MAME KHAN IS KEEPING UP WITH THE TIMES

For the Indian folk singer, Bollywood was luck by chance', literally, while everything else was a part of his plan. Mame Khan charts his journey all the way back to where it began, the currency of the kind of songs he sings, and what it takes to be relevant today

- Ananya Ghosh

When he walked the red carpet of the 75th Cannes Film Festival Mame Khan became the first Indian folk artiste to do so.

"My first foreign concert was in that part of the world. Way back in 1999, I was part of a music troupe that was on a six-month Europe tour. I was then a dholak player. We used to perform across Europe, we covered more than 30 cities, with our base in Brussels," Mame Khan recalls.

Hailing from a small nondescript village in Rajasthan, this Manganiyar singer always wanted to go global. "Ours is a village of singers and when I was growing up, most kids dreamt of getting a passport and doing concerts abroad. In those days, Padma Shri Prof. Komal Kothari of Rajasthan Sangeet Natak Academy was working relentlessly to give the Manganiyar voices a platform, and he would organise and coordinate for various concerts both in India and abroad. In fact, my father, Ustad Rana Khan, who was a legendary Manganiyar singer, had done his first international show way back in 1984," he says.

Prof Kothari was instrumental in catapulting this little boy from Satto on to the world stage. But first, it was a performance in front of the then Prime Minister of the country, Mr Rajiv Gandhi, at India Gate. That was Khan's performance outside Jaisalmer.

Manganyar is a community of folk musicians who consider themselves descendants of the Rajputs. Their robust melodies have been reverberating through the Thar Desert for centuries. The songs, sung during weddings and other happy occasions, are often written in praise of their patrons, known as jajmans, and are passed on from one generation to another through oral tradition. Although a Muslim community, these singers, like the Sufis, are more into spirituality and mysticism and often sing praises of Hindu deities as well.