Where is the Muslim Actress?

By Irena Akbar

Jan 03 2012,

What was the name of the actress who played Bahar, the jealous courtier who spills the beans about the romance between fellow courtier Anarkali and Prince Salim in the epic Mughal-e-Azam? Her name was Nigar Sultana. No, this is not trivia for the film buff. Nigar Sultana is, in fact, another name in the long list of Muslim actresses of yore that I have stumbled upon recently.

So, why am I suddenly talking about Nigar Sultana and a list of yesteryear Muslim actresses? Well, for this, I'd like to thank journalists who've been writing profuse obituaries to Dev Anand, all of which throw up names of four Muslim actresses: Suraiya (with whom he had a failed romance), Mumtaz (with whom he had paired in some memorable films), Waheeda Rehman (who starred in his most unforgettable film, Guide), and Zeenat Aman (whom he introduced in Hare Rama Hare Krishna).

I checked out the Wikipedia page of Suraiya (yes, I love sad love stories), and landed up on the names of two other Muslim actresses of the time — Khursheed Bano and Noor Jehan. The Wikipedia page says that Suraiya, who was born in a district of Punjab, chose to stay in Mumbai after Partition, unlike Khursheed Bano and Noor Jehan, the other two Punjabi actresses of the '40s and the '50s, who migrated to Pakistan in 1947.

The images of Suraiya reminded me of the actress who played Anarkali's sister in Mughal-e-Azam (ironically, the character was called 'Suraiya'). An IMDB search, however, showed that Anarkali's sister was not played by Suraiya, but by an actress called Sheela Delaya. But the list of actors in Mughal-e-Azam on IMDB threw up an unfamiliar name, that of Nigar Sultana, who played the shrewd courtier, Bahar. Of course, there was the beautiful Madhubala on the list too.

So, now, I can count names of at least five Muslim actresses who were around in the '40s, '50s and '60s — Suariya, Khursheed Bano, Noor Jehan, Nigar Sultana, Madhubala. Add to that Meena Kumari, Nargis, Mumtaz and Waheeda Rehman, and the number goes up to nine. Of course, these are only the well-known actresses. There were other not-so-well-known ones like Zubeida, on whose life a film was made by Shyam Benegal.

Move over to the '70s, and you had Muslim actresses Zeenat Aman and Parveen Babi redefining glamour in their overt Westernized demeanour.

Evidently, their number declined with time, and in the '80s, we had the rather forgettable Mandakini and Farah as the only Muslim actresses around (or at least the two I know of), even though Khushboo was quite a rage in the South. In the '90s, immensely talented Tabu gave remarkable performances, though she quickly faded out of public memory.

In the new century, can you think of any Muslim actress around, besides Soha Ali Khan, who hasn't delivered a good performance or film yet? (And no, Katrina Kaif is actually Katrina Turquotte, unless you thought Kaif meant she was Muslim).

Of course, it's a matter of pride that Farah Khan, Zoya Khan and Anusha Rizvi are Muslim women calling the shots in the male bastion of film direction (where earlier, there were none). But where are the Madhubalas and Zeenat Amans of today? Isn't it ironic that while the number of Muslim actors has risen with time — Bollywood, as they say, is ruled by the Khans — the number of Muslim actresses in our films has gone down to just one or two? What does his have to say about the Muslim community, which has since the earliest days of Hindi cinema been an avid contributor of talent in music, direction, scripts and acting? Today, that contribution is steadfast, what with the Imtiaz Alis and the Farhan Akhtars giving us wonderful, offbeat films, or A R Rahman catapulting Indian popular music to international fame, or Habib Faisal churning out intelligent scripts, or the Khans being the Kings? There's only one slot where this contribution has ceased: that of the actress.

Source: The Indian Express, New Delhi

URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-culture/where-muslim-actress/d/6403