Kalla Khan

Kalla Khan is a middle aged folk musician in his thirties. He belongs to the famous musical tribe of Mirasi Manganiyars. He lives in the Barmer city of Rajasthan, and originally hails from the Kosath village of Sheo district in Barmer. He was deeply inspired by the rich musical heritage of his renowned ‘Manganiyar Gharana’ and devoted his childhood days to learning various instruments and folk songs. His grandfather was a Kamaicha player. Kalla Khan has been performing for the past 20 years. He plays khartaal and harmonium along with other instruments like dholak. Besides performing folk songs, he also trains children of nearby villages in playing harmonium, dholak and khartaal. There are around 12 to 15 students in his class at the present moment. He wishes to train more children in the future to preserve and pass on the essence of Manganiyar folk music. He also expects the same from the Government and suggests that it should set up training institutes for children so that they can be equipped with a higher level of learning of music and folklore, and the tradition of folk music does not die. Kalla Khan loves to write his own compositions, but has not been able to perform any of them to date. He feels that folk musicians have not received the recognition that they deserve up to now. There needs to be a platform which can help them exhibit their art nationally as well as internationally.

• Barmer
• Rajasthan