In traditional white attire, a dastango walks onto the stage and takes a seat to present a story through the 13th century Urdu art form. Interestingly, the tales to be told in Urdu are the Mahabharata and Alice in Wonderland. As Delhi-based dastangoi exponent Mahmood Farooqui takes stage with many such surprises at the Jashn-e-Dastangoi starting today, he lays out what it takes to revive an art form.

“Any retelling of events that wields the power to captivate audiences through a simple narration can be presented as a dastan. How is the Mahabharata any different then? It has been passed down generations through simple storytelling. That’s the beauty of it,” shares Farooqui, who is set to return to Mumbai with his troupe after nearly a year.