SURTI BOLLYWOOD ME`LANGE
The ‘twitterati’ is wildly abuzz these days. Netizens tweeting about whether ‘phir miley sur’ is a note above or below the original and very popular patriotic number,’Miley sur mera tumhara, toh sur baney hamara.’

In case you have been wondering who on earth is the singer representing Gujarat, its our very own Parthiv Gohil who sprang to fame while singing ‘Yoon shabnami’ in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Saawariya.

Even as Indians love and hate and speculate the new version of miley sur, rightly pointing out the absence of Sachin Tendulkar and Dr.Abdul Kalam Azaad; lots of people have noticed that it is full of Bollywood stars.

While Salman’s heart touching silent gesture speaks more than a million words, people are wondering what on earth is, Miss. long legs aka Deepika Padukone’s contribution and cause.

All in all, Surtis are left hoping they had someone to represent them on the Bollywood brigade.

Surti hottie, Miss.Namitha Vankawala, our Rander gal who makes men go weak in the knees and is the most widely searched southern siren online, along with a temple in her name is the Goddess down south and was not considered to represent either homeland or work abode.

Surti sweetie Prachi Desai who turned from small screen’s favourite biwi –Mrs.Bani Walia to big screen’s sophisticated Mumbai biwi-Mrs.Sakshi Aditya in Rock On, is still a new kid on the block and despite Rock On rocking the audiences; hence was not yet considered to qualify to the level of state representative.


Contrary to belief, Surat has made some great contributions to Bollywood-

The first-Fatima begum-Bollywood’s first lady director, was a Surti.The lady, an Urdu stage artist, entered film line with her debut in’ Veer Abhmanyu’ in 1922 and within four years went on to writing, producing, directing in Bollywood .She launched her company Fatima films and directed ‘Bulbul-e-Paristan.’Extremely fair skinned ,she shone on screen with dark make up and fancy wigs. Though her marriage to the then Nawab of Sachin stood disputed in court, she was independent and followed her dreams. Her daughters -Sultana, Shazadi and Zubeida too went on to rule silent age of silver screen.

The famous-Zubeida-Legendary actress and stunning beauty, debuted at the mere age of 12, at a time when cinema was considered the big bad line for girls. Zubeida, daughter of the Nawab of Sachin and Fatima Begum, was talented at singing and dancing along with the gift of impeccable speech. She went on to become the female lead in India’s first Talkie-Alam Ara.Box office bonanzas jingled cash counters with her strings of successive hits. Highest paid actress of her times, she set the screen on fire with her many characters, from courtesan dancer to mythological ones, from the lead in ‘Sacrifice’-a blockbuster base on Tagore’s ‘Balidaan’, to a circus girl in Zarina, where her steamy scenes sent the censors in a tizzy. Actress Karisma Kapoor acted in and as Zubeida on a movie based on her life. Interestingly, her great grand father, Prithvi Raj Kapoor, was a supporting actor, in Alam Ara. Zubeida later married Maharaj Narsinger Dhanrajgir of Hyderabad and was the mother of eminent corporate figure Humayun Dhanrajgir.

The finest-Sanjeev Kumar-aka Harihar Jethalal Jariwala.Who can ever imagine watching Khilona, Mausam, Aandhi, Anamika, Sholay, Naya din Nayi raat, without the subtle nuances of its sensitive lead hero. An actor par excellence, he was raised in Palsana’s Niyol village, at his maternal uncle’s home- being a child of an estranged home. This superstar who brought to life many brilliantly written characters from Gulzaarsaab and gifted writer Kamleshwar’s scripts along with innumerable other ones, was an unconventional stereotype, whose talent remains unsurpassed in his league. Handsome and a lover of Surti food like ras, rotli, karela, vaal ni daal and idla, Kumar was a down to earth, simpleton who was born to act. Unfortunately, he died much before his time, inspite of having played roles of characters much beyond his age.

The fine tuned-Ismail Durbar-Bold , brash and a complete brat as a child, too, this Surti has the lineage of four generations of musicians .His father owned the Darbar Band and Ismail was trained by his father and later sent to Mumbai, to learn the violin under the expertise of Pt.Ram Prasad Sharma and Shri Ganesh.Since his mother belonged to a family of chefs, few know that Ismail is a great cook himself too and is often handy around the house, giving Biryani and khichdi kadhi a twirl of his other talent . A session violinist for stalwarts like R.D.Burman, Laxmikant Pyaarelal and a host of others, this titan of talent came into his own with Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Hum dil de chuke sanam.’ Darbar had played the violin for ‘Khamoshi’, Bhansali’s earlier musical. He surprised Sanjay with a couple of compositions when his name was recommended for ‘Hum dil….’the rest is history.Kisna, Devdaas, are other examples of this genius who refuses to leave the culture rich notes of melodious music in these times where instant rhythm rules the flavour of the week chartbusters .

Surti talent is hard to suppress. Whenever our own have entered Bollywood, they have definitely carved a niche `to be leaders in their league.