Tribute to Paidi Jairaj 1909-2000

 

Paidi Jairaj’s literary empress aunt Sarojini Naidu once jokingly said on his growing popularity, “Nephew, don’t become too famous, otherwise, people will point out to me and say: ‘Look, there goes Sarojini Naidu, the aunt of the great actor Jairaj.”
Incidentally, the kin carved a niche for himself in the annals of Indian history.
Born as Paidypathy Jairula Naidu on September 28, 1909, he hails from an illustrious and well-learned family in Karimnagar in the Nizam's state of Hyderabad. His life story is an inspiring tale for any young man or woman of the present generation who wants to achieve a passionate goal in their lives. His parents wanted him to go to London for higher studies, but the acting bug got the better of him and Jairaj left home before he could graduate. He joined the film industry at a time when it had a dubious reputation. Jairaj faced the displeasure of his family when he ran away to Bombay in 1929, where he started off as a duplicate stuntman in Sharda Film Company. It is believed that his family did not speak to him for nearly twenty-five years. He tinkered in all areas of film-making, helping the camera crew, managing the sets, assisting in the editing process and in the labs. All this, long before he could show up his acting skills in front of the camera as a protagonist.
Jairaj got associated with prolific writer Mama Warerkar and an Indian Independence activist and a filmmaker Indulal Yagnik, who were impressed with his magnificent physique and Greek-God looks. They cast him as the lead in "Jagmagati Jawani" (1929), a silent film as a second lead artist or 'side hero'. However, his second film "Raseeli Rani" saw the light of the day first. He acted in 11 silent films between 1929-1931.
In 1931, the talkies embarked its presence and the cinema got talking and singing. Jairaj, owing to his Hyderabadi Urdu roots, carried Hindi easily in his first talkie film, Shikari. Jairaj, owing to his Hyderabadi Urdu roots, carried Hindi easily. However, singing wasn't his forte. Back in the day, actors sang their own songs and Jairaj's tendency to sing off key didn't help him. The advent of playback singing took care of Jairaj’s troubles. There was no looking back after this. His films, "Rifle Girl" , "Bhabhi" ,"Panna" and "Mahasagar No Moti" became huge hits, winning him many female fans.

Jairaj’s majestic personality and powerful dialogue delivery made him an instant choice to play the roles of the sword wielding Rajputs. He played the characters of Amar Singh Rathore [1957], Prithviraj Chauhan[1959], and Maharana Pratap[1960] among notable films. He also essayed the roles of Shah Jahan [1947], Tipu Sultan [1959] and Haider Ali [1962] with equal aplomb.
His other memorable portrayals have been in the films like ‘Sassi Punnu’ [1947], ‘HatimTai’[1956], ‘Chandrashekar Azad’[1963] ‘Durga Das’[1964] among others. In 1952, he produced and directed his own film, Sagar, which was not very well received by the audiences. But his commitment to cinema remained undisputed.
In the 60's he accepted character roles in "Insaniyat"; "Mujrim Kaun Khooni Kaun"; "Baharon Ke Sapne"; "Neel Kamal"; "Raste Aur Manzil" and many more. He also did cameo roles in "Don" and Khoon Bhari Maang".
In a glittering career spanning 60 years, Jairaj played a wide variety of lead roles opposite leading actresses such as Devika Rani, Durga Khote, Suraiya, Noor Jehan, Nargis, Shobhna Samarth and Shakeela. Besides, Jairaj also acted in three international films: the Russian production "Pardesi"; MGM’s "Maya" and 29th Century Fox’s "Nine Hours to Rama", in which he rubbed shoulders with top Hollywood stars like Robert Morley and Jose Ferrer. Jairaj also played roles in Gujarati and Marathi films, but surprisingly none in his mother tongue, Telugu.
In 1980, the Government of India conferred on him the highest film honour, Dadasaheb Phalke Award, for his contribution to Indian cinema as an actor, producer and director.
In November 1999 Jairaj lost his beloved wife Savithri, which left a deep void in his heart. A year later, this multifaceted film personality passed away on 11th August, 2000. He was 91.