HYDERABAD: Dastangoi is an art form which disappeared for a certain period of time, and Shamsur Rahman Faruqi’s writings introduced me to this forgotten art form. I started reviving it in 2005,” said Mahmood Farooqui at ‘Zikar-e-Faruqi’, a day-long remembrance programme for the legendary writer Shamsur Rahman Faruqi.
The memorable day began with interactive sessions about Shamsur Rahman Faruqi and his contributions to Urdu literature. Highlights of the sessions included discussions on Faruqi the critic, his recovery of classical Urdu poetics, his rediscovery of Mir, and his revival of Dastans and Dastangoi by Prof Ahmed Mahfooz, Prof Baraan Farooqi, Mahmood Farooqui, Mushaf Iqbal Tausifi, and many others.
Speaking to CE, Prof Baraan Farooqi said, “Shamsur Rahman Faruqi is one of the leading voices of the 20th century and the first decades of this century. He belongs not just to Urdu but to the whole idea of Indian poetics. Today’s event is a celebration of his multiple genius.”
Faruqi is known for helping Indians recover their lost cultural evidence in the arts, especially literature. He examined why Indians tend to favour the West in everything, including literature, and sought to uncover the problem. He explained how Indians had lost touch with their own conventions and ways of looking at life and literature. “By ‘Indian,’ I meant not just the geographical India, but also Bangladesh, Pakistan, Iran, Sri Lanka, and beyond. In many forms of art, Faruqi showed that India was way ahead of the British, Spanish, or French,” said Prof Baraan.
The day-long session concluded with a performance of ‘Dastan-e Mir’ by Mahmood Farooqui, accompanied by Darain Shahidi. Traditionally a solo show, Mahmood Farooqui has evolved it into a two-person performance. “We are going to perform a dastan on Mir, whose 300th year fell last year. He is one of the greatest Urdu poets. We are here to celebrate the great scholar and writer Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, whose writings helped me revive Dastangoi and whose scholarship introduced us to Mir. He wrote a five-volume study of Mir, a five-volume study of Dastans, and was a towering figure. We are here to celebrate him.”
Since 2005, Mahmood Farooqui has done thousands of shows, trained dozens of people, and created dozens of modern dastans. “It evolved because we are doing a lot of art. I’ve written a lot of my own stories. In 2005, I was doing traditional stories. Now I have written stories on Mir, the Mahabharata, Ramayana, and folk stories. My team is big, and we have a whole range of partition work that we are doing. Language is obviously a challenge because not everybody understands Urdu, but it is also the most widely understood language in this country. From Tamil Nadu to Kashmir, everybody knows a little bit of Urdu. It remains an Indian language, other than English, so that helps us. It’s a challenge because not enough people know about it. We are not making as much money as stand-up comics in English, but we want more audiences, shows, and support from cultural bodies and institutions.”