Lko to witness ‘Daastan-e-Ram’ in Urdu on October 23
LUCKNOW: An Urdu Ramlila, Daastan-e-Ram, will be performed by a Prayagraj based theatre group in the state capital on October 23. The show will be a perfect linguistic blend of Hindi and Urdu and will be performed in an ancient art form of ‘Dastangoi’, a 13th century lyrical storytelling form with the help of shadow puppetry, Kathak, Chau and Bharatnatyam.
Tariq Khan, a former journalist now associated with project Daastan-e-Ram said the script of Ramlila is written by professor Danish Iqbal of Jamia Millia Islamia and is directed by Mustjaab Mullick, a disciple of Habib Tanvir, who was one of the most popular Urdu, Hindi playwrights, a theatre director, poet and an actor.
Khan said, “Many people say that Ramayana in Urdu is strange, but those who understand the real culture of our country would know that over the years the epic and its episodes have inspired the Urdu poets like Munshi Jagannath Lal Khushtar, Saghar Nizami, Maharaja Prasad Burq, Brij Narain Chakbast of Lucknow, Betab Barelvi, Pandit Kaifi and others and they have written about Ramayan in Urdu.
He added, “Following of Ram is not only limited to Hindus but Muslims too praise Ram. That’s why more than 100 books, which are more than 200 years old, on Ramlila have been written in Urdu.”
He said the Ramlila starts from the Shravan Kumar episode in which we have shown that Shravan was killed inadvertently by Raja Dashrath.
“The daastangoi will be enacted in Delhi, Lucknow and Allahabad after that we have planned to take it to different parts of India,” he added.
Danish Iqbal, who has written the script said, “Our real culture would be displayed in Daastan-e-Ram. Ram is an inspiration for everyone, including Muslims and Ramlila is the best tool to display our culture.”