It takes two

In an unusual style of storytelling, a Mumbai group to perform vernacular classics in two languages

Danish Husain and Saattvik

Qissebazi is an event that expands the idea of storytelling into something that we have hardly experienced before — the same story being told in two languages. Danish Husain of Hoshruba Repertory, who conceived the event, says that the idea was to tell stories written in languages that have less currency in our urban spaces.

Udit Parashar and Mini Nair

“I had been telling stories for ten years with Dastangoi. Then, when I decided to come back to storytelling again, I decided to not just stick to Urdu,” he says and explains, “In urban centres today, there is a homogenisation of language that's pushing other languages spoken in the country to obscurity. We wanted to bring them back into prominence by telling stories that have been written in this languages,” he says. The two languages, he explains, are the core language in which the text is written and the bridge language, which the audience finds easier to understand. “The performance in the bridge language, though, will not be an apologia but a proper one in its own right,” he clarifies.

The show will have stories from Natya Shastra (Sanskrit-Hindi), a Hindi folktale penned by Kashi Nath Singh (Hindi-Urdu), a Malayalam folktale of female warrior Unniarchha (Malayalam-English), and a tale from the legendary Urdu master text, Hoshruba (Urdu) to be performed by Danish, Saatvik, Mini Nair and Udit Parashar.

"Exciting news! Mid-day is now on WhatsApp Channels Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!