Let’s play count the errors!
Okay kids, here is a fun quiz for you. How many factual errors can you spot in the opening lines of this opinion piece from The Telegraph of Calcutta? The writer is “economist” and “consultant editor”, Ashok V Desai.
Sixty years ago, India’s most loved actress was Suraiya. She entranced our fathers in the romantic roles she played opposite Dilip Kumar. It is not entirely certain whether she broke his heart when she left for Lahore in 1947, for he stayed on in India, married Saira Banoo, and went on to make films with Nargis. But Suraiya broke millions of Indian hearts when she left.
It would have been all right if she had won millions of Pakistani hearts. But there was no film industry in Pakistan at that time, and nowhere could Suraiya display her talents. She married and sank into the humdrum life of an ordinary housewife — sorry, a distinguished homemaker.
But then, in the Sixties, emerged another actress who stole Pakistani hearts — Noor Jehan.
Here are ten goof-ups to get you started —
- Suraiya didn’t move to Pakistan in 1947…
- …or later
- She certainly hadn’t worked opposite Dilip Kumar then…
- …and looks like she never did!
- Both Dilip Kumar and Suraiya were the speculation of much tabloid speculation and romantically linked to various people, but never to each other
- Dilip Kumar actually never worked with Nargis after he his marriage
- Suraiya was never married.
- There was a flourishing film industry in Lahore at, and in fact muchbefore, “that time”.
- Noor Jehan did not “emerge” in the sixties — she had by then been a superstar for two decades, and been in the movies for over thirty years!
- Sixty years ago, Suraiya was only seventeen, and not quite “India’s most loved actress” yet (if she ever was).
For extra credit — have you ever read anything about anything that contained more factual errors?