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She bagan her career by doing children's radio programmes for All India Radio {AIR} along with Raj Kapoor, who used to teasingly call her Kallu. A dark, plain girl, neither a classic beauty nor trained in classical music, few would have predicted that Suraiya would one day become the country's reigning superstar. Her songs like 'Woh Paas Rahe Ya Door Rahe, Tere Naino Ne Chori Kiya, Tu Mere Chaand, Main Teri Chaandni and Manmor Hua Matwala, created hysteria. Dharmendra, a great fan of this superstar remembers having walked miles to see 'Dillagi' 40 times!
Gradually she learnt acting too. She had earlier acted opposite dancer Mumtaaz Ali, in the Devika Rani - Jairaaj starrer, 'Hamari Baat', a second lead to Noorjehan in 'Anmol Shaadi' and Munnawa Sultana in 'Dard'. In the 48'-49' phase, with three hits in a row 'Pyar Ki Jeet', 'Badi Bahen', and 'Dillagi', she became the highest-paid female star. But her reign at the top was brief. Most of her films in the 50's flopped, till she made a short- lived comeback with Sohrab Modi's 'Mirza Ghalib',in which she played the role of the married Ghalib's beloved. Along with an emotionally charged performance, the 'queen' also recorded what is still regarded by many as the definitive Ghalib.
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru even praised her saying "Tumne Mirza Ghalib ki rooh ko zinda kar diya" (You have bought Mirza Ghailb to life). After Mirza Ghalib she retreated into a fantasy world, surrounded by her family who still calls her 'baby'. While at her peak Suraiya did six films with Dev Anand , none of them a hit. Their love story was the stuff legends are made of, but her strict grandmother threw a spanner into the works...and Dev's engagement ring into the sea. She was not ready to give up and till date, the unmarried Suraiya remains ensconced in her Marine Drive flat... still waiting.
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