Musical Theatre composer-lyricist Tanvi Rajgarhia, who is professionally known as ‘Jhansi’ has shot a Broadway-style music video titled ‘We Break Up Because Of Family Reasons’, which was released on Wednesday.
Jhansi is the first Indian to be invited into ‘The Harvard of Broadway’ BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop.
The video has been shot in collaboration with director Priyanka Banerjee, who is known for her multi-starrer short film ‘Devi’ starring Kajol, Shruti Haasan and Neha Dhupia.
The theatrical video was shot in Mumbai in one day.
Talking about her concept, Jhansi shared, “The meaning of this song and title is literally whatever the listener is bringing to the table with their life experience. The story of ‘Breaking Up because of Family Reasons’ applies to your life. Could be your own breakup, a relationship you never began because you knew your parents would object, or your friend crying on your shoulder because they fell in love with the ‘wrong person’ by societal standards. Everyone has many stories that flash in their minds when I speak to them, no matter who they are, every Indian person can relate to it.”
Jhansi wrote the song and recorded a demo with singers in Kolkata. When director Priyanka Banerjee heard it, she immediately came on board.
She said: “Ace dancer Vedika Agarwal got on board to help in any way possible, and introduced me to choreographer Shohini Dutta (Qala, Laila Majnu, Tamasha, Highway, Rockstar, Bombay Velvet, Pyaar Ka Punchnama, Guzaarish, Dhoom) who really made the magic happen. The unbelievable execution you see onscreen is in large part due to Shohini.”
Speaking about her message behind crafting this, Jhansi said: “My message behind it is pretty straightforward. This scenario affects billions of lives. It has become a normal thing because nobody realises that it has evolved into a category of breakups. Everyone is living through it, painfully unaware. I wanted to bring attention to this pattern that I see every single day. We have normalised it to the extent that Indians just shrug it off. When a foreigner tries to ask us about it, we are just like you’ll not get it, bro, it’s just our thing.”
The song is available to stream on YouTube.
