Creating the literature
while performing
They sit down on the mat with beautiful poise and relaxed
manner, eyes lit up with the wisdom of the stories and tales of
varied lives…they bring to life the world of great legendary
STORIES.
Difference between Dastangoi
and storytelling..
It is difficult to draw a line
Creating the literature
while performing
WORDS BY RAKHEE KAUSHIK
between storytelling and
How exactly a Dastango performance in these forms
perform..The Dastango though; the performance of a
requires no performance scene from the Ramayana is also
paraphernalia while
performing. No props! No
glitzy costumes! Mostly,
the stage is bare except for
a cushioned mat and a
couple of bolsters that also
in whites and subtle
colours. Dastango (
storytellers) walk in,
dressed in raffish, stylish
yet simple attire of white
kurtas and flared pyjamas
( a traditional attire),
evoking an ambience of a
poetic, Sufism romantic
background and also that
of being somewhere in the
19th century qasbah (a
predominantly Muslim
urban area in north India).
And once they start
performing, they sit
down on the mat with
beautiful poise and
relaxed manner eyes lit
up with the wisdom of
the stories and tales of
varied lives…they bring
to life the world of great
legendary hero of the
medieval age, Amir
Hamza! Now in
present times, they are
also
the telling of a story. Originally
Dastangoi meant performing on
the original stories of Dastan-e-
Amir Hamza.
While storytelling disappeared,
not able to get its much deserved
recognition of a valid cultural
artifact, theatres and other forms
of mediums based on
storytelling survived and
flourished.
The art form reached
its zenith in the Indian sub-
continent in the 19th century and
is said to have died with the
narrating/performing demise of Mir Baqar Ali in
other legendary writers 1928. But now it’s back in the
like Manto, Ismat mainstream, There are various
Chugtai, Nirmal artists who have played
Verma…. significant roles in its revival in
the 21st century.
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