The next Stage

In taking on a Shakespearean classic, Feroz Abbas Khan is raising the bar for himself

Firoz khan Director Feroz Abbas Khan | Janak Bhat

At the newly built Mukesh Patel Auditorium in Vile Parle, Feroz Abbas Khan was immersed in the rehearsal of Raunaq & Jassi, his new musical after the successful Mughal-e-Azam. The actors, Neha Sargam and Omkar Patil, followed the instructions of choreographer Mayuri Upadhyay, with Khan pitching in. The auditorium, he tells me, is “really important” to take the culture of theatre forward. He is worried about the shrinking space for performances in Mumbai. He would know, having been involved in theatre for almost four decades.

“Classics do not try and shout to send a message. That is not the way theatre works. That is not the way I work.”

Khan is a founding member of the Prithvi Theatre Festival and creator of well-known theatre productions like Mahatama vs Gandhi, Tumhari Amrita and Saalgirah—all known for their minimalism. When he conceptualised the Broadway-style Mughal-e-Azam as a tribute to K. Asif’s film, he did it out of a fear of “becoming my own cliché”. “I may start repeating myself and get into the comfort zone of minimalism,” he says.

He felt a need to challenge himself. But the journey was painful and full of doubts. “Everyone thought this could be the beginning of my end in theatre because it is a classic and there is a lot of nostalgia attached to it. If I had taken any other smaller work, it would have been different. The expectations were that [the show] would just fade out or be a disaster,” he says. But the show had a successful run, with 180 performances nationally and internationally.

After Mughal-e-Azam, there were many options for him, but he needed a challenge bigger than the last. That would be Shakespeare, he told himself. And, Romeo and Juliet came naturally. “It is a great love story and is timeless,” says Khan. “We are inspired by Romeo and Juliet. We are not translating it. We are adapting it. It is a homage to the Bard. We have created an original piece of writing [by Iqbal Raj].”

The musical is set in Punjab. This allowed the team to dig into the traditional and folk music. “I felt that I needed to raise the stakes for myself. I like to be in a restless zone, where there is a huge possibility of failure,” he says.

Taking such chances is not new for Khan. He recalls the time he produced Tumhari Amrita in the early 1990s. “We were not expecting it to do more than four shows,” he says, with a laugh. The epistolary play, performed by Shabana Azmi and Farooq Sheikh, went on to do more than 300 shows. “I did it as a tribute to Jennifer Kendall, my major inspiration and, perhaps, the reason I am in theatre.”

The reason why Romeo and Juliet is timeless, he says, is because hate keeps rearing its head, but love keeps winning. “Yes, it resonates [even now]. And, we need to put our faith in love. This is not deliberately contemporary. Classics do not try and shout to send a message. That is not the way theatre works. That is not the way I work,” he says, also in reference to his most important work—the Doordarshan show Main Kuch Bhi Kar Sakti Hoon, which challenges the prevailing social and cultural norms for women.

“[The show] occupies most of my life,” says Khan. “It is about women empowerment. Through it, we are dealing with issues of family planning, and with that comes gender and various things that go with it.” He adds that the work he does for the show instructs, in many ways, the musical he is working on now. “It has a very strong narrative. You do not want to shout, ‘Look, I want to say that’. If the story does not say it... you might as well give a lecture. This is a celebration of love. In many ways, it is Jassi’s story, a woman’s story. Her voice is very strong in the play.”

TAGS