The singer Begum Akhtar was popularly called:

Explanation

Begum Akhtar (1914-1974), born Akhtari Bai Faizabadi, is remembered as "Mallika-e-Ghazal", which means "Queen of Ghazal". She was the most celebrated singer of ghazal, dadra and thumri of her time, and she is considered one of the greatest voices in the history of Indian semi-classical music.

Begum Akhtar was born in Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh. She trained in Hindustani classical music under masters such as Ustad Imdad Khan, Ata Mohammed Khan of Patiala and Abdul Waheed Khan of the Kirana gharana. She gave her first public performance as a teenager, in Kolkata, at a concert held to help the victims of the 1934 Bihar earthquake, and the poet Sarojini Naidu, who was in the audience, praised her. She also acted in several films in the 1930s and 1940s, and she sang in Satyajit Ray's film "Jalsaghar" (1958). Her voice had a unique, slightly husky and deeply emotional quality, and she could express great pain and longing. Her famous ghazals include "Ae Mohabbat Tere Anjaam Pe Rona Aaya" and "Wo Jo Hum Mein Tum Mein Qarar Tha". She received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1972), the Padma Shri (1968) and, after her death, the Padma Bhushan (1975). She died in Ahmedabad in 1974, shortly after a concert.

Why not the other options?

• ✗Queen of Thumri is the title of Girija Devi, the great singer of the Banaras gharana.
• ✗Nightingale of India is the title of the poet and freedom fighter Sarojini Naidu.
• ✗Melody Queen is a title often given to the playback singer Lata Mangeshkar.