In her four-decade-long career in the film industry, Shyama was cast in a good many films opposite top stars of her time and most of these films were box office hits. She was critically admired for her performances in these films but, curiously enough, she could herself never be in the top league of actresses of her time.
In fact she almost always gave her best in films in which she played the second lead. There are therefore only a handful of films in which Shyama in a lead role could prove herself a big box-office draw for moviegoers.
Born in 1933 in Lahore, Khurshid Akhtar (Shyama’s original name) was still a child when she moved with her parents to Bombay in the 1940s. Here a chance meeting of her family with the singer-actress Noorjehan got Khurshid Akhtar a small role in the film Zeenat (1945). She was seen in the all-female and also all-time great, qawwali scene of this film, “Aahen na bhar ishikwey na kiye kuchh bhi nazuban se kaamliya…”
Khurshid Akhtar is seen playing the dholak in this cameo appearance in the film. Some more films followed Zeenat in which the child star got the opportunity to make cameo appearances. When she was a little older, Khurshid Akhtar took on the name Shyama at the suggestion of film director Vijay Bhat.
Shyama was now growing up into a beautiful damsel with a seductive smile that conveyed far more than words can express. Filmmakers were not unaware of her charming looks. In Shair, Shabnam, and Dillagi — all three films were released in 1949 — Shyama was seen as a teenaged girl doing small supporting roles.
Two films Tarana (1951) in which she co-starred with Dilip Kumar and Madhubala, and Sazza(1951) in which she measured her acting prowess with Dev Anand and Nimmi – gave the 18-year-old Shyama’s budding acting career a considerable fillip. Both films did well at the box office.
Soon she started getting lead roles in films. In Bombay Talkies film Maa (1952) directed by Bimal Roy, Shyama was cast as the heroine opposite Bharat Bhushan. The film was a box-office hit.
However, the film with which Shyama as a full-fledged heroine shot into fame was Guru Dutt’s Aar Paar (1954). It was a crime thriller with lilting music by OP Nayyar. In this film, Shyama in the role of a young girl called Nikki falls in love with Guru Dutt, a taxi driver. She was such a charmer in this role that the film was a super-duper hit of 1954.
The songs of this film are still remembered by music buffs. “Ai lo mein haari piya hui teri jeet re, kaaheka jhagra balam nai nai preet re …”, “Kabhi aar kabhi paar laaga teer-e-nazar, saiyan ghayal kiya re tu ne mera jigar…”, “Ai dil hai mushkil jeena yahan, zara hut ke zara bachke yehhai Bombay merij aan…” and several other songs of this film were chartbusters of 1954. At this stage of her career, Shyama was perhaps not very discreet in choosing her films.
To capitalise over the success of AarPaar, she could have avoided signing nondescript films such as Musafarkhana, Bhagwat Mahima, Makhee Choos, none of which is remembered today. But with the release of AVM’s family emotional drama Bhai Bhai (1956), Shyama again bounced back to popularity.
This film, with Ashok Kumar,Kishore Kumar, Nirupa Roy, Shyama, and Om Prakash in the star cast, was a great success at the box office. Shyama’s role in this film of a temptress with a come-hither look in her soft, liquid eyes was acclaimed profusely by film critics and moviegoers alike. Shyama’s star was now in the ascendant. In 1957 came Raj Kapoor- Meena Kumari starrer Sharda.
Shyama’s role in this film was critically admired and she won the Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award for it. In the same year came AVM’s super-duper hit Bhabi, which was a family film with its story revolving around a joint family with the eldest brother Balraj Sahni as its head. Shyama again impressed the viewers with her excellent performance in this film.
But the year 1957, in which Sharda and Bhabi were released, also saw the release of some lacklustre films of Shyama, such as Mirza Sahiban, Mai Baap, and Johnny Walker. The year 1958 was also a continuation of C-grade films of Shyama, such as Lala Rukh, Chandan, Panchayat, and Bus Conductor, not one of which created a sensation at the box office.
Chhoti Behn released in 1959 retrieved her reputation as an actress of substance to a great extent. One song of this film, “Bhaiya mere rakhi ke bandhan ko nibhana….” became, so to say, the national anthem of sisters all over India. They loved to croon this song every year on the day of the festival of Rakshabandhan, when they tied the ceremonial thread round their brothers’ wrists.
Many film critics believe that Shyama was at her histrionic best in the 1960 Hindi film Barsat Ki Raat in which Madhbubala was the heroine and Bharat Bhushan the hero. Shyama’s role in this film was that of a woman whose love for the man of her dreams remains unrequited. Barsat Ki Raat was mediocre, but the songs of this film that took the music lovers by storm. The all-time great qawwali of this film, “Na to karwaaki talashhai, na to hum safar kitalash, mere shauk-e-khaana kharaab koteri rah guzzar ki talash hai….” proved such a magnet for viewers that many of them saw this film umpteen times just to enjoy this qawwali.
Another song of this film, “Zindagibhar nahin bhooleygi vo barsat ki raat…” became the perennial favourite of young, starry-eyed lovers.
Arabian Nights fantasy, Zabak (1961) was another film of Shyama which won her critical laurels. In this film her beau was the swashbuckling Mahipal. The film’s music was scored by Chitragupt. It had some lovely songs. But Zabak was not the sort of film in which Shyama could do much. It was a costume drama with the usual fights between the hero and the villain while they mouthed grandiloquent dialogues.
Shyama’s next important film was Dil Diya Dard Liya (1966) in which Dilip Kumar and Wahida Rehman were in the main lead roles. The film was loosely based Emily Bronte’s novel “Wuthering Heights”, but the film failed to click at the box office. So much so that one film critic of a magazine satirically called it, “Ticket Liya Sar Dard Liya”.
But Dil Diya Dard Liya was important for both Shyama and Wahida Rehman because they became fast friends while this film was in the making — a friendship that lasted right till the last day in Shyama’s life. Age was now catching up with her. She had put on weight.
So, by the late 1960s, Shyama had quietly transited to doing supporting roles in films. Her last film was J P Nanda’s Hathiyar released in 1989. She had been suffering from ill-health for a long time. Shyama had married Bollywood’s well-known cinematographer Fali Mistry in 1953, but her husband had predeceased her in 1979. Shyama passed away in Mumbai on 14 November 2017. She is survived by her two sons and a daughter.