Shekhar Sen

Shekhar Sen is a singer, music composer, lyricist and actor. He is famous for his monoact musical plays^[1][2] "Tulsi", "Kabeer",^[3] "Vivekanand", "Saahab" & "Soordas" . Those are researched, written, composed, enacted and directed by him.

Early life

Shekhar Sen was born (1961) and brought up in a Bengali family in Raipur, Chhattisgarh. His father late Dr. Arun Kumar Sen, who was the Vice-Chancellor at Indira Kala Sangeet Vishwavidyalay, Khairagarh, and mother late Dr. Aneeta Sen, were both renowned classical singers of Gwalior Gharana & Musicologists. He has learned music from his parents. He came to Mumbai in 1979 to become music composer. He started singing in 1984. He started doing research oriented musical programs, like Dushywant Ne Kaha Tha 1984(ghazals of Dushyant Kumar), Madhya Yugeen Kaavya 1985 (sang medieval poets like Raskhan, Raheem, Lalitkishori, Bhooshan, Bihari, Kabir, Tulsidas, Soordas Pakistan ka Hindi Kavya1986 (Hindi Geet, Dohe written in Pakistan), Meera Se Mahadevi Tak 1987 ( Hindi songs by Poetesses) & many more innovative programmes.

Career

Shekhar Sen started his career in Mumbai in 1979, with the objective of becoming a music composer.^[4] He was contracted by HMV as a ghazal singer. He soon realised that his true talent lay in composing bhajans so he shifted to that, rendering more than 200 Bhajan Albums since 1983 as singer, lyricist and composer. He also sang and composed for many TV serials and films. He has performed more than 1200 singing concerts all over the world. Since 1998 as a playwright,actor, singer, director and composer, Shekhar has created 0ne man musical plays & performed more than 800 shows of his Mono Act Musical Plays, "Tulsi", "Kabeer" "Vivekananda" "Sanmati", "Saahab" & "Soordas". His performances received great acclaim in India as well as abroad such as US, England, Belgium, Suriname, Singapore, Jakarta, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, Sharjah, Mauritius, and Trinidad.^[5]

His play, a mono-act "Soordas", premiered at NCPA Mumbai on 14 June 2013.^[6] Sen told Timeout Mumbai, "Initially, I was very apprehensive about whether to portray a blind person for two hours – a very tough task. But when I started writing [the play] I realised that people with sight can only see the world [in a 180-degree view], while those without sight are able to see the world [in] 360 degrees".^[7] He is honoured by Padma shri award in 2015 and also appointed as chairperson for Sangit natya academy in same year by Indian Government.

Awards and Accolades

• Chair Person of Sangeet Natak Academy since 2015
• Padma Shri Award in Art field by Indian Government, 2015^[8]
• Sangeet Natak Academy Uttar Pradesh felicitated him with "Safdar Hashmi Puraskaar, 2001" for the contribution in the field of theatre
• Performed "Kabeer" at Lok Sabha on 4 May 2005
• V.Shantaram Samman of Maharashtra Rajya Hindi Sahitya Academy, 2008
• Performed "Vivekanand" at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 27 April 2013
• Performed "[Mono Act on life of Soordas]" at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 11 April 2015
• Performed in World Hindi Conference at Paramaribo, Suriname on 6–9 June 2003
• Served as expert committee member of Ministry of Human Resource Development (India) for 2 years
• Performed in World Hindi Conference at Johannesburg, South Africa on 22–24 September 2012
• As member of Central Board of Film Certification for 4 years

Discs and albums

References