Photo: Wolgang Krichner
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“I was preparing my vintage tape recorder
to record him,” says Kothari. “When I turned
around, he was gone. I went to the door and
looked out. There he was, sprinting away. I
chased him and caught up after some effort.
It turned out he feared that if he sang in front
of the recorder, the machine would swallow
his voice forever!”
During the next two years, Kothari made
several trips to Manganiyar country. He
explained the technology of recording and
assuaged their anxieties and lectured them
on the promise of worldwide publicity and a
new livelihood for them.
In 1962, the first ever recording of Langa
music took place, followed by the first ever
Manganiyar stage performance in Delhi, in
1963. But Kothari envisioned taking them
farther afield and showcasing them to global
audiences.
In 1967, Kothari travelled to Sweden
with a troupe of Langass for the first ever
performance outside of India. Acclaim,
interest, invitations and recognition followed
thick and fast. Today, Rajasthan’s tourism
industry is driven quite substantially by these
charismatic performers.
Komal Kothari himself has come to be loved
by them as their godfather. “I am amazed at
how these simple folk have mastered their
instruments, codified their craft and marketed
themselves over the centuries,” he says. “And
now, despite their initial reluctance, they have
quite rapidly adapted to the new potential.
They seek markets, travel the world, deliver
professional performances and handle success
with great suavity. I laugh when I hear of the
backwardness of India’s unlettered masses.”
The Manganiyar
Seduction
The Manganiyar
Seduction
Crew
Sound Engineer: S Manoharan
York Theatre,
Seymour Centre
January 11-14
Head Set Technician: Manoj Kumar Butter
Light Design: Roysten Abel
Lights Execution: Balli Nath
Tour Manager - Technical:
Prashasan S Maltiar
Jamil Khan
Jalal Khan
Talab Khan
Section Two
Hakam Khan
Gulu Khan
Chandan Khan
Barkat Khan
Mula Khan
Section Three
Buta Khan
Kheta Khan
Section Four
Bagga Khan
Mahesha Ram
Kamancha
Dhara Khan
Kanwaru Khan
Ghamsu Khan
Hakkam Khan
Kode Khan
Chandan Khan
Dholak
Mansoor Khan
Bugra Khan
Roshan Khan
Butta Khan
Murli
Achar Khan
Chuge Khan
Kartal
Daewo Khan
Ameen Khan
Shafi Khan
Bhugda Khan
Sarangi
Shamsuddin Khan
Habib Khan
Tour Manager - Artists: Neeraj Wahal
Assistant Tour Manager: Kheta Khan
Chefs on tour:
Sarupa Khan, Hindal Khan, Mushtaq Khan
Sets Constructed by: Design Habit
Produced by: Can & Abel Theatres
Morchang & Bapang
Kutla Khan
Algoza
Habib Khan
Dhol
Joga Khan Sattar Khan Set Execution: Amarjeet Sharma
Assistant Set Technician: Taqmeer
Conductor
Daevo Khan
Vocals
Section One
Mame Khan Hakam Khan Kisola
Jame Khan
Set Design: Roysten Abel
Babu Khan
Swaroop Khan
Conceived, arranged and directed by
Roysten Abel
The Manganiyar Seduction premiered as the
opening event for the Osians Cine Festival in
Delhi in 2006. Since then, the show has toured
throughout Europe and has swept audiences
off their feet from Hyderabad to Dublin.
Director Roysten Abel has transformed
a traditional Indian music concert into
a dazzling theatrical event, placing 43
Rajasthani musicians in a whimsical ‘magic
box’ structure inspired by the windows of
Amsterdam’s red light district.
In The Manganiyar Seduction the musicians
are placed in individual curtained
compartments, which open one by one to
reveal each musician, creating a dramatic and
astounding build-up of musical instruments
and voice. The all-male ensemble spans three
generations of musicians, whose exuberant
and joyful performances are a celebration of
life itself.
About Roysten Abel
Born in Kerala in southern India, Roysten Abel
graduated from the National School of Drama
in 1994 before doing an apprenticeship with
the Royal Shakespeare Company in the same
year. On his return home he founded the
Indian Shakespeare Company with one of his
most renowned productions, Othello in Black
and White, which won the Scotsman Fringe
First Award at the Edinburgh Fringe (2001).
Roysten has also done extensive work with
street performers and in 2005 was invited to
conceive and direct a play on Fellini in Rimini,
Italy. In that same winter he returned to India
and created a play called The Spirit of Anne
Frank, which featured the biggest female stars
in the country. Soon after this he went on to
direct his first feature film In Othello. Recently
he has started to work with musicians and
theatre, creating two productions;
The Manganiyar Seduction and A Hundred
Charmers.
Roysten has recently finished directing his
latest production at the historic Red Fort
in New Delhi, featuring 2000 folk artists,
and is currently in the process of setting up
an international centre for contemporary
and traditional performance, due to open
in 2012. Roysten is also currently working
on The Manganiyar War, interpreting the
Mahabharata through music.
About the Manganiyars
Interview extract with Prof. Komal Kothari,
conducted by D. V. Sridharan for
GoodNewsIndia.com (2001)
A wizened old man plying his bow on the
strings of a kamayacha. An impish young boy
or two clacking away on pairs of khartals held
in each palm. One of the singers is squeezing
a harmonium and belting away. The other
vocalist waits for a cue to join the ride. The
drummer rouses his dholak. The boys rise
on their knees and arc and weave their arms
as they clack on. The old man plies his bow
quietly. The colour of their costumes, the
sounds of the desert, the passion in their
voices and the animation of the boys make it
more than a concert. It is gripping theatre, as
audiences world-wide have come to realise.
To send a Manganiyar group on stage is at
once to evoke India itself.
Strangely, for artists who so visibly enjoy
their act, Manganiyars were obdurate
traditionalists and reluctant to go on stage.
In the wide and desolate country of Sind
and north-west Rajasthan, Manganiyars
have for centuries survived on the patronage
of wealthy merchants in caravan towns.
At times of birth, marriage or any family
festivity, the Manganiyar troupe would be
in attendance evoking the right mood with
songs of the desert and praise of the patron
and his family. The patrons assured them an
annuity and so survived the Manganiyars’
world well up until the fifties.
While their patrons were invariably Hindus,
they were Muslims, though with a twist. They
were indeed devoted to Islam but without any
rigidity. There were, until recently, Shankar
Khans and Krishna Khans among them.
The story of how the Manganiyar craft found
new support in the changing economy of
India, as their patrons’ fortunes began to
wane, cannot be told without getting to
know Prof. Komal Kothari. Born in Jodhpur,
in 1929, Komal Kothari studied in Udaipur.
In 1953, he started a magazine called Prerna
which set itself the task of discovering and
transcribing a new folk song every month.
His family’s nationalist leanings and Kothari’s
love of music and fine arts amalgamated into
an interest in another genre of Rajasthani folk
songs. These were songs created between
1800 and 1942, by common folk of Rajasthan
that focused on anti-British sentiments.
It was this music that opened his eyes to the
richness of creativity that lay undiscovered.
In 1958 he found himself at Rajasthan
Sangeet Natak Academy, and there began an
obsession to record for posterity, many of the
dying strands of folk singing.
In 1960, he ran into Antar Khan, a Manganiyar
in the street. Kothari knew the Manganiyar
culture was under pressure and offered him
the opportunity to record his songs.