With four National Awards in her wallet in such a tender age and that too happened in a short time span, Shreya Ghoshal has proved that she is the best singer of India. Anoop Shankaran draws out a vignette of the play back singer through her musical trips.

Shreya Ghoshal is just beginning, an era of her own. What she is now in Bollywood is nothing different from what Lata Mangeshkar has been there. The only difference is, Shreya is just 25, a tender age, when talking about eras and legends.

Shreya now fills the media-breaks as the National Award winner of the year2009. It is for the forth time she has been recognized by the nation as the best play back singer. How can it be not possible for a girl who sang to Indians for the first time through the lips of the one and only Aiswarya Rai, and that too, through an epic Hindi movie like ‘Devadas’?

Birth of a Star

Shreya’s infancy was with her mom’s harmonium and her childhood also was laced with limelight of the Zee TV, in its kids’ episode of ‘saregamapa’. She won not only the first prize but the great judge, Kalynji’s heart also. Thereafter Kalyanji, took her off to the realm of music, replanted the Bengal born, Rajasthani brought up girl in Mumbai, the whimsical world of Hindi movies (bollywood). Trained under Kalyanji and thereafter under Mukta Bhide, both in Hindustani and Carnatic with equal aplomb, a prodigy was growing beyond the sky line of bollywood.

Later in 2000, in the same Zee TV, in the same ‘Saregamapa’ platform, Shreya again appeared, but this time not as the ‘old shy kid’, but as an adult singer, matured and confident. That paved her way to Hindi film music, and to the amazement of the whole Hindi speaking world, she bagged the National award for the very first song ‘bairi priya’. She has never looked back since.

Beyond the Bollywood

Today, there would be rarely a Hindi movie or Hindi MP3 song album without the tintinnabulations of this lovely girl. With four national awards within a short span of seven years, she is always the number one choice of the Hindi lyricists and Hindi music composers. Her growth as an acclaimed play back singer along with the veterans like Alka Yagnik, Sunidhi Chauhan, Kavitha Krishnamurthy and Sadhana Sargam was apace. In and around the country she scored mammoth gatherings of her fans whose snake queues amazed the world.

Recently in the great Opera House at Sydney, Shreya wowed the people gathered, with her mesmerizing euphony. When asked about the Indian play back singer one of the natives who witnessed the show retorted, “you mean, play back.. She was in the front end; never say she is playing back”. Yes, when her concert was going on in the Opera House, one can easily figure out the rare candor with which she balances her tunes and tones with the audience and the orchestra simultaneously with great aplomb. She has rendered concerts and peppy numbers with full exuberance. With every request from the audience, she sang spontaneously with less effort. But at the end of the show which extended 3 and half hours, she seemed to be quiet weak. She walked straight to the car park, making the mass waiting for her autograph, desperate.

A Versatile Shreya

Shreya Ghoshal walked away with her second national award for the song ‘kangana se’ from the movie ‘paheli’, released in 2005.She was the first choice when it comes to soft and slow tracks. But she took one step ahead when she proved equally at home in fast numbers like ‘yeh ishq hai’ from the movie ‘Jab we met’ (2007) which brought her the national award for the third time. Take her two songs by the Oscar winner A.R.Rahman -‘latoo..’ from ‘gajini’ and ‘bhor bhaye’ from ‘Delhi 6’. Both the movies were released within a short span of one and a half month and both the songs are of two extreme genres. While ‘bhor bhaye’ drags on the classic track, ‘latoo’ is a mind-blowing fast number. Figure out the versatile Shreya Ghoshal!!!

Her versatility does not end here. Give your ear to any song she did in any other regional language. You will be astonished to hear the accent and intonation she renders to every word with the air innate only to a native.

‘Munpe vaa, munpe vaa’ from the Tamil film ‘jillendru oru kaadal’, ‘Randaka randakka’ a number one fast number hit of south India from the Tamil movie ‘anniyan’, ‘kuyilalo kuyilaalo’ from the Telugu movie ‘anumaanaspadan’, and ‘anuragavilochananayee’ the hit song of the year from the Malayalam movie ‘Neelathamara’ are some of the sweetest songs ever remembered by the south Indians. Many Hindi singers have been singing in the south Indian languages since the beginning. But Shreya’s rendering stands out with her unique sound adaptations to the respective languages. If one happened to hear any of the above mentioned songs, he would never identify a North Indian shade in that ditty.

Currently, she is doing a musical program in Star Plus, in which she is one of the team captains. Though stressed a bit in the traditional sari, she could manage to go hand in hand with Shankar Mahadevan, another team captain, and once, she could overtake him. At that crucial instance also, she dedicated her success to Shankar Mahadevan itself, stating ‘he is my Guru, and the success of a disciple is always the success of the Guru’.

Now, ‘zubi zubi’ is being sung by every Indian when they are welcomed by the caller tunes of their friends and relatives, irrespective of regional barriers. (It is the song from “three idiots”).  You are going to enjoy ‘noor se’ from the most awaiting ‘my name is Khan’. Definitely you can find the solid elements of the romantic voice of Shreya Ghoshal there.

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