Faryal

QAMYAB – THE FORGOTTEN GEMS OF BOLLYWOOD

Qamyab is our humble tribute to all those lesser-known actors, one hit wonders and junior artists who we see umpteen times but don’t know about; beyond their faces. These actors have been an integral part of Bollywood but didn’t get their due. This series is our sincere attempt to put a name to these faces, familiarize them to our readers and celebrate their achievements in life – however big or small. We believe that every artist contributes in his/her own way to the cinema’s success. Qamyab will explore the unknown lives of such actors and artists as we believe even these forgotten gems of Bollywood deserve their due recognition today.

The ’50s and ’60s, often called the golden era of Hindi cinema, saw many actors creating a ripple as dancers particularly for club and rock and roll numbers. Shammi Kapoor was the original rockstar of Bollywood followed by Joy Mukherjee. Amongst the females, we had the legendary Helen and Cuckoo Moray. Some other notable names of that time known for their sizzling dance were Madhumati, Bela Bose, Laxmi Chhaya and Shashikala.

A young girl of Indian and Arabic descent also joined this league of rock and roll and cabaret dancers. Her name was Faryal. Born on 3rd November, 1945 to an Indian father and Syrian mother in Damascus, Syria, Faryal came to India as a kid and completed her school education from Loretto Convent in Shimla and later, earned a graduation degree from the reputed St. Xavier’s college in Mumbai.

After completing her education, Faryal took up a job of air hostess with Air India. The beauty that she was, Faryal always aspired to be an actress. Luckily while working with Air India, Faryal met noted producer S. Mukherjee who asked her if she would like to act in Hindi movies. This was something unimaginable for her and a dream coming true all of a sudden!!

Faryal joined the Filmalaya Institute in Mumbai and did a brief acting course before signing her first film Biradari (1966) as lead heroine opposite the handsome Shashi Kapoor. But this film got delayed a bit and Zindagi Aur Maut (1965) with Pradeep Kumar released first. Zindagi Aur Maut did quite well while Biradari failed at the box office. Faryal signed few other films as the lead actress but all of them were commercial failures

Her actual fame came with Vijay Anand’s classic thriller Jewel Thief (1967) which had top stars like Ashok Kumar, Dev Anand and Vyjayanthimala. The film’s cast included four more ladies wooing the legendary Dev Saahab – Tanuja, Helen, Anju Mahendru and Faryal.

Faryal played a cabaret dancer who gets kidnapped by the unknown jewel thief. Though the movie had Helen, one of the legendary dancers, the audience loved the two and half minutes cabaret of Faryal and she became an instant sensation.

Surprisingly, Faryal mentioned much later that she never had any formal training in dancing and was never inclined towards it but her performance in Jewel Thief changed her career forever. In fact, Faryal was completely different in real life and was known for her simplicity which was totally opposite to her onscreen sexy vamp image.

After the success of Jewel Thief, Faryal got typecast as a cabaret dancer and vamp. Initially, Faryal was reluctant to accept these roles but realized that if she didn’t, some peer will do it and get ahead. Thus, she signed all the offers which came her way.

The same year in 1967, Faryal achieved another milestone when she appeared in an international TV serial, Maya which was shot in India. Faryal went on sign many big films where she would be invariably cast as the vamp or the villain’s moll with a cabaret dance performance. Some of these films include Fareb (1968), Mangu Dada (1970), Do Thug (1970), Man Ki Aankhen (1970), Sachaa Jhutha (1970), Insaan Aur Shaitan (1970), Hungama (1971), Behroopia (1971), Raampur Ka Lakshman (1972), Shararat (1972) and Manoranjan (1974).

In one of her interviews, Faryal named Pushpanjali (1970), where she played the lead opposite Sanjay Khan, to be one of the good roles of her career but it didn’t benefit her as the film never released in Mumbai. Instead, what caught everyone’s eye was her famous bath tub scene in Feroz Khan’s Apradh (1972). This performance gave her a brazenly bold image which she could never shake off…

1973 proved to be a lucky year for Faryal as she had twelve releases namely Loafer, Banarasi Babu, Sone Ke Haath, Jheel Ke Us Paar, Khoon Khoon, Taxi Driver, Dharma, Jai Hanuman, Ek Mutthi Aasman, Nafrat, Hum Sab Chor Hain and Dur Naheen Manzil. Most of these films performed well at the box office.

In her more than decade long career, Faryal worked with top actors of that time like Ashok Kumar, Pradeep Kumar, Shashi Kapoor, Dev Anand, Jeetendra, Shatrughan Sinha, Rajesh Khanna, Sanjay Khan, Randhir Kapoor, Vinod Khanna, Feroz Khan and Rishi Kapoor,

In one of her interviews, Faryal claimed to not share any rivalry with her fellow actresses though a few of them got songs meant for her. She also mentioned that developing a personal rapport with male actors was not her forte and she got replaced quite a few times due to this.

By the late ’70s, offers dried up for Faryal due to the age factor. After the 1975 releases- Dharmatma and Do Thug, she was hardly seen in any big film. Realizing that her career was dwindling, Faryal bid goodbye to Bollywood. She did appear in one South Indian film called Eduppar Kai Pillai (1975) before her retirement. She had a few delayed releases in the coming years; none of which worked.

Her last Bollywood release remains The Gold Medal (1984) which was a multi starrer started in 1969 during her early career and had big names like Jeetendra, Rakhee, Shatrughan Sinha, K.N. Singh and Premnath in its cast. Though this film was a commercial disaster, it remains in the news for one particular reason. Incidentally, Faryal faced a bad experience while shooting an intimate scene with Premnath for this movie. It seems Premnath went overboard during the filming and clutching Faryal tightly in his arms, literally rolled from the sofa on to the floor. The crew present on the sets didn’t bother to interfere which hurt Faryal all the more…

Many gossip portals claim that this incident led Faryal to quit the industry forever which may not be true as it happened in her early career and she had herself spoken about it to a magazine in 1973.

There is still a confusion over this matter as some reports claim it to have happened in the early ’80s as The Gold Medal was in the making for more than a decade.

After quitting films, Faryal married her long-time boyfriend and got settled in Israel. Today, she lives a private life there and is not active on social media as well. We, through our Qamyab series, wish this forgotten gem all the very best in life.