“Dastangoi refers to the art of storytelling. It’s a very raw form of story-telling art and equally challenging, which is often oral in nature. 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. While Dastans had many principals and many stories, the story of Hamza began to stand out early on. Beginning with an unknown Arabic version the Persian versions of the story narrated the Life and Adventures of Amir Hamza, supposedly an uncle of the Prophet Mohammed. By the sixteenth century, versions of the Hamza story had begun to circulate in India.

 

Mentioned first in the Deccan courts, the story reached its artistic apogee in the court of Emperor Akbar. By then, specialized tellers of the story, called Dastangos had emerged”, shared Sibtain Shahidi who wrote ‘Dastan-e-Raj Kapoor’. Sibtain Shahidi was addressing a press conference called on Wednesday to inform about the two-day Drama Festival of Vivechana Rangmandal to be organised at Shaheed Smarak on November 15 and 16, 2024. The theatre loving audience of Sanskardhani will get the opportunity to view two popular plays including ‘Dastan-e-Raj Kapoor’ and ‘Dastan-e-Karnaz Mahabharata’ during the festival. The writer was accompanied by the artists of both the plays including Rajesh Kumar, Rana Pratap Sengar, Nusrat Ansari and Poonam Girdhani. The director of the play, Mahmood Farooqui, an Indian writer, performer and director, having specialization in Dastangoi, will join the team on November 16, 2024. Rana Sengar informed that where “Dastan-e-Raj Kapoor” is a homage to the legendary actor and director, Raj Kapoor, whose contributions to Indian cinema continue to inspire audiences across generations, ‘Dastan-e-Karnaz Mahabharata’ displays the dialogues between Karna and Krishna.