Articles

The Pioneer · Feb 10, 2026

Stage as life

By Saimi Sattar

Dastan-e Karn Az Mahabharata by MAHMOOD FAROOQUI was not just a tale of the character but also represented the artist’s real-life experience, says Saimi Sattar. Farooqui managed to create a rich tapestry of languages by virtue of which he sketched pictures across the stage. One moment he would be chanting a shlok from the Gita and the next with equal finesse, he would shift onto an 'aayat' from the Qur’an, without so much as missing a consonant.

DNA · Mar 18, 2018

Dastangoi performer Mahmood Farooqui returns to stage with Dastan-e-Karn Az Mahabharat

By Heena Khandelwal

Director Mahmood Farooqui has received his fair share of bouquets and bric-a-bracs over the last decade or so. In 2005, he reinvented and revived dastangoi - an art form of Urdu oral storytelling from the 16th-century, rendered dead for a while - with his uncle Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, an Indian poet and Urdu critic. Farooqui has he spread the artform across the Indian subcontinent alongside his performances in Michigan and Berkeley, where he was a scholar.

The Hindu · Mar 07, 2018

A unique storytelling performance of epic proportions

By Jaideep Deo Bhanj

Celebrated dastango Mahmood Farooqui takes the stage to deliver a recitation of the Mahabharata - primarily in Urdu, Dastangoi style.

DNA · Mar 07, 2018

Mahmood Farooqui spreads message of hope through dastangoi in Tihar Jail

By Chhavi Bhatia

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 recognize 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.

Daily O · Feb 28, 2018

Homage to Muslim dada, the dastango from my past, who knew a bit of magic

By Suhayl Abidi

Dastangoi, the art of storytelling that was a favourite pastime before the advent of radio and television, has recently seen a revival, largely reinvented by Mahmood Farooqui.

The Siasat Daily · Jan 31, 2018

Mahmood Farooqui reinterprets Mahabharata in Urdu

After spending three years in Tihar Jail, co-director of Peepli Live Mahmood Farooqui is returning to theatre. Mahmood Farooqui has breathed life into the extinct art of storytelling in Urdu. He has narrated a number of dastans. This time, he has reinterpreted the Mahabharata as Daastaan-e-Karn.

The Asian Age · Dec 06, 2017

Dastangoi, an ancient form of story-telling, is mind-blowing

By Kavita Nagpal

Dastangoi started by Mahmood Farooqui and Anusha Rizvi was a mind-blowing experience. Here were two young men sitting on a dais wearing white clothes with a white topi and bowls and glasses of water on the sides, as they performed Dastangoi as explained in the opening by Mahmood Farooqui, who is responsible for the light of day this ancient form of storytelling, has seen. He actually found the book Tilism-e-Hoshruba from where the fantastic tales they recite are taken. Now this is not a male domain anymore, with women and girls also becoming Dastangos.

Medium · Apr 05, 2016

Review of Dastan-e-Sedition : Designed by Mahmood Farooqui

By Raghav Sen

Essentially an oral tradition of narrative storytelling dating back to at least 16th Century, Dastangoi (Dastan: Story. Goi: to tell a dastan) had once been hugely popular in the Indian subcontinent, with records hinting that it had been a personal favourite of someone as medieval as Emperor Akbar and someone as modern as Mirza Ghalib.

YourStory · May 06, 2015

Dastangoi - the ancient art of Urdu storytelling, on the road to revival in India

By Sourav Roy

The art form originated in pre-Islamic Arabia, and was extremely popular between sixteenth and nineteenth century in India, especially among the rich elites and commoners of Delhi and Lucknow. Over the early twentieth century, with shrinking audience and even less dastangos, the art died down. The last known dastango was Mir Baqar Ali, who passed away in 1928.

Business Standard · Oct 18, 2014

Alice in dastangoi

By Avantika Bhuyan

Alice no longer lives in a land far far away but in our very own Delhi with a studious elder sister and raven black cat, Kitty. All this and much more happens in Dastan Alice Ki, an adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. This is writer and dastango Mahmood Farooqui's attempt to draw children to dastangoi, a style of storytelling that dates back to the 16th century.

The Indian Express · Oct 08, 2014

Dastangoi: Ray’s Gupi Gayen Bagha Bayen

By Sumegha Gulati

After making its foray into children’s genre with ‘Dastan Alice Ki’ last month, team Dastangoi is now ready with its first adaptation of a children’s film which will be performed at the India Habitat Centre’s Old World Theatre Festival next week. Based on Satyajit Ray’s 1969 film ‘Gupi Gayen Bagha Bayen’, the story is about two village bumpkins who are given incredible boons by bhooton ka raja (the king of ghosts). “Just think of it, bhoot, raja. Where can imagination take it,” dastango Mahmood Farooqui, who adapted the film into a dastan, said.

Grist Media · Sep 01, 2014

What Happens When Two Fantasy Worlds Collide in Connaught Place

By Mridula Koshy

They stand and take each other’s measure. Hands are placed over opposite heads and a delightful discovery is made: they are ‘barabar.’ Neither one is taller or shorter than the other. They might be strangers with similar tastes (both are dressed in lime green shirts), who fell into quick friendship while waiting in line in the cramped and grimy stairwell outside The Attic, New Delhi, an hour before writer and director Mahmood Farooqui was to lift the curtain on his Dastan Alice Ki. Then again, they might be old friends meeting after the passage of time - say a day or two - time enough to grow.

The Hindu · Aug 16, 2013

Telling tall tales

By Budhaditya Bhattacharya

Historian, translator and Dastango Mahmood Farooqui talks about the revival of the lost form of storytelling and why, despite its marginalisation, Urdu enjoys immense prestige even today.

Daily Bruin · Oct 05, 2012

Mahmood Farooqui brings Indian performace art of dastangoi to UCLA

By Leah Christianson

Dastangoi was once the thriving art of Urdu storytelling in India. Its last great practitioner died in 1928, but it has recently regained critical acclaim due to the work of distinguished scholar, filmmaker and performance artist, Mahmood Farooqui.

Feb 29, 2012

Dastaan-e-Ghare Baire

By secondsaturn

Dastan storytellers come from the culture that tries to seek a public space, a cultural unity that cuts across specific cultures in India despite using a very culturally rooted tool of the Dastangoi. Theirs is a format which is closer to cinema in India and hence as a theme they could handle Ghare Baire far better than what Ray did. Kudos !! Congrats !! Thanks to them I understand Ghare Baire and Tagore much better than before.

Reuters · Sep 30, 2011

Dastangoi magic revives lost medieval tales

By Arnika Thakur

It’s the lost art of Dastangoi, storytelling based on medieval Urdu tales, brought back to life by two men determined to pass this ancient art form on to future generations - and not doing badly, if the spellbound response of audiences from New Delhi to New York is a guide.

ETimes · Jul 29, 2011

Dastangoi is a fun tradition: Mahmood Farooqui

By Anuradha Varma

Long before films and theatre, there was dastangoi, the medieval art of storytelling, which dove into the world of fantasy and sorcery.