Writer : Sibtain Shahidi Direction : Mahmood Farooqui Cast : Rana Pratap Senger & Rajesh Kumar
DASTANGOI: DASTAN E AHWAAL E KAPOOR Review
A film studies professor was shocked to find that students did not know Raj Kapoor, except as Kareena Kapoor and Ranbir Kapoor grandfather. With woeful disdain for history, we have let our legends be forgotten. There have been recent attempts by film enthusiasts to correct this, and some OTT projects that delve into our cinematic past, but it is not quite enough.
Story-telling, or Dastangoi, is as good a method as any to introduce a clueless generation to what they ought to know. Mahmood Farooqui helped revive the ancient form of storytelling, the Urdu oral tradition that had faded away after its glory days in the 16th century, and was rendered almost obsolete by the advent of cinema and television. But if a raconteur has the ability to hold the listener's attention, then, as Naseeruddin Shah said at his storytelling show that opened the Prithvi Theatre Festival this year: theatre can be distilled to its simplest form using just words and the performer. Farooqui's Dastangoi Collective have updated the form, so to say, by using Dastangoi not just to tell stories or romance and magic from the past, but modern stories tooâ€"the source may be a work of literature like Alice In Wonderland, or Ret Samadhi, or, like their latest show, DASTAAN-E-AHWAAL-E-KAPOOR, a biography of the star known as The Showman.
Written by Sibtain Shahidi, performed by Rana Pratap Sengar and Rajesh Kumar, directed by Farooqui, the task of encapsulating the achievements of Raj Kapoor is dauntingâ€"particularly since his story starts with his father, the legendary Prithviraj Kapoor, and carries on with his children and grandchildren. The Kapoors are the biggest dynasty in Bollywood, and if just the immediate family were to be included, the dastan could go on for days-like in the heyday of Dastangoi.
There is talent, ambition, father-son conflict, struggle, romance, friendship, meteoric success and devastating loss in Raj Kapoor's film career. For the over- 50 generation, this is knownâ€"a lot of it was fanzine fodder. The younger generation, interested in movie history, would learn a lot. With a family so steeped in cinema, it would be difficult to include them all, so perhaps the near omission of Raj Kapoor's brothers Shammi and Shashi, and his other sons, besides Rishiâ€"Randhir and Rajiv is understandable.
The narration picks famous anecdotes from Raj Kapoor's life, and perks up when the songs are mentioned and sung. His talent, passion and love for cinema comes through, as well as his loneliness and the torments he suffered when his autobiographical Mera Naam Joker flopped badly and wiped out his finances. But, in showbiz, it is said, life is lived from Friday to Friday, and the huge success of Bobby put him back on track.
The studio he built -- RK-- was sold to build luxury apartments. In a country that valued its great artistes, it would have been a museum of cinema memories. So, this is a story that needs to be told, and it is fitting that DASTAAN-E-AHWAAL-E-KAPOOR premiered in the space that was built in the memory of his father.
(Deepa Gahlot is a journalist, columnist, author and curator. Some of her writings are on deepagahlot.com)
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