Noorjehan would have liked to sing all the songs for the movie Jugnu (1947), in which she also played the lead role opposite rising star Dilip Kumar. Shamshad Begum sang one track, which Noorjehan was not particularly envious of. It was the other solo by Roshanara Begum that irked Noorjehan.
That song, Des ki purkaif rangeen si fizaon mein kahin, had gathered immense popularity, and it briefly looked as though it would upstage Noorjehan’s career. Legend has it that when Noorjehan eventually met Roshanara, her doubts receded. Roshanara was no match to Noorjehan’s beauty. Plain in appearance and polite and humble in demeanour, Roshanara Begum was accepted by Noorjehan as a colleague, not a rival.
Born in Kolkata in 1917, Roshanara’s real name was Wahidunnissa. A fakir recommended that she be named Roshanjahan (one who illuminates the world) after he heard her recite a naat. She came to be called Roshanara when she worked briefly as an actor in Noor-E-Islam (1934).
Roshanara trained in classical singing for a decade before she began touring Bengal and Bihar for mehfils where she was immediately recognised for her mastery over raags. She sang thumris and ghazals and even began recording songs for All India Radio. She was introduced on the radio as Bombaywali Roshanara Begum because she had by then decided to move to the city to live closer to her Ustad, Abdul Karim Khan. Under his tutelage, Roshanara came to be associated with the Kirana Gharana style of singing, in which sur takes centerstage. She also married a police officer who was stationed in Mumbai.
After Partition, Roshanara moved to Lalamusa in Pakistan, from where she travelled to Lahore, the cultural epicentre for music and radio programmes. Her full-throated voice stressing on sur and light taans made her voice special.
Roshan Ara Begum sang for film music composers such as Anil Biswas, Feroze Nizami and Tassaduq Hussain in Pahali Nazar (1945) and Jugnu (1947) and Qismat (1956), Roopmati Baazbahadur (1960) and Neela Parbat (1969) after moving to Pakistan.
She didn’t sing ghazals as often as she should have. This Seemab Akbarabadi poem, Idhar barq e tapaan rakh di, sung in raag Kedara, is a testament to her virtuoso performance. Roshanara's absence from the ghazal scene could also be because her classical background was not suited for ghazal singing, where the stress is more on the poet's words and not on the singer's harkat (ornamentation of the taan). Yet, this rare ghazal rendition is considered one of her most accomplished performances.
There isn’t one particular song she is known for. Some of her music is for Radio Pakistan, PTV, and Pakistan National Council of the Arts. Some of it is available on YouTube, and some has been lost. In this interview, the Malika-e-Mauseeqi (Queen of Music) of Pakistan tells it like it is.