The soft pitching and poise of Shreya Ghoshal's vocal performances have Bollywood spellbound, but it's her Kannada film work where this prodigy of playback singing shines. Formally trained in classical music since the age of six, she's honed her mellifluous vocals and simmering, slow-burning musical pathos for years, and her talents have grown in tandem with her celebrity. There's a gravitas and bittersweet melancholy to her sound—and lyrics pondering life's travails—but she also balances the sombre with the joyous, and her output is peppered with lively backbeats from filmi's best arrangers.