Roshan Ara Begum

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Roshan Ara Begum (b. 1917? - d. December 6, 1982) was one of South Asia's early classical singers and vocalists. She is revered as the Mallika-e-Mauseeqi or Queen of Music in Pakistan .

Roshan Ara Begum was born in Calcutta in or around 1917. During her teens, she visited Lahore (the music capital) to participate in musical soirees held at the residences of affluent citizens and the aastana of Chun Peer in Mohalla Peer Gillaanian at Mochi Gate. Another reason for her occasional visits to the city was to broadcast songs from the then All India Radio station, and her name was announced as "Bombaywali" Roshan Ara Begum. She had acquired this popular nomenclature because, she shifted to Bombay in the late 1930s to be near Ustad Abdul Karim Khan from whom she took lessons in classical music for many years. Her performance in Chun Peer's abode in early 1941, pleasantly surprised local heavyweights and connoisseurs with her expertise in rendering classical compositions. In Bombay, she lived in a sprawling bungalow with her husband Chaudhry Mohammed Hussain, who was a police officer. This bungalow she shared with lyricist, poet and songwriter Tanvir Naqvi's first cousin and her family.

Possessing a rich, mature and mellifluous voice that could easily lend itself to a wide range of intricate classical asthai-antras, Roshan Ara employed her natural talent in the promotion of the art which requires a high degree of cultivation and training. Her singing was marked with a full-throated voice, short and delicate passages of sur (tones), lyricism, romantic appeal and swift taans. All these flourishes were combined in her unique style that reached its peak which was from 1947 to 1982. Her vigorous style of singing which was interspersed with bold strokes and perfect laykari, left no doubt that she was the greatest exponent of the Kirana Gharana style of Khayal singing after the demise of both her mentor Ustad Abdul Karim Khan and his equally talented cousin Ustad Abdul Waheed Khan.

Even before migrating to Pakistan, Roshan Ara was acclaimed as the greatest exponent of Kirana Gharana style of Khayal singing in the subcontinent. She embodied in her art all the exquisite tonal qualities and attributes of her mentor's delicate style of classical vocalization. She was equally good at alaps (step-by-step progression from one note to another) while delineating ragas and also in taking breezy taans (flights) again in the strand of her Ustad. She was very conscious of her dignity and status and never allowed herself to be emotionally swayed. But when the recording of her ustad's music was played, her eyes filled with tears.

An outstanding personality in the world of music, Roshan Ara Begum was aptly called a phenomenon as her voice and its timbre, her creative musical intelligence and its sensitivity had combined to produce perfect harmony. She had profound knowledge of the theory of classical music and practised this art for over 40 years. Roshan Ara changed the course of Pakistani classical music by her masterly renditions and at the same time raised its status by endowing it with dignity, grace and glory.

Migrating to Pakistan in 1948, Roshan Ara Begum settled in Lalamusa, a small town almost mid-way between Lahore and Rawalpindi, a place to which her husband originally belonged. Although far away from Lahore, the cultural centre of the country, she would shuttle back and forth to participate in music and radio programmes. Thanks to visual and audio recording devices, Roshan Ara Begum will always be remembered for the richness of her music, which often overflowed with tonal modulations, for its sweetness and delicacy of gammaks and for her slow progression of raagas. It is difficult to adequately describe the quality of her music. One can only say that it went to the hearts of both knowledgable listeners and cultivated connossieurs. Roshan Ara Begum also sang some great film songs, mostly under music composers like Feroze Nizami and Tassaduq Hussain. She sung for famous Urdu films such as Jugnu (1947), Qismat (1956), Roopmati Baazbahadur (1960) and Neela Parbat (1969).

She passed away in Pakistan in 1982 when she was around 65 years old.