{"id":5466,"date":"2020-02-20T00:00:32","date_gmt":"2020-02-19T18:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/?p=5466"},"modified":"2023-11-08T09:52:48","modified_gmt":"2023-11-08T04:22:48","slug":"a-century-of-shyam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/a-century-of-shyam\/","title":{"rendered":"A Century of Shyam"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Shyam<\/a>

With the looks and pizzazz of a Hollywood star, Shyam’s debut announcement in Filmindia<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Today we celebrate the Centennial Birthday of Shyam. He was born this day 100 years ago at Sialkot to Sita Ram Chadha, of the British Army and Charan Devi. His mother named him Sundar Shyam Chadha.\u00a0She was a beautiful tall lady. Shyam took to her features and height. When her children Shyam and Harbans (my father) were just five and three years old, respectively, her untimely death due to high fever, shook the family fabric. Their father raised them as a single parent and put them in hostels. He later remarried as the boys grew up.<\/p>\n

Shyam, brought up in Rawalpindi was a bright student and passed in 1st<\/sup> Division in school as well as in his graduation from Gordon College. From childhood he was theatre inclined and flourished in debates, elocutions and theatre during college.<\/p>\n

Shyam shifted to Lahore, the happening place in those days. His reputation as a theatre artiste followed him. He took Lahore by storm and appeared in many theatre productions. Tall fair and handsome to the core, he was encouraged to head to the films.<\/p>\n

Shyam got his first break in a Punjabi Film Gowandi<\/em> as a hero against Veena in 1941. It was a great success in the Northern Circuit, especially the music. This was followed by two other Punjabi films \u2013 Madari<\/em> (1950) and Bhaiyya Ji<\/em> (1950), with the latter he turned a producer. Having tasted minor success he headed to Bombay in search of a break.<\/p>\n