Remembering classic vocalist Roshan Ara Begum 1917-82

Roshan Ara Begum (1917 – 5 December 1982) was a Pakistani classical vocalist. As the daughter of Abdul Haqq Khan, Roshan Ara is linked through her cousin Abdul Karim Khan to the Kirana gharana (singing style) of classical music.

Early life and training
Born in Calcutta in or around 1917, Roshan Ara Begum visited Lahore during her teens to participate in musical soirées held at the residences of affluent citizens of Chun Peer in Mohalla Peer Gillaanian at Mochi Gate, Lahore, British India (now in Pakistan).

During her occasional visits to the city she also broadcast songs from the then All India Radio station in Lahore and her name was announced as Bombaywali Roshan Ara Begum. She had acquired this popular nomenclature because she shifted to Mumbai, then known as Bombay, in the late 1930s to live near Abdul Karim Khan, from whom she took lessons in Hindustani classical music for fifteen years.

In Mumbai, she lived in a sprawling bungalow with her husband Chaudhry Mohammed Hussain.

Career
Possessing a rich, mature and mellifluous voice that could easily lend itself to a wide range of intricate classical music pieces, her singing features a full-throated voice, short and delicate passages of sur, lyricism, romantic appeal and swift taans. All these flourishes were combined in her unique style that reached its peak from 1945 to 1982. Her vigorous style of singing was interspersed with bold strokes and layakari.

Migrating to Pakistan in 1948 after the partition of India, Roshan Ara Begum and her husband settled in Lalamusa, a small town from which her husband hailed. Although far away from Lahore, the cultural centre of Pakistan, she would travel back and forth to participate in music and radio programmes.

Roshan Ara Begum also sang some film songs, mostly under music composers like Anil Biswas, Feroze Nizami and Tassaduq Hussain, for films such as Pehali Nazar (1945), Jugnu (1947), Qismat (1956), Roopmati Baazbahadur (1960) and Neela Parbat (1969).

Awards and recognition
She died in Pakistan on 6 December 1982 at the approximate age of sixty-five. Roshan Ara Begum received the Sitara-e-Imtiaz Award or (Star of Excellence) Award and the Pride of Performance Award in 1960 from the President of Pakistan, and was the first female vocalist to be awarded the Sitara-e-Imtiaz.

Bibliography
Kirana, by Roshan Ara Begum. Published by Gramophone Co. of India, 1994.