Tracing the journey of Barmer Boys from Rajasthan’s remote village to world stage

MUMBAI: There’s an interesting story on how Rajasthani folk band Barmer Boys was formed. When a team from New Delhi-based Amarrass Records visited the remote Ramsar village in late 2010 to record singer Rukma Bai Manganiyar, they were impressed by a young male singer who had joined her. “Something told me he needed a band,” says Ashutosh Sharma, co-founder of Amarrass.
The singer Manga, who belongs to the Manganiyar community, had performed in and around the Barmer district village, which is at the intersection point of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Pakistan. After a search, Amarrass asked Rais Khan to join on the jaw harp morchang, and Magada Khan to play dholak. They were slotted for the 2011 Amarrass Desert Music Festival at the Siri Fort auditorium in New Delhi and in the absence of a formal name, the title Barmer Boys was given.
The group performed at the Cube auditorium of the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) last Sunday. Sawai Khan has now come in place of Rais Khan, playing morchang and the bhapang and khartal percussion instruments. There was a guest appearance by Kalbeliya dancer Sunita Sapera, dressed in shiny folk costume.
From a remote village in Rajasthan to a string of performances in India and abroad, it’s been a fruitful journey for the group. They were noticed by the masses with the song ‘Pir Jalani’, recorded at the Coke Studio @ MTV series with producer Clinton Cerejo in 2013. The following year, they did a multi-city festival of the US and appeared at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark, an event which also featured the Rolling Stones and hip-hop duo Outkast. In 2017, they joined Algerian singer Khaled of ‘Didi’ fame at the Wassermusik festival in Berlin.
“I never thought I’d sing in the bigger cities of Rajasthan, leave aside foreign cities. Of course, I come from a musical family. My grandfather played the bowed folk instrument kamaicha and my father sang,” says Manga. A Muslim community based in the Thar desert regions of Jaisalmer and Barmer, the Manganiyars were patronised by Rajput families. Their repertoire includes both Sufi kalaams and Meera bhajans, besides songs about typical desert life and rituals practised during birth and weddings.
Manga started performing at the age of seven, often at weddings. Ramsar also boasted of the unique talent of Rukma Bai, who battled polio and rigid social norms to become the first Manganiyar woman to sing in public. She was even recorded by composer Shantanu Moitra in the album Mann Ke Manjeere, featuring Shubha Mudgal.
When the Amarrass team went to record Rukma Bai, she casually asked Manga to sing. That evening changed his fortunes. He recalls, “The real challenges began then. I hadn’t sung in front of large audiences, and there was a lot to learn in terms of how to sing with a microphone and throw one’s voice.”
For his part, Rais Khan picked up beatboxing, a form of vocal percussion that involves mimicking various drums and musical instruments. Says Sharma of Amarrass, “Rais learnt the art from musician Jason Singh, and taught him morchang in return. Sawai Khan, his replacement, learnt by watching videos of Rais playing or beatboxing, besides adding his own touch on khartal and bhapang.” Magada Khan has been with them from the beginning, though he also performs with other artistes like Kutle Khan.
Sharma, who started Amarrass Records with Ankur Malhotra in 2010, says the Amarrass Desert Music Festival gave the band good exposure which bolstered their confidence. Malian artistes like singer-guitarist Vieux Farka Toure and Madou Sidiki Diabate, who plays the West African stringed instrument kora, were part of the line-up. Many music lovers had gathered to hear them, along with Sindhi sarangi exponent Lakha Khan and singer Nihal Khan. Some of the Barmer Boys renditions were featured on the album Live At Amarrass Desert Music Festival 2011.
Once they had established themselves on the live circuit, the next step was to record albums. The first one, At Home, was recorded at their homes when the temperature was 43 degrees Centigrade. “All plastic and batteries were destroyed,” says Sharma. The 2012 record had the song ‘Moomal’, which was about a desert woman.
The second album Kesariya Balm was released in 2017. “It’s Balm, not Kesariya Baalam,” insists Sharma. “We chose the name to show that folk music has a soothing effect. We even designed the album cover to depict a bottle like Tiger Balm. In fact, we avoided the popular song ‘Kesariya Baalam’ as so many people have recorded it,” he adds. The tracks on the album include ‘Bole To Mitho Laage’, ‘Vaari Jaoon’, ‘Padosan’ and ‘Ranaji’ besides their own interpretation of the Sufiana song ‘Allah Hu’.
All these songs formed part of their set at the recent performance in Mumbai, with Sunita doing her dance on the traditional ‘Ghoomer’, ‘Padosan’ and ‘Paan Khilado’. The songs were announced by Sawai, who also had a sawaal-jawaab session with Magada. Manga restricted himself to singing duties. Needless to say, his magical voice and tremendous range drove the magic.