It was a treat to hear the little Bengali girl or Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s discovery singing Jadu Hai Nasha Hai with a little smile on her face. I became her big fan after her most acclaimed song fell to my ears. It was the year 2002 when this melodious voice forayed into Indian cinema in the form of Bairi piya and there is no looking back after this for the great singing sensation Shreya Ghoshal. Whether its classical or romantic, slow or pacy, she has sung all with very much ease. I would like to divide this review into two parts- Shreya Ghoshal before entering into Indian film industry and Shreya Ghoshal post entrance.~ ~Pre-entrance ~ ~Although she got major part of her training from her mother, a non-professional singer, it was his father who insisted her to take singing seriously. In her words “Dad is an electronics engineer with the Nuclear Power Corporation, but he is quite fond of music. When I started singing at the age of four, dad felt that I should take it up seriously. My Naniji is a classical singer and my mother too is a good singer, though she doesn’t sing professionally. So I guess it came down to me from them. But had it not been for my dad egging me on, I would never have made it into a career”. At the age of 10 she took part in state and national level competitions and ended winning the both. Kalyanji-Anandji who were the judge at one of the competitions adviced her to shift to Mumbai. Her father took the transfer and right after shifting she was in the saregama’s children special. I don’t think I need to mention the result. After that she learnt singing from Kalyanji-Anandji for one and half years. 4 yrs later she got an invitation from Gajendra Singh to take part in saregama mega finals which eventually bought her the ticket to fame in the form of SLB’s call. “I remember the date, it was March 9, 2000. Bhansaliji called me up and asked me to meet him. I couldn’t believe it, and was too stunned to react” Shreya laughs.~ ~Post-entrance ~ ~Shreya’s journey into bollywood started with Devdas. Just imagine, 5 songs in the debut film. Bairi piya won her 8 awards including the national award. Shreya’s first experience “I went to the recording studio and Sanjay uncle and composer Ismail Darbarji asked me to get comfortable with the mike. They then asked me to get acquainted with the song, which was Bairi piya...’ and sing it casually. After I finished singing the song, they revealed to me that it was the final take. Sanjay uncle was so happy he gave me a hug. He then told me that had I been informed beforehand that it was the final take, I would have become conscious, and maybe not sung it confidently, ” she says. Sanjay is the one I admire the most. He is the master of selecting the right person whether for singing, acting or anything. See shernaz Patel in Black. Offers started pouring after her sizzling debut and the year 2003 was considerably her year. She sang for the films Armaan, Saaya, LOC Kargil, Munnabhai MBBS and of course Jism. All the songs were hit in the box-office and as I mentioned in the beginning her song Jadu Hai Nasha Hai was more than awesome. Almost every filmfare award went into her kitty due to this song. After that in the year 2004 her voice was heard in the films Khakee, Krishna cottage, Main Hoon Naa, Musafir, Tumsa Nahin Dekha, Dhoom, Shukriya…it’s endless. Particularly the songs suna suna and mujhe tumse mohabbat hai are worth mentioning. In the current year she has already sung the hits Agar tum mil jao from Zeher and Piyu bole from Parineeta. Films Shabd, Mumbai Express, Paheli etc. also have her songs though with little success. In the coming months her voice will be heard in the films zamaanat (2005), krrish (2006) etc.So, in such a short span of time she has achieved a success huge enough to bag her songs of the good films in forthcoming years. She is giving good competition to the likes of Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhonsle but she can’t come above them. They are much much experienced than her. They are like Sachin Tendulkar who has reached a stage where his non-performance doesn’t matter anymore. I would love to see her acting in the films. She has got a pretty face. But unfortunately she does not like acting.