Today’s post is Woman’s Day Special – Suraiya. It’s March again and the month when International Woman’s Day is celebrated (on the 8th). I have been posting about iconic female artists, every March, in the last couple of years, beginning every 8th of the month. This time, I had planned to post such articles from the beginning of the month, in a bid not to leave out any of these stalwarts.
Suraiya was a legendary singer-cum-actor, active between 1936 to 1963. Called by various names like Mallika-e-Adakari (Queen of acting), Mallika-e-Tarannum (Queen of melody) and Mallika-e-Husn (Queen of beauty), Suraiya’s unfortunate personal life was strife with loneliness, due to some players with vested interests. I won’t go much into detail about this because a lot of information is already available on the internet and I don’t want to repeat the same.
All I want to say is as I researched for information and list of songs sung by her, I felt nostalgic and was transported to my childhood when I would stealthily listen to the transistor, in the dead of night, well past curfew time at home. 🙂 These songs were played in the old songs section, by the way. I have chosen 9 of my favorite Bollywood songs sung by her in her heyday, which I hope you will like.
Woman’s Day Special – Suraiya
Tere nainonne chori kiya mera chotasa jiya Pardesiya… Pyar Ki Jeet (1948)
Man mor hua matwala… Afsar (1949)
Nain deewane ek nahin mane… Afsar (1949)
Woh paas rahen ya door rahen… Badi Behen (1949)
Tu mera Chand main teri Chandni… Dillagi (1949)
Raatonki neend cheen li… Shokhiyan (1951)
Dil-e-Nadaan tujhe hua kya hai… Mirza Ghalib (1954)
Nukta cheen hai gham-e-dil… Mirza Ghalib (1954)
Yeh na thi hamari kismat… Mirza Ghalib (1954)
