IT'S A DASTAN-IVAL!

Alice, Manto, Raj Kapoor, a post-Independence satire. Delhi's pioneering Dastangoi Collective stages four of its celebrated dastans this weekend onwards to mark its 20 years. A conversation with its director Mahmood Farooqui.

- PARAMITA GHOSH

Once upon a time, the storyteller had to be a man of many arts—glib and a deft swordsman, at the very least. Close to the centre of power in an imperial court, his dastan night could be followed by him having to take the lead in diplomacy with the emperor's enemies the day after, and being a soldier too, if such talks failed. Darbar Khan, for instance, employed at Akbar's court, had many such days. He made his way through life with words, one man for himself.

But in Delhi, over the past 20 years, we have come to expect dastangos in twos—two men or two women talking poetry in the idiom of everyday life, staged as theatre. This art form was popularised by actor-writer-director Mahmood Farooqui, and the late doyen of Urdu literature Shamsur Rahman Faruqui, beginning with a performance at the IIC in 2005.

The performances of Farooqui and his 20-member team—the Dastangoi Collective includes seven women dastangos—have always been delightful. Some of its stories are familiar but the performance is always fresh. They seem pulled out from a place of adventure, knowledge and courage. Each time the lights have dimmed in an auditorium, except on the two players on a gadda, the two dastangos have been pretty much the lone centre, voicing and embodying heroes or holy cows; myths; history, recent, past or troubled; before an audience in the dark, hoping the story lands well. Rajasthani folklorist Vijay Dan Detha's stories have been repeatedly performed, as has been a dastan on writer Saadat Hasan Manto.

Excerpts from a conversation with Farooqui ahead of the staging of four celebrated dastans—Dastan Alice Ki, Dastan-e-Manto, Dastan-e-Raj Kapoor and Dastan-e-Raag Darbari—at Mandi House July 18 onwards.