The Tragic End of a Never-ending Love Story
The love story of Dev Anand and Suraiya.
Love is the power that keeps us alive.
There was a time when a love story came to its sad end and became so popular that it made many headlines.
Dev Anand and Suraiya’s love story is India's most romantic love saga, which unfortunately didn’t have a happy ending.
It was like a real-life movie — filled with love, romance, compassion, and hatred.
During the 1940s Suraiya was an established spectacular singer and an actress.
On the other hand, Dev Anand was trying to set his foot and working on his first film.
For him, it was all love at first sight. Her beauty and charm enamored dev. Her beauty and charm enamored dev. Another thing that made him fall for her was her humble and down-to-earth nature. This was the time when they were doing their first film together named Vidya.
Expressing about his love, Dev Anand had said: “Suraiya and I fell in love when we started working together. She was a nice and down-to-earth girl who radiated warmth and friendliness. She didn’t brag about her being a stable actress. I was passionately in love with her. I was young. It was my first love and was a strong one.”
Suraiya also wasn’t able to hold herself from the simplicity of Dev.
In their first film, an accident happened that made Suraiya fall in love with Dev.
In an interview, remembering about the accident and Dev, she had said — “Dev was the first young, handsome hero I worked with. He was very nice. I remember the first time I met Dev. It was on the sets of ‘Vidya.’ I was already an established star, and he was a newcomer. He was very nervous, especially in the lovey-dovey scenes.”
The boat on which they were sitting and shooting had overturned, and Dev saved Suraiya from drowning.
When she thanked him for saving her life, he said, “if your life had ended, so would have mine.” That instance made Suraiya and Dev close to each other. They knew they had feelings for each other.
Although they wanted to marry, they kept their relationship hidden for two years. But when they were shooting for a movie Afsar in 1950, their love affair started to become public, and that was just the beginning of the trouble in their relationship.
The lovers even decided to flee in 1949. But at the very last moment, Suraiya’s maternal grandmother, Badshah Begum, came to know about their plan and dragged the actress forcefully home.
After that, she kept a strict eye on Dev Anand and wanted their relationship to end.
The night when her grandmother took her, Dev called her, and Begum received the call. Dev said he wants to talk to Suraiya.
Begum replied, “You can’t talk to her and don’t call again.”
Dev redialed again and again, but every time, it was Suraiya’s grandmother who had also warned him to call the police if he calls again.
But he didn’t lose hope. After few hours he called again, and this time it was Suraiya’s mother who answered the phone and said: “Suraiya also wants to talk but can’t now, she will stay on the terrace tomorrow night, you come and meet, there are stairs at the back of the house, you can climb up!”
Dev was rejoiced and informed about meeting Suraiya to one of his friends, who was in the police. To this, his friend said it might be a trap, and they even can attack him. Dev became a little apprehensive.
He also gave an idea to Dev to take a torch with him when he goes to meet Suraiya, and if he feels any danger, he will point the torchlight to him, and he will come to rescue.
Dev Anand went to the terrace, where Suraiya was sitting near the water container. The actor somehow managed and finally reached the deck of Suraiya’s six-floor high building where they met, hugged, cried, and ended their four years-long relationship and decided never to meet again. Suraiya said that “my family members are against this marriage.” “But I want to marry you.” After a while, Dev Anand left.
Later Dev Anand called several times, but Suraiya’s grandmother did not let him talk. Dev Anand wanted to marry her, and he had sent an engagement ring to Suraiya’s house through a friend(Kamini Kaushal).
But then, there was no communication between the two after that. Later it was revealed that Suraiya’s family members had threatened Suraiya that if Suraiya did not forget Dev Anand, they would kill him.
Suraiya, a few days later, conveyed this matter to Dev Anand in a letter and gave that to Kamini. It was written that “nothing can happen between them now; her family members will kill him.”
Dev Anand lost all his hopes when Suraiya refused to flee with him. He then focused back on his professional life and later married Kalpana Karthik in 1954.
Recalling about the incident, she said, “Ultimately, my grandmother succeeded in separating us. Dev was intensely disturbed and was shocked by my lack of endurance. But I was afraid for him. I was terrified of my grandmother. And was heartbroken.”
After the incident, Begum had become so strict that she used to accompany Suraiya to the film’s set location.
She started getting on her nerves and didn’t allow the actress to perform even an innocent kiss scene on the eyelash with an actor. She was more than torture, which made Dev unable to meet his ladylove even outside the house.
“It was so frustrating to interact with Suraiya those days with her grandmother being around her all the time. I always told Suraiya that the only religion is Love. Don’t let social barriers or family influence your heart. I loved her dearly.”, Dev said, remembering past incidents.
But the lovebirds used to meet secretly at Suraiya’s building terrace. Suraiya further added: “But my grandmother was very conservative, and she later became angry because Dev was a Hindu. She had at one point forbade me from meeting him, so we had to meet secretly on the terrace of my building.”
Although the couple faced hatred from grandmother, Suraiya’s mother, Mumtaz Begum, supported the lovebirds but was often shunned by others.
Dev once said: “Suraiya’s mother was always on my side and supported us. But her grandmother disliked me.”
Suraiya never returned that diamond ring to Dev Anand.
That ring was the sole witness of the eternal love that they both had. She did not want that ring to be sold or melted. Also, she didn’t want any other women to have it after she dies.
Her love was so immense that she decided to never marry.
Once, Suraiya went to a beach and threw the ring into the sea so that their love stays till the end of the world.
People may come and go but their sign of love will stay in the world for eternity.
When Dev slapped Suraiya
On the set of the film Nili, Dev Anand somehow managed to sneak from people and meet Suraiya when she was alone.
He asked her final decision on marriage. Suraiya deeply loved Dev but couldn’t gather enough guts to elope with him.
Controlling herself, she said no, as she couldn’t marry him.
Shivering with unruly rage and grief, Dev Anand slapped her hard.
After hitting her, he felt very ashamed of himself as he apologized to Suraiya with his head down.
She was just 20 years old.
Suraiya had loved Dev Anand with all her soul. However, she never married and kept this love alive in her heart all her life. Born on June 15, 1929, Suraiya lived alone and single all her life and died on January 31, 2004.
Suraiya was an example of what eternal love looks like. She was dragged, slapped, locked in a room for days, and faced all the hatred of her own family members. She could have kept with herself, but she didn’t. The love she carried in her heart was enough for her to spend all her life. The ring which Dev gave to her meant more than life to her.
People say, I will love you to the end of the world. Suraiya has proved the same. Her unconditional love although couldn’t meet happy ends but will remain immortal.