Love will keep us alive

It looks like director Feroz Abbas Khan is a man on a mission These are fractious times The universal milk of human kindness seems like its down to its last dregs People are being silenced in the name of religion Walls mdash both literal and metaphorical mdash are being created to further the cause of nationalism But Khans out here to spread the message of love He wants to tell us that in the end hatred will always be defeated And thats why he has embarked on his latest project a musical called Raunaq amp Jassi which is a retelling of what is probably the greatest love story of all time Romeo and JulietNeha Sargam who essays the role of JassiIt comes after Khan directed a stage version of another epic tale of love MughaleAzam which premiered in 2016 But there is actually a totally different play called Masiha Tonight that hed been mulling over for a while Khan says Every time I approach it though something else comes my way Thats what happened with MughaleAzam And the same writer who I work with Iqbal Raj told me why dont we follow up MughaleAzam with another love story Weve taken on one classic So why not lock our hands with another one Lets just raise the stakes and challenge ourselves because for me a challenge is a motivator The possibility that this is perhaps going to be one of the toughest things I have done gives me the inspiration to do my work If I think that I can do something easily I dont want to do it because that would mean that Im not growing Complacency essentially is something that bothers meFeroz Abbas KhanNo wonder then that the scale of Raunaq amp Jassi seems massive When we visit the swanky Vile Parle auditorium where it will be staged a break has just started from a rehearsal The set looks as intricate as an elaborate ensemble for a fashion week that Manish Malhotra has created who incidentally has designed the costumes There is a balcony set up on the right It is the story of Romeo and Juliet after all though Khan tells us that while some of the plot lines remain the same the script for his remake is completely original The story is set in Punjab The period is the 1950s The reason for that timeframe is that at the age of 60 Khan connects more with that generation He tells us I find many lust stories these days and very few love stories And theres something charming about distance when it comes to time particularly when youre dealing with love stories If youre dealing with sociopolitical ideas you need to set it in the present age So it being a period piece I wanted to put my period into it without going back to the 15th and 16th centuries which is around when William Shakespeare wrote his playManish MalhotraHe adds that the look of the musical is going to be impressionistic with shades of Claude Monet and Vincent Van Gogh The tale of course follows the travails of two starcrossed lovers who come from feuding families But Khan is reluctant to reveal too much about the plot since hes afraid that that would kill the element of surprise He does tell us though that the central message of the play is this mdash let there be love MughaleAzam Raunaq amp Jassi and Masiha Tonight whenever its completed are in fact a trilogy of sorts in the sense that they deal with that same theme These like we said are fractious times when human society is finding it increasingly difficult to come around the idea of being compassionate And Khan says The point is very clear that hatred will get exhausted Love will take all the blows but it will only grow You can perhaps kill people but you cannot kill love Hatred can only kill people and it can kill an environment After all as human beings our faith is in life and life cannot be lived without love And in the times that we are living in I think that thats a really important message On November 28 730 pmAt Mukesh Patel Auditorium Navyug Society Navpada Juhu Vile Parle Development Scheme Vile Parle WestLog on to bookmyshowcom Cost Rs 950Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates