fiction.wikisort.org - Actor

Sunder Shyam Chadda (20 February 1920 – 25 April 1951)[1] was an Indian actor in Hindi cinema. He began his career in 1942 and worked in over 30 films until his death in 1951 at the age of 31.[2]

Shyam
Born	Sunder Shyam Chadda (1920-02-20)20 February 1920 Sialkot, Punjab, British India
Died	25 April 1951(1951-04-25) (aged 31)
Education	Gordon College
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1942 – 1951
Spouse	Mumtaz Qureshi ('Taji') ​ ​ (m. 1940⁠–⁠1951)​
Children	Sahira Kazmi (daughter) Shakir (son)
Relatives	Rahat Kazmi (son-in-law) Ali Kazmi (grandson) Nida Kazmi (granddaughter)

Early life & career

Shyam was born Sunder Shyam Chadha on 20 February 1920 in Sialkot, Punjab but grew up in Rawalpindi.[1][3] Shyam graduated from Gordon College in Rawalpindi. He was a close friend of Saadat Hasan Manto and was the inspiration to many of his stories.[4][5] Even after the independence of Pakistan in 1947, their friendship remained strong.[4]

Shyam's film career began in 1942 with the Punjabi film Gowandhi.[4] In 1944, he moved to Bombay and started acting in Hindi films. He acted opposite several of the top actresses of the time such as Nargis, Nigar Sultana, Suraiya and Nalini Jaywant. One of his most famous movies was Bazaar, released in 1949, in which he starred with Nigar Sultana. Some of his other notable films include Nirdosh (1941), W. Z. Ahmed's Man Ki Jeet (1944), Majboor (1948), Char Din (1949), Dillagi (1949), Patanga (1949), Chandni Raat (1949), Meena Bazaar (1950) and Samadhi (1950). His last film was Shabistan (1951), starring opposite Naseem Banu, released in 1951 after his death.[4][1]

Personal life

He married a Muslim woman Mumtaz Qureshi (also called “Taji”), with whom he had a daughter, Pakistani TV actress Sahira Kazmi and a son Shakir, who was born two months after Shyam's death.[1] It was also a troubled marriage and reportedly his wife Mumtaz had moved out to live with her sister Zeb Qureshi before his death in an accident.[4] Their daughter Sahira Kazmi later married the Pakistani TV actor Rahat Kazmi, and Shakir is now a psychiatrist based in the United Kingdom. Mumtaz migrated to Lahore, Pakistan, after her husband's premature death in 1951, along with her elder sister, Zeb Qureshi, who was also an actress in Bombay. Mumtaz later married a man, Ansari, in Pakistan.[6]

Death and legacy

Shyam died while filming on the set of Shabistan in 1951 after he fell off a horse during filming and fractured his skull. He was immediately rushed to the hospital but did not survive. His few remaining scenes were completed with a body-double who had a similar height to him and filmed from behind without showing his face. This film's shooting was being done in Bombay.[1][6][2][4]

Some people still speculate to this day that had he lived longer, due to his good looks, he would have given stiff competition to the 1950s popular film heroes, Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand and Raj Kapoor.[1]

Veteran film actress Suraiya reportedly said about Shyam:

"I often thought of him as the Errol Flynn of India... ...Shyam was very conscious of his height whenever he was on the sets with me, just as I was very conscious of my short stature whenever I worked with him. He was in the habit of teasing my granny often and had become almost a member of our family."

[1]

In film

Manto and Shyam became close friends in real life because they both worked together for Bombay Talkies.[1] In his book titled, 'Stars from Another Sky'; Manto dedicated a chapter to Shyam titled 'Murli Ki Dhun'. In this book, Manto describes Shyam's attempts to flirt with fellow actresses Kuldip Kaur, Nigar Sultana as well as actress Mumtaz Qureshi. Later, Shyam married Mumtaz Qureshi. Manto found Shyam to be fun-loving, liberal in his thinking and a man with a wandering eye for good looking women.[4][1]

Tahir Raj Bhasin was seen portraying Shyam in the Indian film Manto (2018), a biopic on the noted writer Saadat Hasan Manto. Before this, a Pakistani film Manto (2015) was also made on Manto's life.[7]

References

External links

• Shyam at The Internet Movie Database

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