History
A Tradition Reborn
Explore the past. Understand the present.
Chapter 01
داستانگوئی
Welcome to the world of Dastangoi.
It is an expansive, infinite world which makes you imagine what you thought you could never imagine.
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On Stage
Popular Shows
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Classic
Dastan-E-Amir Hamza
The epic of epics
New Delhi
March 2024
Classic
Dastan Amar Ayyar
aur Mahtab Jadu ki
Mumbai
February 2024
Modern
Dastan-e-Karn
az Mahabharat
Bangalore
January 2024
Modern
Dastan-e-Taqseem
Stories of Partition
Kolkata
December 2023
The People
The Collective
The mentor, the maker and the producer behind a tradition reborn.
Shamsur Rahman Faruqi
Founder & Mentor
One of the most celebrated writers in Urdu - poet, critic, translator and novelist. His landmark four-volume study of the Dastan-e-Amir Hamza recovered the very tradition Dastangoi revives, and he mentored its return to the stage in 2005.
Mahmood Farooqui
Creator & Director
Award-winning writer, Rhodes Scholar and Dastango. Alongside his uncle Shamsur Rahman Faruqi he revived Dastangoi in 2005, and has since performed thousands of shows around the world and trained a new generation of tellers.
Anusha Rizvi
Producer
Writer and film director whose debut feature Peepli Live premiered at Sundance and was India’s entry to the Academy Awards. A former NDTV journalist, she produces and shapes Dastangoi’s work for the stage.
0
Dastangos Trained
0
Performances
0
Modern Dastans
The New Canon
Modern Dastans
Ancient craft carrying urgent, contemporary voices.
Explore all dastans
01
Dastan-e-Taqseem-e-Hind
The Partition of India
02
Dastan-e-Sedition
The Binayak Sen case
03
Dastan-e-Chauboli
A Rajasthani folk tale
04
Dastan-e-Karn
Karn's tale, from the Mahabharata
In the Press
Spotlight
From the steps of the Jama Masjid to the campus of UCLA, the revival of Dastangoi has been chronicled across two decades of newsprint - in India and beyond.
11
Features
2011 - 2018
2011 - 2018
A Muslim woman is telling Ramayana, Mahabharata stories in Urdu. ‘Stories belong to all’
Feature
Mahmood Farooqui returns to stage with Dastan-e-Karn Az Mahabharat
Feature
A unique storytelling performance of epic proportions
Feature
Mahmood Farooqui spreads message of hope through dastangoi in Tihar Jail
7 Mar 2018
Dastangoi, an ancient form of story-telling, is mind-blowing
6 Dec 2017
Dastangoi’s latest: Ray’s Gupi Gayen Bagha Bayen
Feature
Telling tall tales
Feature
Dastangoi is a fun tradition: Mahmood Farooqui
Feature
Mahmood Farooqui brings Indian performance art of dastangoi to UCLA
5 Oct 2012
Dastangoi magic revives lost medieval tales
30 Sep 2011
Dastaan-E-Dastangoi: The Lost Art Form Of Story Telling
FeatureReviews
What People Say
Voices on the revival
The perfectly pitched musicality of the voices, by turns lyrical and humorous; the astonishing plasticity of facial expressions created a vivid theatrical experience.
Wall Street Journal
In His Own Words
Mahmood Farooqui Speaks
Interviews, essays, lectures and recorded conversations - an archive of the voice behind the revival.
Times of India