The following events were held in different cities in the last three months:

Gautam Pemmaraju: The Dakhani language is derived from Khadi Boli, generally accepted as the base language to Hindi and Urdu, and the name by which Urdu was known in the Deccan—it was a proto-Urdu form. Contrary to popular perception, Dakhani developed parallel to the early forms of northern Urdu and not exclusively from it, mostly via travelling Sufis and scholars who integrated local idiom in their compositions. There were many such forms or names along the timeline – Rektha, Laskari Zabaan, Hindavi, Gurjari – for the mixed spoken and written traditions that came into being through the assimilation of Perso-Arabic (and Turkic) influences with the native linguistic traditions of the sub-continent.

IFA: When were you introduced to the language and why did you grow to love it?

Gautam Pemmaraju:I’m a native Hyderabadi by birth. It was the language most commonly spoken, alongside Telangana Telugu, in the city back then in the 70’s and 80’s. From rickshaw pullers, schoolteachers to neighbourhood doctors, the spoken form of Hyderabadi/Dakhani in the city was markedly different from northern Urdu/Hindi. I became conscious of this difference quite early, since I learnt Hindi at school, and of course, like everyone else, watched Hindi cinema and TV shows. The few representations of Hyderabadi speaking characters on screen, including those played by Mehmood, were always off the mark for us; they didn’t accurately or even adequately, capture what we thought to be the charm, the beauty, and importantly, the fun of the language. I love the language because we all spoke it. It was spoken regardless of religion, caste and class barriers. It was our language.

IFA: What aspect of Dakhani do you hope to bring to light through this film?

Gautam Pemmaraju: My film will explore the comic-satirical poetic tradition in Dakhani known as Mizahiya Shairi. Comedy and satire have played a pivotal role in ensuring the survival of Dakhani. The film will also study the complex relationship between Dakhani as a regional linguistic form and the socio-political factors shaping its contemporary use.

IFA: Is the language in decline?

Gautam Pemmaraju: While historically there is great evidence of the richness of the poetic and literary traditions of Dakhani over a 350-year period, as well as its contribution to the growth and popularity of Urdu as a poetic form, it is over the last 50 years that a negative perception of the form has become deeply entrenched. Today, few people appreciate it and fewer still speak it.

This decline of Dakhani as a serious literary form, as Urdu, is linked to the development and sophistication of Shumali Urdu or northern Urdu across Punjab, Delhi and Awadh. People who speak Dakhani often talk of a ‘neechi nazar’ or condescension on the part of northerners towards their language. The Awadh court is recognised to have had a prominent influence on the standardisation of Urdu, and later on, nationalist politics and progressive movements further contributed to this standardisation, adding thereby to this growing negative perception of Dakhani. Eventually, it came to be regarded as ‘contaminated’ owing in part to its Telugu, Marathi and Kannada influences, as well as its relative distance from northern Persianate traditions.

One can speculate that this perception may also be linked to a more general northern disregard for the south – a common feature of sub-continental culture and politics. The use of Dakhani in a mixed crowd is considered to be poor form and indicative of a lower class – lacking the high culture and sophistication popularly associated with northern Urdu. It is thus, through popular perception, north-south cultural politics, nationalistic agendas and other contributing factors that Hyderabad and its language have become ‘comic’ and ‘farcical’. Popular representations by Hindi film comedian Mehmood helped reinforce these images. Although beloved, his sketches of a Dakhani speaking character underscored its comic cadences, and its parodied form came to be the only one tenable at a national level.

IFA: How have comedy and satire helped the language survive?

Gautam Pemmaraju: This caricature of the language as an impoverished, lower class form was embraced by popular Dakhani satirical poets like the late greats, Sarvar Danda and Sulaiman Khatib, and contemporary poets such as Himayatullah, Ghose Mohiuddin, and Mustafa Ali Baig, to name but a few. As others laughed at them, snubbed their language and their ways, they internalised the many slights and this in turn became their artistic voice. This defiant spirit of this idiosyncratic tradition was perfectly summed up by Ghose Mohiuddin, at Zinda Dilan-E-Hyderabad 2010, a periodical gathering or mushaira of Urdu poets from across India, when he said, “Auron par hasney vaalon ka anjaam jo hona so hoga, lekin woh kaum nahi mith thi jo apney aap pe hansthi hain”. (The consequences of laughing at others will be what they are, but the people who laugh at themselves shall never be erased.) By laughing at themselves, they found a means to reactively assert their identity as a linguistic group and as a religious minority in the embattled post-colonial state.

IFA: Is poetry the only form of expression for the language?

Gautam Pemmaraju: No. Dakhani has also found expression in comedic stand-up stage performances that have been in evidence for the last 40 years or so. In recent times, since the success of the sleeper hit The Angrez in 2006, there has been a spate of comedy films mining the comic aspects of the Hyderabadi/Dakhani tongue. Numerous such films have released in cinemas, and there is a flourishing underground industry of low budget ‘CD films’ (direct to DVD), although generally, and unsurprisingly, the taste is towards the more ‘commercial’ aspects. The provincial Urdu channels have also championed the comic-satire tradition, particularly ETV. These films (and stage performances) are inspired by the famous Babban Khan whose one-man performance Adrak Key Panje ran continuously for over 35 years. These stand-up comedic shows are linked to the poetic tradition, albeit loosely. The use of the Dakhani comedic idiom and cadences are a prominent common feature.

IFA: How have you structured your approach to this particular project?

Gautam Pemmaraju: Through this project I hope to broadly address five areas of concern. I hope to examine the contemporary practice of Dakhani comic-satire poetry and to document a wide representation of practitioners and their individualistic styles; to examine the complex and troubled political history of the region, particularly the fall of the state in 1948 and thereby examine the development of comic-satire processes over the last 60 years; to examine the self-image of Dakhani poets and the perceived impoverished and impure value of the language; to simultaneously examine linkages with popular stand-up comic practices found in underground cinema and stage; and associatedly, to throw some light on the literary history of Dakhani and its hegemonic relationship with standardised Urdu.