Nightingale of many languages - Shreya Ghoshal :)

Though born to a Bengali family in Durgapur, Shreya has never lived in West Bengal. “I was born and brought up in Rajasthan till I was 13 and then we moved to Mumbai”, says Shreya. Yet she is very particular about speaking ’only in Bengali’ at home.

But for a new listener to those recent Malayalam hits, whether it’s “Chanthu Thotille” in Banaras, “Vidaparayukayaano..” in Big B, “Manju mazhakkattil..” in Aagathan or “Anuragavilochananayi”, in Neelathamara, it’s hard to believe they were rendered by a non-Malayali.

So perfect is the diction, intonation and the voice modulation for the colloquial slang that one just sits wondering about her perfect renditions. The same is true about the other languages she has sung in, say Assamese, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Kannada, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil or Telugu.

So, it’s no wonder when Shreya Ghoshal won the Kerala state award for the best female playback singer this year. However, her amzaement about receiving the award was hard to miss. “I am really thrilled to get the award,” she beams.

“I am so grateful to Jayachandran Sir, for giving me such a wonderful song and I am dedicating it (the state award) to him,” she says.

With four national awards for best playback singer and awards of various states and other accolades galore, Shreya never gets carried away, instead each honour makes her all the more responsible.

“Every single award is a big motivation for me,” Shreya says, “it makes me more responsible.”

Of all the other language film songs Shreya rates the Tamil chart buster ’Munbe Wa’ as the closest one to her heart. “This is the song which amply displays A.R. Rahman sir’s magic,” Shreya says.

“Whenever I come to Kerala, I make sure to buy cookery books and I am fond of south Indian dishes too. I can prepare Avial and Appam as well,” she says, with a laugh.

Back from an extensive trip to the US, Shreya turned immediately busy with the upcoming home ventures of A.R. Rahman, Vishal Bhradwaj, Pritam besides Malayalam music directors M. Jayachandran and Ouseppachan.

Source: www.mirrordays.com