Mahmood Farooqui spreads message of hope through dastangoi in Tihar Jail

When Mahmood Farooqui visited Tihar Jail on Tuesday, two years after he secured bail in a rape case he was later acquitted in, he went with a message of hope. Gardish ke din guzar jaayenge, the mild-mannered film director told his former partners as hundreds of inmates of jail number 1 hung on to those words like precious threads to freedom.

A former inmate himself, Farooqui went as a "role model" in the words of director general, Tihar, Ajay Kashyap, who said to have invited him as an inspiration for fellow prisoners to hone their hidden talent during their time in jail.

Farooqui was there to perform dastangoi, an age-old but dying form of story narration, which he along with his wife, has been working extensively to revive. Titled Dastan-e-Karn, he retold the tale of Mahabharata's most magnanimous character, weaving his web of words into poetry that had visible tones of as many as five languages- Hindi, Persian, Urdu, Arabic and Sanskrit. He portrayed Karn's angst against a society that judged him, belittled him and refused to recognise his achievements because he belonged to a low caste. Farooqui's narrative resonated with the prevalent caste structure, as he drew claps from the audience whenever Karn veered into a defensive argument with the upper caste Pandavas. Every time Karn beseeched them or Dronacharya to wage it out on mettle rather than caste, they cheered.

The inmates heard with rapt attention the conflict scenes between Arjun and Karn, the silence broken only by an occasional whirring of helicopter flying by, or an applause. The highlight of the 90-minute performance was the final battle scene at Kurukshetra, which waged a war of ethics, dharma and karma. The 'Peepli Live' director painted a vivid imagery of the last fight between the Pandava hero and the Suryaputra in Dastan-e-Karn when he was lodged in Tihar for 14 months.

As Farooqui smiled through the standing ovation during the end of his show, he took the microphone one last time for the evening- to plant the seed of hope, of a life that still exists behind the tall, fortified walls of one of the toughest prisons in South-East Asia. "Nothing lasts forever, and no one is incarcerated for his entire life. A bright future awaits all of you. Life hasn't come to an end," he said, thanking his "friends" in Tihar who helped him compose the dastangoi and also helped him "survive" the jail.

EXHILARATING PERFORMANCE

• The inmates heard with rapt attention the conflict scenes between Arjun and Karn, the silence broken only by an occasional whirring of helicopter flying by, or an applause.
   
• As Farooqui smiled through the standing ovation during the end of his show, he took the microphone one last time for the evening- to plant the seed of hope.