Mahmood Farooqui is an Indian writer, performer and director. He specializes in a type of story-telling known as '' Dastangoi''. Farooqui along with his uncle

Shamsur Rahman Faruqi Shamsur Rahman Faruqi (30 September 1935 – 25 December 2020) was an Indian Urdu language poet, author, critic and theorist. He is known for ushering modernism to Urdu literature. He formulated fresh models of literary appreciation that combi ...

, noted

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' He was awarded the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Pursakar in 2010 for it. His book ''Besieged: voices from Delhi 1857'' was awarded the Ramnath Goenka for the best Non-fiction book of the year. 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 ''The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi 1857'' is a 2006 historical book by William Dalrymple. Summary The book, Dalrymple's sixth, and his second to reflect his long love affair with the city of Delhi, won praise for its use of "The M ...

'', a book by William Dalrymple. In August 2016 he was found guilty of rape by a lower court, but in September 2017 he was acquitted by the

Delhi High Court The High Court of Delhi (IAST: ''dillī uchcha nyāyālaya'') was established on 31 October 1966, through the ''Delhi High Court Act, 1966'', with four judges, Chief Justice K. S. Hegde, Justice I. D. Dua, Justice H. R. Khanna and Justice S. ...

. The High Court judgment was later upheld by the Supreme Court.

Education

Farooqui completed his schooling from

The Doon School The Doon School (informally Doon School or Doon) is a selective all-boys boarding school in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India, which was established in 1935. It was envisioned by Satish Ranjan Das, a lawyer from Calcutta, who prevised a school mod ...

and went on to read History at

St. Stephen's College, Delhi St. Stephen's College is a constituent college of the University of Delhi, widely regarded as one of the oldest and most prestigious colleges for arts and sciences in India. It was established in 1881 by the Cambridge Mission to Delhi. The college ...

. He was awarded a

Rhodes Scholarship The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...

to read History at St. Peter's College,

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

Dastangoi

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 Binayak Sen ( hi, बिनायक सेन, bn, বিনায়ক সেন) is a paediatrician, and public health specialist. He is the national Vice-President of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL). He is the recipient of sev ...

; *A presentation on the life and times of communist ideologue and novelist

Saadat Hasan Manto Saadat Hasan Manto (; Punjabi, ur, , ; 11 May 1912 – 18 January 1955) was a Pakistani writer, playwright and author born in Ludhiana, who was active in British India and later, after the 1947 partition of India, in Pakistan. Writing mai ...

; *An adaptation of

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are '' Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequ ...

'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 The Partition of British India in 1947 was the change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: India and Pakistan. T ...

; *His latest work is Dastan-e-Karan Az Mahabharata, a retelling of the life of

Karna Karna (Sanskrit: कर्ण, IAST: ''Karṇa''), also known as Vasusena, Anga-raja, and Radheya, is one of the main protagonists of the Hindu epic '' Mahābhārata''. He is the son of the sun god Surya and princess Kunti (mother of the ...

based on Urdu, Persian, Hindi, and Sanskrit sources. Farooqui has, over the years, built a team of dastangos trained by him, including

Ankit Chadha Ankit Chadha (21 December 1987 – 9 May 2018) was an Indian writer, story-teller, oral narrative performance artist, researcher and educator. He specialized in research-based narratives performed in the centuries-old Dastangoi form of storyte ...

, Darain Shahidi, Poonam Girdhani and Himanshu Bajpai.

Books

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. He has also authored a wide number of articles- 'Two Intellectuals of Delhi', in ''The Uprising of 1857'', Edited by Rosie Llewellyn-Jones, Mapin Publishing, India, 2017; 'The Police in Delhi in 1857', in ''Mutiny at the Margins: New Perspectives on the Indian Uprising of 1857, Volume I: Anticipations and Experiences in the Locality'', Edited by: Crispin Bates, Sage, 2013; 'The Mutiny in Delhi through the Mutiny Papers,’ ''1857 Revisited: Myth and Reality'', Ed. By Kirti Narain and Mohini C. Dias, Himalayan Publishing House, 2008; Nirmal Verma Ka Aatmbodh, essay in Hindi on the writer Nirmal Verma’s anti-colonial ideas in ''Nirmal Maya'', ed by Madhuker Upadhyaya, Vani Prakashan, 2006; Contributed over a dozen reviews to Biblio: A Review of Books and to The Book Review Regular contributor to the Indian Express and other newspapers on books, history and culture; Weekly Column on Culture and Current Affairs in the newspaper ''Mid- Day Bombay 2002-7''; among many others.

Personal life

Farooqui is married to film director and screenwriter

Anusha Rizvi Anusha Rizvi (born 13 March 1978) is an Indian film director and screenwriter. Formerly a journalist, Anusha's directorial debut, ''Peepli Live'', premiered at the Sundance Film Festival 2010 in the World Competition Section. It was the first In ...

, who directed the 2010 Indian satirical comedy film

Peepli Live ''Peepli Live'' is a 2010 Indian satirical black comedy film that explores the topic of farmer suicides and the subsequent media and political response. It is written and directed by Anusha Rizvi in her directorial debut, and produced by Aami ...

which explores the topic of "farmer suicides". He is also related to

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Shamsur Rahman Faruqi Shamsur Rahman Faruqi (30 September 1935 – 25 December 2020) was an Indian Urdu language poet, author, critic and theorist. He is known for ushering modernism to Urdu literature. He formulated fresh models of literary appreciation that combi ...

who is his uncle.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Farooqui, Mahmood Living people 21st-century Indian Muslims Film directors from Uttar Pradesh Hindi-language film directors The Doon School alumni Alumni of St Peter's College, Oxford Indian Rhodes Scholars Indian prisoners and detainees Year of birth missing (living people)