The soul-satisfying art

Reputed singer, music composer, and Head of Sangeet Natak Akademi Shekhar Sen emphasises the need to understand the problems of musical instrument makers as well as performers. He shares about his ongoing work in providing medical facilities to deserving artistes

Shekhar Sen is a reputed singer, music composer, lyricist and actor. He hails from a family of musicians and learnt music from his parents Dr Arun Kumar Sen, former vice-chancellor at Indira Kala Sangeet Vishwavidyalaya, Khairagarh, and mother Late. Dr Anita Sen.

About his connection with music he says, “I always had a routine schedule as a performing musician. It was by chance that I happened to think of something different. I thought about doing one-act performances. But the most interesting part was that all these performances would contain a lot of songs that I myself would sing live.” The one-act play of ‘Kabir’ has nearly 45 songs, while that on Swami Vivekananda has about 32 songs.”

A lot of his time is spent in rehearsing and that does not leave much space for him to teach. “Many youngsters express a desire to learn from me, but I hardly have time. I even have to do exercises on ‘voice culture’ to ensure a high level of performance,” he states.

Most of India’s economy is dependent on agriculture. Even the major emphasis of all the planners and leaders revolves around the requirements of people dependant on this segment. Shekhar Sen says, “One must remember that even ‘agriculture’ includes the word ‘culture’. One must not neglect culture and lay more emphasis on ensuring that the rich heritage of this country is protected and also taken forward into the younger generation. It’s not only about the hunger needs of our stomach; it’s also about the needs of our soul. If the soul is well looked after, I am sure most of the disturbances and violence in this world will vanish.” He expresses his view that our culture and heritage is about understanding life, love and respect to others.

Speaking about the much ignored instrument makers, he emphasises the responsibility to understand the problems of musical instrument makers and performers. It could be in terms of the availability of raw materials, getting an optimum pricing for the products, keeping the interest alive among the younger generation and also facilitating marketing opportunities for them.

With the additional responsibility of heading the Sangeet Natak Akademi, Shekhar Sen and his team is working towards providing medical facilities and reimbursement of the medical costs to deserving artistes. The facilities vary from a heart operation to providing a hearing aid or facilitating a knee replacement operation. “As an artiste starts growing old, the problems start surfacing and they have hardly any family support or social network. This is more predominant in the case of folk artistes. We are trying to focus on this segment by supporting Sangeet Natak National Awardees, State Awardees and also non-awardees.”

Sharing the Akademi’s plan, he relates, “we want to conduct many workshops on different aspects of art and culture. All the programs of Sangeet Natak Akademi are being broadcast live via internet. These programs are run by public money, and it is our duty to give back the music to public at large. There is a proposal to set up a ‘Centre for Thumri’ and efforts are on to revive the ‘Nautanki’ form.”

“India is a very large country and has diverse forms of art and culture. It is our endeavour to try and reach out to all corners of the country and preserve it all,” he concludes.

By:Jaywant Naidu