The Immortal Queen Suraiya, by Ranjan Sain, is presented by its author as the first book dedicated to the Hindi cinema actor and singer Suraiya. A Scroll excerpt published on 5 February 2024 introduces the book’s mix of essays, photographs, film ephemera and career listings—and offers a portrait of a star remembered for both her voice and her screen performances.
Who was Suraiya?
Suraiya (1929–2004) was an actor and singer whose peak, according to Sain’s excerpt, came in the 1940s and 1950s. The excerpt describes her appeal as the combination of acting and singing, placing her among the leading singing stars of the 1940s alongside Noorjehan and Khurshid.
Sain frames Suraiya’s rise against the careers and departures of those contemporaries. In his account, Noorjehan and Khurshid’s migration to Pakistan in 1947 left the field open for Suraiya. That is the excerpt’s interpretation of the period, rather than an independently established ranking of the singers or their influence.
What is The Immortal Queen Suraiya?
Ranjan Sain’s book is the subject of a Scroll excerpt published on 5 February 2024. Sain says no book on Suraiya had appeared before his, and the excerpt presents The Immortal Queen Suraiya as the first dedicated book about her. That “first” claim is Sain’s; the excerpt does not document a comprehensive bibliographic survey.
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The book’s stated contents bring together biographical writing and archival material:
- Essays by Sain and fans
- Rare photographs
- Lobby cards and film posters
- A complete filmography
- A list of songs
This combination makes the book more than a narrative account: its listings and visual material are intended to document a career as well as the memory of Suraiya among admirers.
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What does the excerpt say about her career?
Sain dates the start of Suraiya’s “golden period” to 1943, with Ishara. The excerpt also emphasizes the pace of her work in the late 1940s: it says she had 29 film releases between 1947 and 1950, including 11 in 1949. These figures are reported by Sain; the excerpt does not cite a separate film database or statistical source to verify them.
Among the titles it names are Shair, Jeet, Bari Bahen, Naach and Dillagi. It also mentions songs such as “Murli Wale Murli Baja,” “Wo Paas Rahein Ya Door Rahein,” “Bigdi Banane Wale Bigdi Bana De” and “Tu Mera Chand Main Teri Chandni.” The excerpt uses these examples to evoke Suraiya’s simultaneous presence as a screen performer and singer; it is not, by itself, an independent verification of a complete film or song record.
Why were crowds said to gather outside Suraiya’s home?
The Scroll excerpt’s headline refers to police being called to control crowds outside Suraiya’s home. In Sain’s account, neighbors complained that fans obstructed entry and exit, and police were occasionally called. The excerpt gives no crowd totals or police records, so these incidents are best understood as recollections presented in the book excerpt, not as quantified or independently corroborated events.
The excerpt also reproduces a first-person memory attributed to Suraiya in an interview, without identifying the interviewer or date:
“There was this fan who was so much in love with me, that every night he would come to my building and sit on the wall all night until morning.”
That anecdote conveys the intensity of the devotion remembered by Suraiya and those around her. It should not be read as evidence of how common such behavior was, or as a verified count of fans.
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What can readers expect from the book?
Based on the contents described in the excerpt, readers get two kinds of material: essays that record Sain’s and fans’ perspectives, and visual and reference components that preserve traces of Suraiya’s work. Photographs, lobby cards and posters offer film-era ephemera; the filmography and song list provide a structured way to follow the career the essays discuss.
The excerpt identifies the book as The Immortal Queen Suraiya by Ranjan Sain. It says readers could contact the author to buy a copy when the book was published, but does not establish present-day stock, edition details or price.
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