The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Dastangoi floors one and all

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Tuesday, Sep 21, 2010
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Dastangoi floors one and all

Yogendra Kalavalapalli

The audience slipped into a world of magic, adventure and spectacle

Captivating: The Dastangoi performance held in the city on Sunday.

HYDERABAD: It wasn't for nothing that Emperor Akbar fell in love with the mystic narrative form of Dastangoi.

A good 400 years later, on a calm Sunday evening, Hyderabad took in the medieval oral tradition, as four dastangos (storytellers) endeavoured to revive the dying art form in the land where Deccani Urdu took birth. Like children engrossed in mythical folklore of their grandparents, the audience slipped into a world of adventure, magic and spectacle.

Hamza's exploits

Narrating the legendary exploits of Amir Hamza, the warrior-paternal uncle of Prophet Mohammed, the colourful yarns recount his dramatic, mythical encounters with the dark world of Afrasiab, emperor of sorcerers and ruler of the magical realm of Hoshruba. They are adapted from the 18th century epic Tilism-e-Hoshruba. Dastangoi derives its name from the Persian words for epic (Dastan) and telling (goi). Dastaans are long essay stories that take days and nights to complete… The stories were translated from Persian where they travelled to Turkey, Arabia, Georgia, (and the whole of Middle East) capturing the imagination of people, explained Mahmood Farooqui, a Delhi-based historian.

The dastangos for the evening were led by Mr. Farooqui, ably supported by his companion of five years Danish Hussain, and Rana Senger and Sheikh Usman.

Minimal props

Attired in traditional milk-white kurtas, and employing minimal props, they transported their audience back in time to an enchanting illusory world with their jugalbandi format narration. In the first tale, charmingly essayed by Rana and Sheikh, Afrasiab, on hearing about the death of another of his sorcerers tasks Azar, another necromancer with capturing the wily Amar Aiyyaar, Amir Hamza's bosom companion.

Azar possesses the portrait of a beautiful woman that transforms into Aiyyaar's real form when he approaches Azar in a disguise. The story was about Aiyyaar falling for the trap and eventually tricking Azar to get rid of him.

Dramatic encounter

The second more dramatic daastan was of an encounter between another of Afrasiab's sorcerers, Mahtab Jadoo and Aiyyar. How he beguiles Mahtab's talking birds, created to see through his semblances, and lures the magus into distrusting his own devices, formed the plot.

As the artistes blazed away, delighted wah wahs filled the hall, as did belly laughs. The Dastangoi brought the curtains down on the three-day New Festival at The Park.

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