Child artist and early work (1936–1943) Suraiya made her debut as a child actor in
Jaddan Bai's
Madame Fashion in 1936 as Miss Suraiya. Later, she got a prominent role with the help of her uncle, M. Zahoor. During a holiday from school in 1941, she accompanied him to Bombay's Mohan Studios to see the shooting of the film
Taj Mahal, which was being directed by
Nanubhai Vakil. Vakil noticed the charm and innocence of young Suraiya and selected her to play the role of
Mumtaz Mahal, the film released in 1942 and marked her acting debut. While she was singing for children's programs for
All India Radio (AIR) in Bombay, as a six-year old, Raj Kapoor and Madan Mohan were her co-artists. In fact, they first introduced her to AIR. Both were associated with her later as an adult, as her hero and as her music director respectively in films. At AIR,
Zulfiqar Ali Bukhari was at that time the station director at the Bombay radio station. As soon as music director
Naushad Ali heard Suraiya's voice, he chose her to sing (at age 13) for Mehtab in
Abdul Rashid Kardar's film
Sharda (1942). He became Suraiya's mentor and she sang some of the best songs of her career under his baton. Later, he gave a string of hit songs when Suraiya became a full-fledged singing star in
Anmol Ghadi (1946),
Dard (1947),
Dillagi (1949) and
Dastaan (1950). As a child artist, Suraiya acted and also sang in the films,
Usne Kya Socha (1937),
Mother India (1938),
Tamanna (1942), and
Station Master (1942). The film was the tenth highest grossing release of the year and marked Suraiya's first commercial success.
Devika Rani, who headed the
Bombay Talkies production company, seeing Suraiya's blooming brilliance as an actress and as a singer signed her on a five-year contract at Rs. 500 per month with her role in
Hamari Baat (1943). In the film, she played the second lead alongside Devika Rani and had a duet dance and her song with Arun Kumar, "Bistar Bicha Diya Hai Tere Ghar Ke Samne" became very popular. It eventually earned her more success and became the eighth highest grossing release of the year.
Rise to prominence and success (1944–1947) With no film release in 1944, the year 1945 proved to be a crucial year in Suraiya's career. She had five films that year, including
Yateem,
Samrat Chandragupta and
Main Kya Karoon. The five-year contract was revoked by
Devika Rani on Suraiya's request, when
K. Asif offered Suraiya Rs. 40,000 for his directorial debut
Phool. She played Shama alongside Prithviraj Kapoor. The film
Tadbir marked her first film with
K. L. Saigal, who liked her voice during a rehearsal of a song for Jayant Desai's film
Samrat Chandragupt, in which she was acting. He recommended her to Desai, opposite himself in
Tadbir, where she played his lover Saguna.
Phool and
Tadbir became the fourth and fifth highest-grossing films of the year respectively. The films
Jag Biti and
1857 were Suraiya's first two releases of the year 1946. In
1857, that was set against the backdrop of the
Indian Rebellion of 1857, she played Tasnim opposite
Surendra. Suraiya then acted as the second lead in
Mehboob Khan's
Anmol Ghadi (1946) with
Noor Jehan as the lead with Surendra. She played a willful village girl Basanti. Praising her performance in
Anmol Ghadi,
Dinesh Raheja of
Rediff.com noted: "True to her name Basanti, Suraiya wafts through the film like a rejuvenating spring breeze. She is achingly young and full of beans."
1857,
Anmol Ghadi and
Omar Khaiyyam emerged among the year's highest grossing releases and consolidated Suraiya's career. Suraiya had five film releases in the year of India's independence. She first played the free spirited Gopi, who is suspected to have an affair with a married man in
Parwana. Although by then she had a few hit songs, the four solo songs which she sang in
Parwana for music director
Khwaja Khurshid Anwar made her a genuine singer-film star. It marked her final film with Saigal, who died a month before the film's release. Suraiya then appeared in
Dak Bangla,
Naatak,
Do Dil and
Do Naina. Her last film of the year was
Dard, with
Munawwar Sultana as the lead actress and Nusrat as the hero. She played Hamida, who falls in love with a doctor. Her film
Dard became a surprise hit and along with
Parwana, it was one of the year's biggest success.
Critical acclaim and superstardom (1948–1954) Noor Jehan and
Khursheed's departure to Pakistan, inadvertently added to Suraiya's success. Between 1948 and 1950, Suraiya earned both critical and commercial success. In 1948, she first played the lead opposite
Motilal Rajvansh in
Aaj Ki Raat. She next played the titular role in
Kajal and appeared in
Gajre. The year marked her first project opposite
Dev Anand, who was relatively new. In
Vidya, she played a wealthy woman who falls in love with a poor cobbler. While shooting for
Vidya, she became romantically involved with him. When her film opposite
Rehman,
Pyar Ki Jeet was released, it caused large crowds outside Suraiya's house that was uncontrollable. Suraiya also acted in
Shakti and
Rang Mahal that year. Out of these seven films,
Pyar Ki Jeet became the biggest hit. In her films with Anand, Suraiya was always the first biller in the credits, indicating her stardom. The year 1949 marked the peak of Suraiya's success with 11 film releases, a rare feat for an actress at that point of time.
Naach,
Lekh,
Duniya and
Char Din were mediocre films. She then played a married woman Shanta, whose husband loves a dancer in
Singaar. Suraiya then reunited with Dev Anand in
Jeet (as Jeet) and
Shair (as Rani), playing his childhood sweetheart in both these films. Suraiya then played Kamla in
Balam and Kanchan in
Amar Kahani. Her last film of the year was
Badi Behen with Rehman, where she played a protective elder sister Shyama. During the premiere of
Badi Behen, there was a very large crowd outside the cinema hall and the police had to baton-charge when Suraiya was walking into the hall. Suraiya stopped going to the premieres of her films, after the incident.
Dillagi,
Badi Behen and
Singaar were the biggest commercial successes of the year. In 1950, Suraiya's first few releases were
Shaan,
Khiladi and
Kamal Ke Phool. She then acted opposite Dev Anand in
Nilli and . In
Nilli, she plays the titular role of an ordinary girl turned into a princess, while
Afsar was the first film produced under Anand's production
Navketan Films, with Suraiya playing Bimla. Her biggest success of the year was
Dastan. Suraiya played an orphan Indira opposite
Raj Kapoor. Bhaichand Patel stated that Suraiya's acting "over-shadowed" that of Kapoor. From 1948 to 1949, she appeared in over 18 films, most of which turned out to be among the highest grossing releases of the year. From 1945 to 1954, she acted in twelve highest-grossing films. During the years 1951–53, Suraiya's career saw a fluctuation with a series of commercial failures—in the films
Shokiyan,
Rajput,
Resham,
Moti Mahal,
Lal Kunwar,
Khubsoorat,
Goonj and
Mashuqa. The last two films opposite Dev Anand
Do Sitare and
Sanam (as Sadhana Devi) were moderate hits.
Sanam marked their last film together as post that, Suraiya and Anand never worked together. The only major commercial success in this period was
Diwana opposite
Suresh. She played a nomadic woman Laali who was married to a prince, but was separated by his father. The film became a success and celebrated a Silver Jubilee at the box office, becoming Suraiya's second film after
Anmol Ghadi to do so. Suraiya made a comeback in 1954. She played a tawaif Moti Begum in her career's most notable film,
Mirza Ghalib, which won two awards at the 1954
National Film Awards. Suraiya shone both as an actress and as a singer for her rendition of Ghalib's lover, Chaudvin. Jawaharlal Nehru, commented on seeing the film, "Tumne Mirza Ghalib kii ruuh ko zindaa kar diyaa," ("You have brought the soul of Mirza Ghalib back to life"). While reviewing the film, Samira Sood of
The Print called Suraiya the "soul" of the film and stated: "This movie belongs to Suraiya, whose voice communicates not only love, longing, hope and heartbreak, but the centuries-old magic of Ghalib." In her next release, Suraiya again played a courtesan, named Chintamani in
Bilwamangal. Later, Suraiya played Shobha, whose husband dies in war in
Waris and Sahebzadi Aalam, whose is in love with a poet in
Shama Parwana, opposite
Shammi Kapoor.
Later work, setback and retirement (1955–1964) In the mid-50s, Suraiya told
Lata Mangeshkar once that she would soon be cutting down on her films. Lata told her not to do so. After 1954, Suraiya started to cut down on her work and appeared in films occasionally. Her two releases of 1955 were
Kanchan (1955), which was released in 1949 as
Amar Kahani and re-released as
Kanchan, and
Inam. In 1956, she played a protective sister Jyoti in
Mr. Lambu, which was a box office hit. In 1958, Suraiya appeared in three films:
Trolly Driver, with Rehman where she played Renu,
Miss 1958 and
Maalik. Post a two-year absence, Suraiya appeared as Roshan Ara in
Shama in 1961. The 1963 film
Rustam Sohrab, with Prithviraj Kapoor was her last film. Suraiya played a princess
Shehzadi Tahmina opposite Kapoor's
Rustom Zabuli. Suraiya in an interview said that during the shooting of the film, she suffered from low blood pressure, which she cited as the reason for her retirement from acting. Her song "Ye kaisi ajab dastan ho gayi hai", from the film is considered among her best songs. Suraiya's final film association was in 1964, when she produced the film
Shagoon. She produced the film under the name Suraiya Mubin. For her contribution to the Indian cinema, Suraiya received the
Screen Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996 and
Bimal Roy Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999.
Incomplete projects Suraiya's film
Jaanwar in the early 1950s with
Dilip Kumar as the leading star (and K. Asif as director), was left incomplete by her, as she refused to act in the film, because of rough behaviour by Dilip Kumar during the shooting of the film, when he tore her blouse and bruised her back so badly that it took a month to heal. Later, director-producer K. Asif wanted a kissing scene. Suraiya knew that censors would not pass it. When she asked Asif how he would get it through the censors, he could not satisfy her and she withdrew from the film. There was another story also, that Dilip Kumar and K. Asif were hand in glove to exploit and humiliate Suraiya, because Suraiya had earlier ignored Dilip Kumar's plea to act with her. So they did some torrid scene and kept on repeating it for four days. Fed up with this ghastly behaviour of the two, Suraiya refused to act for them and withdrew from the film. In 1953, Suraiya refused the film
Anarkali as heroine, a role which went to
Bina Rai. A number of her films were announced with advertisements in film magazines, but were partially made or did not take off. These were
Palken with Shekhar, to be produced and directed by Devendra Goel, for Goel Cine Corporation;
Gumrah by Globe Pictures, Bombay;
Nigah by CB Films;
Sanwri by Kundi Art Productions, produced and directed by Niranjan and
Ching Chow to be produced by Nigaristan (producers of
Moti Mahal). ==Music career==