-Rekha Rajvanshi
When we hear the word Qissa or Kissa, we visualize our nani, dadi telling us stories of their childhood or life time. Now known as storytelling in English, Qissagoi/Dastangoi is an age old art of narrating Amir Hamza’s adventurous romantic tales in Urdu – Dastan-e-Amir Hamza. ‘Dastan’ means a story and ‘Goi’ in Persian means the act of telling. Dastango means the person telling stories. It is believed that a Dastan can go on and on for an infinite period. In 2005, the art of storytelling was first revived by Shamsur Rahman Farooqi and Mahmood Farooqi and his students. Later talented storyteller Danish Hussain revived, transformed and popularized Dastangoi/Kissagoi and took it all around the world.
Danish Husain is an actor, poet, storyteller, and a theatre director. He started his career in theatre with Barry John and went on to work with directors like Habib Tanvir, M.S. Sathyu, M.K. Raina, Sunil Shanbag, Sabina Mehta Jaitly, & Naseeruddin Shah. He was instrumental in reviving the lost art form of Urdu storytelling Dastangoi. He runs his own theatre company The Hoshruba Repertory in Mumbai and his latest productions include plays Guards at the Taj (2017) and Qissa Urdu Ki Aakhiri Kitaab Ka (2017) besides the storytelling project Qissebaazi (2016), and the poetry performance project Poetrification (2016) with the fellow actor Denzil Smith.
His major film work includes India’s entry to Oscar 2018 – Newton (2017), Ankhon Dekhi (2013), Dhobi Ghat (2010), and Peepli Live (2010),Shaad Ali’s film Soorma (2018) Gaurav Chawla’s Baazaar (2018), Navjot Gulati’s Jai Mata Di (2018) besides a cameo in Nandita Das’s Manto (2018).
Danish shared his life and journey along with the history of Dastangoi in his master class on March 8th. A banker turned into an actor and story teller Danish Hussain worked meticulously to pursue his acting career. He has been doing Qissebazi for the past 20 years. His masterclass was attended by Sydney writers, film makers and theatre lovers. Danish gave a detailed history of Dastangoi, and said that this rich form of traditional art, dates back to medieval Iran (Persia). Dastangoi is based on Amir Ali Hamza’s adventure stories, written in Persian in 13th Century.
In later period of 1800s, these oral dastan-goi, or romantic recitation, was enjoyed equally by the royal families and commoners. From the 1880s into the early 1900s, Naval Kishor Press of Lucknow called in the leading oral reciters and got their Hamza stories written down, which resulted in the creation of 46 very large volumes. Danish mentioned that – “Dastangoi often consists of stories of razm-o-bazm , tilism-o-ayyari — battles and elegant gatherings, enchantments and trickery”.
Danish also compared Dastangoi/Qissebazi with other similar art forms, practised in India such as Kathakali, Tamasha, Nautanki, Ramlila (Ram Katha Vachaks) and the stand-up comedy. His visual presentation of these arts was enjoyed by all.
On March 9th, Sydney’s literature, art and theatre lovers gathered at Macquarie University’s T1 theatre, waiting eagerly to witness this unique Qissebazi. Iqbal Barkat, senior lecturer Macquarie University, welcomed audience. Sydney based popular Pakistani artist Uzma Gilani then gracefully introduced Danish.
Danish Hussain appeared on the stage in his customary Angarkha. He sat on an old style Takhat, covered with a gold and red silk sheet, with cushions on each side. A painting depicting Amir Hamza story was projected in the background, creating a perfect set-up of the mediaeval time. Danish started narrating his romantic Amir Hamza text (Qissa), which consisted of many short texts within the text, in Urdu, Hindi and English. He kept the audience entertained with his narration, mixing it with humour, satire and contemporary jokes. He interacted with the audience from time to time, encouraging them to respond to his stories. Listeners clapped, laughed and had an emotional rollercoaster ride through his variety of stories. With his gift of using words, Danish build pictures in people’s minds and grabbed their undivided attention. And audience demanded for more stories after Danish completed his long tale.
Danish ended the show with Mirza Galib’s famous ghazal ‘Maut ka ek din mayassar hai, neend kyon rat bhar nahin aatee’ and people recited with him.
Full credit of this successful event goes to Neel Banerjee of Nautanki Theatre Company and his team, who worked tirelessly to bring this exceptional show in Sydney.
