “Suraiyaji sang mostly her songs on screen. She hardly did playback singing for others. In my opinion, 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. I remember seeing her singing a locomotive song during my childhood in a film called Station Master. All us kids had gone with our mother. For weeks and months after I’d do that train song at home with a toy train on a string. In our heydays, she’d be busy with her shooting all day long….I’d be busy in the recording rooms whereas she was in and out of sets….I gave up acting during my childhood. Mujhe acting ke naam pe ghabrahat si hoti thi. …Suraiya was slightly older than me…I think I met her for the first time when we had to sing a duet. After that whenever we’d run into each other she was affectionate. I remember meeting her once during her heydays as an actress. When she told me she was cutting down on her acting assignments I told her not to do so. But she said she was tired of acting. ‘Man nahin karta hai.’

Recalling her meeting with Suraiya Lataji said, “ I think she felt like a misfit after a point. At the dinner at Yusuf Saab(Dilip Kumar)’s home in honour of Noorjehan Suraiyaji hugged me so tight. ‘Kitne dinon ke baad main aapko dekh rahin hoon. Kitna naam ho gaya hai aapka. Bahut khushi hai mujhe.’ She was fond of me. I can’t claim to have been close friends with her. But whenever we met she was really warm, though mischief-makers, the Narad Muni’s of our industry, tried to spoil our relationship. I remember they spread the rumour, ‘Suraiya gave Lata something to eat which has spoilt her voice.’ When press persons asked me about this I was aghast, ‘Suraiyaji ke baarey mein aisa kaise soch sakte hain?’ She was a star in her own right. And because she was an actress she felt no sense of rivalry with me or I with her…Come to think of it even the full-fledged professional singers of those times treated me like their own child. I was annoyed when people tried to spoil my relations with Suraiya. Agar Lata ka galaa achcha tha to kissine galaa dabaane ki nahin sochi…. Even the hostility with singer Vani Jairam in the 1970s happened because she had been poisoned against me. Initially, Vani used to come home. She was told that I said, ‘Agar Vani gayegi to main nahin gaaongi’. Why on earth would I say such a thing? On the contrary, during an interview in London, I singled out Vani Jairam as one of the promising voices. Suraiya, Vani Jairam, or Runa Laila… the rivalry was attributable to dirty politics. Thank God no one could spoil things between me and Suraiyaji. The last time we met was a few years ago at an awards function where I got the lifetime achievement award. Suraiyaji gave me the award.”

Lataji was deeply saddened to know that Suraiya died a lonely death. “But that’s life. There’s the story of a politician who had so many visitors his doorstep used to be strewn with chappals and shoes. Once he was out of power all the footwear disappeared. Yeh duniya ki reet hai. But everyone isn’t like that. Yusuf Saab(Dilip Kumar) used to regularly visit those colleagues who were no longer in the limelight. But such people are in a minority. Koi nahin milta koi nahin yaad karta….”