Dastangoi - breathing life into a dying art form

A group of modern day storytellers called dastangos are striving to revive the Dastangoi - an ancient art of Urdu storytelling, which has got lost in the pages of history.

Under the practice, two men dressed in white and seated before the audience, start narrating a story that conjures up a magical world of aiiyars or tricksters and magicians who fight with each other, with the former always managing to outsmart the other.

Mahmood Farooqui, who has been working over the past few years to revive the art says, "It has been five years since I began. For my first show, I did not have a clear sense of direction, but I was encouraged by the number of people who turned up to watch."

"We continued to perform dastans, and people listened. I hope Dastangoi makes inroads in the streets and mehfils, and there are dastans everywhere," he says.

Tilism-e-Hoshruba is the favourite dastan of Farooqi, who travels with his companion and narrates in places in Delhi and Mumbai. Translated, it means "enchantment that steals away the senses". This particular narrative follows closely the practice that evolved in the 18th century in India and was popular – both among aristocracy and the lay people in Lucknow.

The most famous dastan version, the Dastan of Hamza was printed in 46 huge volumes at the end of the 19th century in Lucknow. The illustrated manuscript created during the rule of Mughal emperor Akbar takes a look at the conflict between the righteous Amir Hamza and Laqa, who falsely claims divinity.

Danish Hussein, who teamed up with Farooqui for the Dastangoi performance at the Annual Journalism Festival of Kamla Nehru College says, "I joined Mahmood in 2005 when Habib Tanveer introduced me to him in 2005, and it was very challenging for me as an actor. Fortunately, we always found people receptive towards Dastangoi."

"In 1928, Delhi's last dastango Mir Baqr Ali died; I cannot say we perform dastans like the dastangos of ancient times; we do it as per our understanding. We don't know how
dastans were performed, but all we know is that we need to take it beyond."

"It would be fun if there are more dastangos who can recite a dastan and spread this oral tradition," says Farooqi who picked up the Dastan of Hamza lying with his uncle SR Farooqi, said to be the only person who possesses a full set of 46 volumes.

Dastangoi – full of magical wits, which was once popular in the streets of Delhi and the courts of kings, and travelled across continents – went into extinction. "The colonial mindset spelt doom for Dastangoi. They termed it superstitious and people found novels to be a better form of fiction. This degraded Dastangoi and it became extinct. We will perform as long as there is an audience, otherwise we will do something else, just like Mir Baqr Ali who started selling utensils at one point," says Farooqi.

With stalwarts such as National Award-winning actor Naseeruddin Shah joining to promote the art, Dastangoi is set to catch public interest. "He (Naseeruddin Shah) really enjoyed performing it a lot, and if someone like him is curious about the art form it would naturally make others sit up and take notice. But art is far greater than any individual personality, and at the end of the day it is the art form that should work. It's not about one person; the art has to be popular at a very collective mass level," says Hussein.