Nostalgia......yesteryear Actresses

bina rai and her grand daughter akansha

guess who she is

Is it Begum Para??

right sir

Maar khaa gaye bachoo. She was a famous heroine during late 30s and early 40s.
Was the heroine of a block buster released during early 40s. All of you have
seen that movie. Here is another photograph of her :

It isn't 'Fearless' Nadia, is it?

Noorie

Maybe bcoz Dilip Kumar was known for his rude behavior? He said to Nadira that she was the most despicable creature he ever met on the sets of Aan. And he also made a similar comment about Lata's Urdu pronounciation as Lata was Marathi. Maybe he made a similar comment about Suraiya too...

O ho! Noorie... How could it be Fearless Nadia? Read Mahesh ji hints carefully... Either Leela Chitnis or Mumtaz Shanti ?

Begum Para!

can anyone tell something more about begum para

"Rude" ? I wudn't agree Ummer.
I like his outspokenness. It's a pleasing quality according to me.
Evidently other women thought so too;.....................Madhubala, Saira Bano

Noorie

I am not stubborn in my belief Reeth. There were other Suraiya's working in the film industry at that time too including Suraiya Chaudary and Suraiya Shamsi. It is very common to mix-up the films of the well known Stars with obscure film stars of the same name. It happened with the filmography of Noor Jehan too as there was another Noor Jehan working in the film industry in films like Laila and Sophia etc. Suraiya herself mentioned that she made her debut in 1941 and was discovered by Naushad.

Suraiya - by Sultan Arshad (Images Dawn, Pakistani Newspaper).

I had the privilege of meeting actress Suraiya and having lengthy conversations with her on several occasions during my tenure as chief representative of our national airline in Bombay, in the nineties. It was during those meetings that she narrated several interesting anecdotes concerning different phases of her career and the impact of some of the master composers on her style of singing. Such as how Anil'da (Biswas) taught her to breathe in while singing so that it was not caught by the microphone or how Khwaja Saheb (Khursheed Anwer) would lean over the harmonium, with his long hair covering half of his face, while singing a tune to her: Naushad Saheb put her to rigorous rehearsals even when she used to be dead tired after marathon shooting schedules: or how while recording her first song as a child she was made to stand on a wooden stool in order to reach the height of the microphone.


She often recalled fondly the days when as a child from her Marine Drive residence she would walk down to All India Radio (A.I.R.) studio to participate in the children's programme in which Raj Kapoor and Madan Mohan who later attained fame as an actor, a film maker and music director respectively, used to be her co-artists. The legendary Z.A.Bukhari was then the station director at the A.I.R. Bombay.


Suraiya entered the film industry as a child actress with Taj Mahal (1941), for which maestro S.D. Burman, who was till then known for his Bengali songs, rendered his first Hindi song Prem ki pyaari nishani under the musical baton of Madhulal Master. Suraiya's next assignment was for Tamanna (1942), for which she also rendered her first song (Jaago aayi usha), a duet with then budding singer Mannadey. It was tuned by Manna's uncle the well known singer, music director and actor K.C. Dey.


After few other rather insignificant singing and acting assignments (Ujala, Station Master) maestro Naushad selected her as the playback voice for leading lady Mehtab in Sharda (1942). The movie became a turning point in Suraiya's career as a singer, with two of her songs Panchhi ja, peechhe raha hai bachpan mera and Mere dil ko sajan samjhado becoming very popular. Incidentally, Mehtab was the only actress to whom Suraiya lent her voice in three movies (Sharda, Qanoon and Sanjog). It was quite an incidence per force, that many years later in a female duet situation in Shama (1961) besides singing for herself, she became the ghost voice for Nimmi as well when the other singer Suman Kalyanpur failed to dub her portion of the song. Also two of her songs (Hawa uda kar layi, O bewafa karke jafa - music: Dhani Ram) recorded for an incomplete movie of her's, were later included in another film Taqdeer (1958) and picturized on its leading lady Shyama.


Suraiya graduated to adult roles with Ishara (1943), playing second lead opposite small-timer Satish with Prithviraj Kapoor and Swarnlata playing the leading roles. In this movie she had only two songs to her credit, a solo (Panghat pe muraliya baaje) and a duet (Baaghon mein koyal boli) with Satish. In Station Master and Ishara her voice was used for the character she played. In Anmol Ghadi she was the third angle of the love triangle, the other two being Noor Jehan and Surendranath. She sang three songs in it.


There is no denying the fact that Naushad Ali, Husnlal - Bhagat Ram and Khursheed Anwer played significant roles in Suraiya's career but such stalwarts as Anil Biswas, S.D. Burman and Ghulam Mohammad also enhanced her popularity as a singer. Then there were other music directors she teamed up with just once or twice but rendered some extremely melodious though not so popular numbers.


In a career spanning 22 years, Suraiya sung in five or six films and acted in approximately 65 movies which do not include the incomplete ones like Jaanwar (with Dilip Kumar) and Paagal Khaana (with Bharat Bhushan).


From the late forties to the early fifties she remained the highest paid as well as the most worshipped star of the Indian cinema. Even now when she makes a rare appearance in a public function, bejewelled and bedecked, she is revered and admired more than most of the stars of today. The aura remains.

Calling someone despicable is outspokenness? Nadira said she didn't know what despicable means and she checked the dictionary when she went home, as she thought Dilip Kumar was paying her a compliment. About Lata he said that Marathi mouth smells like (I dont remember the exact comment though) when she was travelling with Anil Biswas. Lata didn't took that comment negatively though and worked very hard on her Urdu diction.

You are right Ummer, I think it cud be Leela Chitnis.
Please confirm Mahesh.

Else my mind will start playing tricks on me and even imagine that it is Shobhna Samarth.

Noorie

A Maharashtrian, speaking Urdu 'zubaan', wud retain the flavor of "daal-bhaat"( dal and rice ) - read vegetarian.

Lata ji proved him wrong, didn't she?

Noorie