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.
Read >>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.
Read >>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.
Read >>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.
Read >>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.
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