TIMES NEWS NETWORK REVIEW OF FTII, Pune Show

Reviving the lost art form of Dastangoi

Laxmi Birajdar | TNN

Pune: The stories of Amir Hamza,paternal uncle of Prophet Muhammad,came alive through Dastangoi,the lost art form of story-telling.On Monday,Mahmood Farooqui and Danish Husain,recounted the epic narratives of Hamza at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) and gave an insight into this rich art that involves complex Urdu poetry and oral recitation,interwoven with the rich strains of classical music.
Created and directed by Farooqui,who has been guided by S R Faruqi,Urdus renowned critic and writer,the performance is an attempt to recreate Dastangoi as it was performed in the 16th century,during the rule of Akbar.
The word Dastangoi is a compound of two Persian words,dastan and goi,which means to tell a dastan or epic,often oral in nature.
The Dastan-e-Amir Hamza is a highly important chapter of our literary history.Our maiden performances were at the India International Centre in Delhi in 2005, said Farooqui,also a thespian.
It was while devising a lecture-demonstration for this art form in 2005 that I first explored the possibility of actually performing the text.The best way to demonstrate its prowess was to actually let the text speak.Traditional Dastangoi was restricted to a single performer.The innovation I made was to rope in another actor so that we would alternate our recitations and participate as listeners to each others stories, said Farooqui.
Stories of Hamzas life and exploits have been collected in the Hamzanama,which came to India through Persia.It began to be recounted in Urdu in the 18th and 19th centuries and a structure was acquired through its form,oral recitation,Urdu poetry and classical music.
The shows executive director,Anusha Rizvi,recognised the scope of this art form once the initial performance was lapped up by the audience.Thats when we thought of pursuing it seriously and began delving deeper into it.We realised people were taking a genuine interest in this lost art of story-telling and were reacting positively to our performance,wanting to know and see more of Dastangoi, said Rizvi.
Farooqui has been training artists for the last four years.There are only about 10 people who can perform Dastangoi today.Being a theatre artist myself,I find it a very fulfilling art form, said Farooqui.
Actor-poet Danish Husain has been assisting Farooqui.He will be seen next in the film,Peepli Live, produced by Aamir Khan and directed by Farooqui and Rizvi.


The dastan or epic narrative of Amir Hamza was brought alive through oral recitation,classical music and Urdu poetry by artistes,Danish Husain (left) and Mahmood Farooqui at a performance at the FTII recently

Indian Express Review of the FTII show in Pune

Tales of storytellers

Meenakshi Iyer Tags : talk Posted: Wednesday, Apr 14, 2010 at 0204 hrs

Dastangoi, a dying art form is being revived through performances for the mainstream audience by Mahmood Farooqui and Danish Husain

Sound of energetic Wah Wahs resonated in the main theatre of Film and Television Institute of India. The stage was set, perfectly suiting the era of the Dastangoi- the ancient art of storytelling. The 50 year golden jubilee celebration at FTII was the apt occasion to celebrate this ideal blend of poetry and drama.

Marked by dramatic, loud hand gestures and set on varied pitches, this performance by Mahmood Farooqui and Danish Husain was a visual delight as well. Farooqui has been involved in the revival of this art since 2004. Talking about his first encounter with this art form he says, “In August 2002, I first encountered the Dastan-e Amir Hamza and I was asked to help out somebody who was making a film. Though the film never got made, I got interested in Dastangoi.”

Dastangoi is the art of narration of Dastan (epic narrative) recited by a Dastango (performer)- a compound of two Persian words Dastan and goi which means to tell a Dastan. These were often oral in nature, stories of adventure, magic and warfare read out loud. This art form dates back to the 16th century; in fact legend has it that Emperor Akbar himself would recite them. It involves rigorous practice to perfect every aspect of the performance. Farooqui adds, “We work together on lengthy rehearsal sessions trying to memorise pages of script. We improvise, edit and present it in a form that is enjoyable for the audiences.”

The palpable chemistry between both the artists left the audiences completely engaged in the performance. They time traveled through the pages of history and the audiences attentive throughout the length of the act. “The audiences are kept attentive through techniques like sound of language, illustrations on the stage and so on,” adds Farooqui. Most of Indian and Islamic cinema is influenced by Parsi theatre that uses the same elements of the theatrical forms of nautanki, swang, naqqali.

This art form has an illustrous history and an equally interesting way of presentation. In one of the Dastans about the escapades of Amir Aiyyaar, Husain quickly changes into a role of a beautiful woman. His graceful movements match the masculine performance of Farooqui creating a visual imagery in front of the audiences. With minimal props, they bring to life some of the greatest epics of Persian and Arabic literature. Traditional Dastangoi was restricted to single performer, but Farooqui made improvisations and introduced the system of two performers, to make it more contemporary.

The second part was based on the partition of 1947, drawing attention to the battle through poetry, folk sayings and literature. It was an intricately woven tale of separation, longing and trauma of the partition, something that is so close to our hearts.

Farooqui has studied at the University of Oxford. He has worked over the last four years to revive this lost art of storytelling under the guidance of S R Faruqi, eminent critic and writer. Husain, has been involved with this endeavour for over four years. Farooqui says, “Our Dasatngoi performance is a tribute to these storytellers who lived 200 years ago and are hardly remembered by anyone today.”

Dastangoi at FTII, Pune

To celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the founding of the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, Dastak will perform Dastangoi on the 12th of April 2010 at the Main Theatre, FTII Campus from 7.30 onwards. A discussion with students will happen on the morning of the 13th.

A Video Log of Dastangoi Performances

Dastangoi Performance at Kala Ghoda Literary Festival, Mumbai, February 2007

Dastangoi Performance at Dakshinpuri, New Delhi January 2008; A Cybermohalla Enterprise, Sarai

Dastangoi Performance at Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur, October 2008

Dastangoi Performance at Muslim Voices Festival, New York, June 2009

Then there are links to following videos by friends and news agencies:

Performance for Dastakar I, IGNCA, New Delhi, November 2009

Performance for Dastakar II, IGNCA, New Delhi, November 2009

Performance for Dastakar III, IGNCA, New Delhi, November 2009

And an AVS TV's report on Dastangoi.

And our latest interview: NewsClick's feature on Dastangoi

And here is the latest video report filed by Pooja Chaturvedi, Mint (Hindustan Times Group)on Dastangoi. The performance and interviews are from The Bards and The Minstrels of India Series performance on Jan 19, 2011 at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi. You may visit their site here:
The Bards and The Minstrels Series Opening at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi

And we add more videos as they become available to us on youtube:

An ANI video of our performance at Chausanth Khamba, Nizamuddin Dec, 2010

A beautiful video made from our performances at NCPA, Mumbai, Dec 2010 for the first Dastangoi festival ever in modern times by Afzal Ahmed Syed.

Anu Anand Hall, a BBC Correspondent, describing her serendipitous brush with Dastangoi.

And the latest, thanks to Nicky Chandam, a video documentation of the Binayak Sen Dastan we did as part of Justice on Trial, 3 day long cultural festival at Alliance Francaise, Delhi on Apr 06, 2011.

We'll add more as we roll along. Thanks.

Dastangoi for Jan Sanskriti Manch in Patna Cancelled

Dear Everyone:

For reasons beyond our and our host's control, we had to cancel our show in Patna today. It's a pity. We were really looking forward to this show. Anyway, we hope we'll be there soon.

Thanks for bearing with us.

Danish

Dastak is pleased to return to Patna for a performance of Dastangoi.

As part of Jan Sanskriti Manch's cultural event we'll be performing Dastangoi tomorrow Sunday, March 14 at 7:00 pm at Kalidasa Rangalya (South end of Gandhi Maidan), Patna.

Please feel free to join us there or tell your friends in Patna to come over for the performance.

Thanks