Padma Shri Shekhar Sen’s Musical Soordas Is A 34-Song Ode to Krishna Ahead of Janmashtami

In the great epic theatre of Indian devotion, where saints are born blind but see eternity and where poetry flows like the Yamuna in monsoon comes once again a bard with veena and vision: Padma Shri Shekhar Sen, taking stage at the Tata Theatre, NCPA, on the evening of August 8, 2025 for a singular invocation of the dark-hued deity, Shyam.

This offering is part of Shyam Rang, the NCPA’s luminous annual celebration of Krishna’s mythic life. But this year, the veil of time lifts not to show Krishna directly, but to reveal his most ardent poet, Soordas. The 16th-century saint's verses still tremble in temple corridors and hearts that have forgotten the world.

Who better to summon this spirit than Shekhar Sen, the modern rishi in kurta and harmonium, the storyteller whose voice carries both thunder and whisper? As composer, singer, actor, and chronicler of saints, Sen has gifted India with solo musical dramas that are less performance and more pilgrimage. He has brought to life Kabir, Tulsidas, Vivekananda, and Saahab, blending deep research with lyrical expression, and now, he returns with Soordas: a performance first birthed in 2013 at the very same venue, now reborn for a new generation.

Shekhar Sen is a singer, lyricist, composer and actor (Image courtesy the artiste)

Soordas: The Blind Poet Who Saw God

Soordas was no ordinary poet. He was Krishna’s mirror, his echo, his chosen mouthpiece in a darkened world. Born sightless but not visionless, Soordas composed over 10,000 verses, each a blossoming lotus in the lake of Bhakti. His words did not merely describe Krishna... they danced, they wept, they mothered him, scolded him, romanced him, and watched him walk away, as only a devotee can.

Sen’s musical narrative is spread across 34 carefully chosen songs. It becomes the young boy led to Swami Haridas, the wandering bard in dialogue with Tulsidas and Meerabai, the mystic whose devotion caught the ear of Akbar and the genius of Tansen.

A Devotional Confluence

This 90-minute monodrama is wrapped in ragas both rare and familiar, in words dipped in the river of Hindi, Braj, and Sanskrit, and in the energy of a performer who does not act but channels. Sen’s ability to shapeshift between singer, narrator, and character is uncanny... like watching a kathak dancer turn into Radha mid-spin, or a flute become the breath of Krishna himself.

The production is supported by the Bombay Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (BSPCA). Krishna was a cowherd before he was a king, that kindness is itself a form of worship. In the hush before Krishna’s midnight arrival, let the voice of Soordas through Shekhar Sen be your guide. Let it remind you that Krishna was not just a god but a feeling, a sound, a song carried across time by saints who asked for no sight but only love.