Shubha Mudgal revisits centuries-old conversations on women’s desire
Mumbai: At her recent concert in Mumbai, vocalist Shubha Mudgal explored how sexuality, agency and women’s lives have been voiced in Indian music and literature for centuries.
Presented by Royal Opera House, Mumbai in collaboration with AVID Learning, the performance titled ‘Women, Sexuality and Song’ was more than a conventional concert. Mudgal, joined by Aneesh Pradhan, Sudhir Nayak and Pratibha Singh Baghel, wove together music, poetry and storytelling to trace themes of beauty, longing, desire, motherhood, shame and resilience.
Through compositions drawn from different eras and traditions, the ensemble examined how women’s voices and experiences have echoed across India’s literary and musical history.
“Few musicians are as well-equipped to undertake such an exploration as Shubha,” event organizers noted. Speaking after the concert, Mudgal said the challenge was balancing the historical context of the poems with a contemporary woman’s perspective. Known for choosing thought-provoking themes for her performances, Mudgal used the concert to revisit and reinterpret texts that speak to women’s agency and desire, bringing historical verse into conversation with present-day audiences.
