Mahmood Farooqui
Mahmood Farooqui | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India |
| Alma mater | The Doon School St. Stephen's College, Delhi St. Peter's College, Oxford |
| Occupation(s) | Author and storyteller |
| Spouse | Anusha Rizvi |
Mahmood Farooqui is an Indian writer, performer and director. He specializes in a type of story-telling known as Dastangoi.[1][2][3][4][5] Farooqui along with his uncle Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, noted Urdu poet and literary critic, revived Dastangoi, the ancient art of Urdu story telling.[6][7][8][9][10] He was awarded the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar in 2010 for it.[11]
His book Besieged: voices from Delhi 1857[12] was awarded the Ramnath Goenka for the best Non-fiction book of the year.[13][14] This book is a translation of mutiny papers providing a glimpse into the lives of ordinary people who found themselves stuck during the revolt of 1857. He was also a researcher for The Last Mughal, a book by William Dalrymple.
In August 2016 he was found guilty of rape by a lower court,[15] but in September 2017 he was acquitted by the Delhi High Court.[16] The High Court judgment was later upheld by the Supreme Court.[17][18]
Education
[edit]Farooqui completed his schooling from The Doon School and went on to read history at St. Stephen's College, Delhi.[9] He was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to read history at St. Peter's College, University of Oxford.[19]
Dastangoi
[edit]
Farooqui began reinventing Dastangoi, the 16th-century Urdu oral storytelling art form, in 2005. Since then, he has performed thousands of shows across the world. Apart from bringing alive the old epic of Dastan-e-Amir Hamza, he has innovated Dastangoi by using it as a medium to tell modern tales. Some of his adaptations include:
- A retelling of Vijaydan Detha's Rajasthani folktale, Chouboli;
- An allegorical take on the trial and incarceration of communist activist Dr. Binayak Sen;
- A presentation on the life and times of communist ideologue and novelist Saadat Hasan Manto;
- An adaptation of Lewis Carroll's classics 'Alice's adventures in Wonderland', and 'Through the Looking Glass';
- A collage based on AK Ramanujan's essay, '300 Ramayanas';
- A collage of stories on the partition of India;
- His latest work is Dastan-e-Karan Az Mahabharata, a retelling of the life of Karna based on Urdu, Persian, Hindi, and Sanskrit sources.
Farooqui has, over the years, built a team of dastangos trained by him, including Ankit Chadha, Darain Shahidi, Poonam Girdhani and Himanshu Bajpai.
Books
[edit]His publications include the award-winning Besieged: Voices from Delhi,1857, Habib Tanvir: Memoirs, a translation of theatre-director Habib Tanvir's memoirs from Urdu with notes and an introduction, Dastangoi,an introduction to the art of datangoi, and A Requiem for Pakistan: The world of Intizar Husain, a personal exploration of the literary and biographical world of Intizar Husain and brief history of modern Urdu Literary Culture.[20]
Personal life
[edit]Farooqui is married to film director and screenwriter Anusha Rizvi, who directed the 2010 Indian satirical comedy film Peepli Live which explores the topic of "farmer suicides". He is a nephew of Urdu poet and literary critic Shamsur Rahman Faruqi.
References
[edit]- ^ "Dastangoi is a fun tradition: Mahmood Farooqui". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
- ^ "An interview with Mahmood Farooqui". Rediff.com. 14 September 2010. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
- ^ "Walk Back in Time: Experience life in Nizamuddin Basti, the traditional way". The Indian Express. 29 November 2012. Retrieved 18 December 2012.
- ^ Sayeed, Vikram Ahmed (14 January 2011). "Return of dastangoi". Frontline. Archived from the original on 18 January 2012. Retrieved 18 December 2012.
- ^ Ahmed, Shoaib (6 December 2012). "Indian storytellers bring Dastangoi to Alhamra". Dawn. Retrieved 18 December 2012.
- ^ "COLUMN: Dastan and dastangoi for the modern audience - Newspaper". Dawn. Pakistan. 24 December 2011. Archived from the original on 7 November 2013. Retrieved 14 August 2016.
- ^ "Manhood Farooqui revives the lost Indian art of the Dastans – The Rhodes Trust". University of Oxford. 3 August 2009. Archived from the original on 8 September 2012. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
- ^ "The forgotten storytellers – Culture". livemint.com. 31 July 2009. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
- ^ a b Roy, Nilanjana S. (24 August 2010). "Lunch with BS: Mahmood Farooqui". Business Standard. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
- ^ Yogendra Kalavalapalli (21 September 2010). "Cities / Hyderabad : Dastangoi floors one and all". The Hindu. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
- ^ "Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar 2010 Presented".
- ^ Besieged: voices from Delhi 1857 – Mahmood Farooqui – Google Books. 2010. ISBN 9780670999422. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
- ^ "Stories behind the stories - Indian Express".
- ^ "RNG Past Awards".
- ^ Benjamin Lee, Indian director Mahmood Farooqui convicted of rape, The Guardian, 1 August 2016. Retrieved 5 June 2017.
- ^ Krishnadas Rajagopal (26 September 2017). "Mahmood Farooqui acquitted of rape charge". The Hindu.
- ^ "Mahmood Farooqui rape acquittal 'extremely well decided', says Supreme Court, dismissing appeal against earlier verdict | India News - Times of India". The Times of India. 19 January 2018.
- ^ "SC upholds acquittal of 'Peepli Live' director Mohammad Farooqui in rape case". The Hindu. 19 January 2018. — Link to judgement
- ^ "Mahmood Farooqui | Muslim Voices: Arts & Ideas | Music, Poetry, Theater, Visual Arts, Film, Souk". Muslimvoicesfestival.org. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
- ^ "Book review: A Requiem for Pakistan—The World of Intizar Husain". 13 January 2017.
External links
[edit]
- Pritchett, Frances W. (1991). The Romance Tradition in Urdu : Adventures from the Dastan of Amir Hamzah. Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231071642. Retrieved 19 December 2012.
- Farooqui, Mahmood (Autumn–Winter 2011). "Dastangoi: Revival of the Mughal art of storytelling". Context: Journal of the Development and Research Organisation for Nature Arts and Heritage. VIII (2): 31–37. Retrieved 19 December 2012.
- Ghalib Lakhnavi & Abdullah Bilgram, trans Musharraf Ali Farooqi (2012). The Adventures of Amir Hamza: Special Abridged Edition. New York: Modern Library. ISBN 978-0-8129-7744-8.
- Mahmood Farooqui at IMDb