Ranchi: The simplicity and wisdom of 15th century mystic saint-poet Kabir's dohas have never been more relevant than in today's fractured times.

Bringing on stage the life and times of the reformist philosopher and poet is the eponymous play, Kabir, which Ranchi audiences can catch on Thursday evening at Ranchi University's Aryabhatta auditorium.

SPIC MACAY or The Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music And Culture Amongst Youth, and state art, culture and tourism department are jointly staging the musical mono act play that will be presented by Padma Shri Shekhar Sen, singer, music composer, lyricist and actor, who also happens to be the Sangeet Natak Akademi chairperson.

Two hours long, with 40 songs, the play promises to be a thought-provoking entertainer.

Revered by Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs, Kabir wrote dohas that could be understood by all and still stands tall as a symbol of tolerance and pluralism.

With myths and legends often surrounding the lives of saints, crafting musical plays is not an easy task.

But, Sen is credited with researching, writing and directing and acting in plays depicting Tulsidas, Surdas, Vivekanand and Sahab.

"When I wrote the first musical play on Tulsidas and read it out to the legendary littérateur Dharamvir Bharati he liked it and inspired me to act and direct it as well," Sen told this paper about his beginning as a playwright.

For, making musical plays was not the first career choice of Raipur-born Sen, who will be 57 next month. Trained under parents Aneeta and Arun Kumar Sen, renowned singers of Gwalior gharana, Sen had moved from Chhattisgarh to Mumbai at the age of 18 to become a music composer and music company HMV contacted him as a ghazal singer.

But soon he realised his real talent lay in composing bhajans and subsequently shifted to that genre that finally led him to conceive these ideas for these musical plays.

Sen has performed over 800 shows of these musical plays across the world, equally at ease in a small village in Odisha or Uttar Pradesh as in Rashtrapati Bhavan and at auditoriums in the UK and the US. "My shop may be small, but customers are committed," he quipped about his popularity.

State SPIC MACAY coordinator Rajiv Ranjan said they thanked the state government for their patronage. Ashok Kumar Singh, director of state art and culture department, said they were interested in organising such events in the future.