The Lost Art Of Urdu Storytelling

As we all know that with the passage of time the rich culture and traditions of our country is fading away. One of such cultural art includes "Dastangoi". Last week I was talking to a friend, who told me that recently in Lahore there was a performance of dastangoi, a rich and almost lost art, performed by two very talented artists Mahmood Farooqui and Hussain. The event was held at the Ali Institute and organized by the Faiz Foundation.

The word Dastangoi refers to the art of storytelling, it is a compound of two Persian words Dastan and goi which means to tell a Dastan. Dastans were epics, often oral in nature, which were recited or read aloud and in essence were like medieval romances everywhere. Telling tales of adventure, magic and warfare, Dastans mapped new worlds and horizons, encountered the unseen and protected the hero through many travails and lovers as he moved on his quest.

Dastangoi was at its peak from the late 16th to 19th centuries, spinning tales around the adventures of Amir Hamza. The story was popularly known as Dastan-e-Amir Hamza and was based on the personality of the man who was said to be an uncle of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
Dastangoi was traditionally performed in in classic white kurtas and long caps, and this was seen by Farooqui and Hussain at the event in Lahore. The performance in Lahore was a delight for many reasons. There was the dastan's fascinating highfalutin Urdu, which is one good way of traveling to late Mughal India; there was the performers' tone of voice, which swung the audience between high drama and low humour; and there was the completeness of the actors' expressions, which ranged with emotive ease from the joys of love to the wastes of war. Such events should be held more often in order to revive our rich culture.

Posted in: Ayesha Iqbal. BBAIII