Suno Bhai Sadho...

Kahat Kabeera: Shekhar Sen in a still from ‘Kabeer’ staged in city on Saturday. (Pic by Satish Raut)

Icon of mono-act musical plays, Shekhar Sen, presented ‘Kabeer’ in his inimitable style at a function organised by Mundle family...

Select audience gathered at Shri Sai Sabhagruha experienced one of the finest theatrical presentations on Saturday. Writer-director-actor-composer and singer Shekhar Sen, who has proved himself as a milestone in unique theatrical style of ‘live mono act musicals’ presented his well-known ‘Kabeer’ for 335th time on stage and for the first time in Nagpur.

‘Kabeer’ was organised by city’s well-known Mundle family as a surprise gift to Bhaiyyasaheb Mundle. Family-members as well as well-wishers of Bhaiyyasaheb from educational and social scene of Nagpur celebrated his 75th birthday

on Saturday. Mundle, being a philanthropist, educationist, and social worker; has always idolised ‘Sant Kabeer’ in his life. The play was organised as a gift for his faith in Kabeer.

Prominent personalities from various fields attended the theatrical presentation and were bestowed with a classic theatrical marvel by Shekhar Sen. A blessed Indian classical singer, Sen weaved Kabeer’s life story along with some 40-odd songs (Dohaas) sung in 46 Raagas during this two-hour show. His narration, script and live singing performance on the pre-recorded track received many spontaneous applause.

Kabeer’s poetry added a spiritual and literary value to the play. The play not only had a musical and literary value, but also was full of novel information and historical referances about Sant Kabeer. His association with many other spiritual personalities (Sheikh Farid baba and others), his relationship with contempoerary rulers, his stand on Hindu and Muslim communities, his family members and many other aspects of his personality were highlighted in a unique manner of narration by Sen. Adorned as Sant Kabeer, he narrated the story in first person - just like his two other plays --- Vivekananda and Tulsi. Nagpurians are quite familiar with Shekhar Sen’s Vivekananda which was staged continuously for seven days in November 2011. His Tulsi was also organised last year in city. ‘Kabeer’ was organised for the first time in Nagpur. While intracting with the audience right after the show, Sen, who has more than 750 such performances on his credit, attributed all to his parents, Gurus and the almighty.

‘Surdaas’ to be Shekhar Sen’s next 

After Tulsi, Kabeer, and Vivekananda; Shekhar Sen is coming up with another historical and spiritual personality. Sen, a talented singer, music composer, lyricist and actor stated that his fifth play ‘Surdas’ is almost complete and he is planning for the inaugural show sometime in the year 2013.
“The music track recording for the play was recently completed. I am working on final part of the play these days,” he said. Sen insists to sing all his songs live along with the script in order to give a lively touch to the play. For this, he has to recite the play word-by-word and manage to sing the songs on the pre-recorded track without even a small goof-up. The preparation for the unique show hence takes quite a long.