Dastangoi Festival in Bombay

In the first week of December, on 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th December, at the NCPA, we present the first Dastangoi festival of the modern era.

Over the last one year we have trained several people in Bombay and Delhi in the fledgling art of Dastangoi. 'Trained,' is a slightly misleading term for an art form which is still discovering its aesthetics, techniques and contours so let us say we have guided and initiated several new people from Bombay and Delhi into reciting Dastans. They include businessman, young professionals, theatre actors, teachers and researchers. The heartening thing is that several of them are non-actors and some have no prior acting experience. Acting and Dastangoi, it seems from this preliminary foray, are different things although the skills required for both have some commonality. Many of them have performed over half a dozen shows, sometimes independently, in cities across India.

So we present, with some excitement and greater nervousness, the performances of the following. Each will present a different Dastan and thus over four days we shall present twelve to thirteen different stories, mainly from the Tilism-e Hoshruba, but also other works that we have developed in this ongoing exploration.

Sheikh Usman
Rana Pratap
Rasika Duggal
Rajesh Kumar
Manu Sikander
Aarti Jain
Yojit Singh
Ankit Chaddha
Shruti Parthasarthy
Kuljeet Singh
Sunil Singh Dahima
Rahul Shankalya
Nadeem Shah

And of course the by now tiresome duo of
Danish Husain and Mahmood Farooqui

Approaching its sixth year now, the two baby steps that the modern journey of Dastangoi has taken requires hundreds of tellers in cities across Hindustan for it to become a proper revival. The first and necessary step was to remove its identification with what 'Mahmood Farooqui' or what 'Mahmood Farooqui and Danish Husain' do and we have achieved something of that in the 20 odd shows performed by the newer entrants to the fold. The enthusiastic reception to their telling is heartwarming. As is the fact that increasingly now people assume that there are several people performing Dastans and that we, and people associated with us, are just one of them. Kudos.

It is much better to be a well known exponent of an art form rather than being the only exponent of an art form because, nasha barhta hai sharabein jo sharabon men milen

Collect your passes from NCPA and come to listen to the following wonderful stories, the likes of which have never been composed or recited, before or since...Zamana bare shauq se sun raha tha, hamin so gaye Dastan kahte

Azar and the magic picture
Mehtab and the talking birds
Amar, the false God Laqa and Afrasiyab
Musavvir the portrait artist and Bahar Jadu
Azlam, the dragon dwelling army and Barq Ayyaar
Amar and Amir Hamza in the madarsa and the travails of their Mulla
Barq, Shadeed and Qahar versus Bahar Jadu
Amar versus Heyrat and Aasman Shola Khar Jadu
The Partition Dastan

The 460000 pages of the Dastan-e Amir Hamza await other tellers and other listeners

I deeply thank the India Foundation for the Arts, Bangalore, (www.indiaifa.org) for supporting the festival and the other activities that we have lately undertaken to promote Dastangoi.

Entry open to all, first come first served. NCPA, Nariman Point, Bombay.

Dastangoi Ahead

Lucknow--

Nakhlau, nakhlau: Dastangoi's Headquarters, where all the great Ustads lived, where Nawal Kishor published the 46 volumes of the Dastan-e Amir Hamza

Performance at : Bhartendu Natya Akademi, Gomtinagar:-12th November, at 6.30 pm Entry Open to All

Followed by a performance for invitees on 13th November at a private residence

Delhi

10th and 11th December at Chaunsath Khambha, Basti Nizamuddin, organised by the Aga Khan Trust www.akdn.org/Content/137 - Entry Open to All

Bombay

2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th December. Dastangoi Festival at National Centre for the Performing Arts, NCPA
Passes Will be Available from NCPA

Bhopal

Our first ever performance in Bhopal

7th December at Bharat Bhawan at 7 pm, organised by the Swaraj Sansthan, Bhopal.

Maulana Azad National Urdu University invites us to perform Dastangoi at a 4 day long academic and cultural seminar at their end. The performance will be on Monday, 8th November 2010 at 6.30 pm at:

DDE Auditorium,

Directorate of Distance Education,

Maulana Azad National Urdu University,

Gachibowli,

Hyderabad-500 032

The performance includes the retelling of the Partition Dastan. And the performers include Sheikh Usman and Rana Pratap Senger. The entry is open to all.

Thanks and best regards.

Dastangoi at Ranga Shankara Theatre Festival 2010

Dastangoi will feature as part of the Ranga Shankara Theatre Festival 2010 in Bangalore. The focus this year is on folk and calssical theatre. We'll be reciting a brand new tale of Mussavir Jadoo, a mighty sorcerer, grandson of Lord Samari, a painter, whom Afrasiyab summons to decimate renegade sorcerers and Aiyyaars. Sheikh Usman and Rana P Senger will also perform a tale.

Our performance is slated at 7.30pm at the Ranga Shankara Theatre on Wednesday, October 27, 2010. For more details please visit the Ranga Shankara site.

Thanks and warm regards,

Danish

Visuals from Alliance Francaise Performance

Ankit and Yojit on their debut regaling the unruly Delhi kids with Amir Hamza and Amar's childhood adventures.

We with our usual business of slaying Azlam Jadoo.

Muriel with her stories from all over the world, and even from outside of this world.

A photo journalist, I guess Rakesh Nair, has documented the Saturday Alliance Francaise performances on his blog Third Eye. A teaser here while you catch the action there.

Thanks and warm regards,

Danish