Dastangoi is much bigger than me, says Ankit Chadha

By definition, dastangoi is the 13th century Urdu oral storytelling art form derived from Persian words dastan (story) and goi (to tell a dastan). But for dastango (storyteller) Ankit Chadha, it’s a way of life. “I’m a lover of stories and whether I’m performing or not, I like telling stories on my own if I’ve liked something,” he says. So, his time spent catching up with friends and family is often filled with stories. Ankit is popular not only among his coterie but also with the audiences as one of the best and a few dastango in India.

A musical dastan

The storyteller is set to present a musical dastan (other than his famed Kabir) at the Mumbai Kabir Festival 2018. It’s a collaboration called Praarthana with vocalist and composer known for his songs and poems from the Bhakti Movement, Vedanth Bharadwaj. “There is music in the dastan and the sound is so powerful,” Ankit says, “Its theme is celebrating death through the life of Gandhi.” He adds that the narration is interwoven with Bhajans from Ashram Bhajnavali — a compilation of songs by various saint poets that Gandhi translated into English.

“A lot of these stories are untold because we usually talk about the famous episodes like the Namak Satyagrah, Dandi March, going to South Africa, etc. But this is about his innate journey to see God face-to-face, self-realisation, and attaining moksh. It’s called Praarthana because, in a way, Gandhi’s whole life is a prayer,” Ankit says about the dastan, pointing out that Kabir, too, talked about death in his poetry. “One word that sums up Kabir’s poetry is prem (love) and Gandhi’s life is satya (truth), which is also a dhai akhar (two-and-a-half words). And truth is love and love is truth,” he says.

A chance dastango

Becoming a dastango wasn’t the plan for Ankit, who used to write and perform street plays while studying at Hindu College in Delhi before he embarked on this journey in 2010. He is the protégé of writer-director Mahmood Farooqui who, along with his uncle and Indian poet and Urdu critic Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, has played an important role in reviving dastangoi in India in the 21st century. “All of us have our own ways of expressing anger, sadness, joy or celebrating something. I think of doing a dastan on anything that personally affects me,” says Ankit, who receives an overwhelming response from the audience at every show. He says, “So much so that they suggest a dastan theme, which is a great validation of what I am doing,” adding how that’s important for an art form which is dying, unlike films, theatre or music.

To revive or not to revive?

Ankit tells us that there are just about eight to 10 dastangos performing consistently and rues that the form is becoming corrupt. “You need to do the research, weave a story and make it your own but these days many people just wear the white attire, take a text by a certain writer and recite it. I’m not sure you can even call it a dastan,” he rues. Popularising the form is a tricky situation. “Do we want to make the form popular at the cost of compromising its flavour?” he asks. One should keep innovating and let dastangoi grow organically instead of making it palatable to the masses, he opines. “Catering to the masses is not a bad thing but this form is meant to be treated in a certain way. Though, the art of dastangoi is much bigger than me and my individual opinion,” he clarifies. Kabir’s dastan is one that Ankit likes narrating repeatedly apart from Dastan-e-Khanabadosh, which is about the lives of nomadic pastorals. He will soon perform the Gandhi dastan in Indore and Bhuvaneshwar, followed by a dastan on Rahim in Lucknow.

Ankit will perform at Mumbai Kabir Festival on January 20, 6.30 pm at the Spiritual Company, Dadar West