Motherjane band history begins with a band that never meant to exist. In 1996, a professional act pulled out of a festival at St Albert's College in Kochi, and the student who had booked it formed a band to fill the slot. Thirty years later, that stopgap is remembered as the group that taught Indian rock to sound like home: Carnatic phrasing on electric guitar, odd-time rhythms, lyrics about the soul. Two of its songs sit on Spotify's Rock in India playlist today: "Mindstreet", passed around by a generation of fans, and "Home", from Dobareh, their first album in 18 years.

Motherjane at a glance

  • Formed: 1996, St Albert's College, Ernakulam, Kochi, Kerala
  • Sound: progressive rock with Carnatic melody and rhythm; the band has described itself as becoming "a progressive Carnatic rock band"
  • Current line-up: Suraj Mani (vocals, lyrics), Baiju Dharmajan (lead guitar), Deepu Sasidharan (rhythm guitar), Alan Santosh (bass), Alloy Francis (drums)
  • Founding members: John Thomas (drums) and Clyde Rozario (bass), who carried the band from 1996 until 2023
  • Studio albums: Insane Biography (2002), Maktub (2008), Dobareh (2026)
  • Key songs: "Mindstreet", "Maya", "Soul Corporations", "Chasing the Sun", "Fields of Sound", "Broken", "Home"
  • On Spotify's Rock in India: "Mindstreet" (track 31) and "Home" (track 37) in our snapshot of 13 October 2026

How did the Motherjane band start?

John Thomas was the cultural secretary at St Albert's when the act he had booked backed out. "At the last moment, they backed out because there was no cash for a performance, we had only enough to provide them good sound," he told Rolling Stone India in 2009. "So I had no other choice but to form a band and play." He went on stage with bassist Clyde Rozario, guitarist Mithun Raju and singers Nirmal and Laji. A friend, now gone, whispered the name to him in the rush. It stuck.

For about four years the band was a covers act with a revolving cast that included Deepak Dev, later a Malayalam film composer. Around 1999 Mithun missed a gig at a bachelor's party; Baiju Dharmajan was at the party, jammed with the band, and was asked to join. When the singers left, Motherjane played instrumentals at the Ancient Mariner, a restaurant on Kochi's Marine Drive.

That is where Suraj Mani, an engineer running an air-conditioning dealership, walked in for tea in August 2000. Within weeks he was the singer, and soon he wanted out: younger kids, he told the band, would one day sing Iron Maiden better. "At least, if we are making our own music, then we are not replaceable," he said. "I was saying that as an exit line." Baiju's reply was simple: "Okay, let's make a song." Thomas suggested the title. That song was "Disillusioned".

Why does Insane Biography still matter?

Insane Biography came out in 2002 with nine songs. Guitarist Rex Vijayan, then a teenager, played on it before leaving to join Avial. "Maya", "Mindstreet" and "Soul Corporations" became favourites. In 2004, "Soul Corporations" was picked for Geki-Teki Metal, a compilation released in Japan.

The record travelled on sound alone. Rolling Stone India's Bobin James remembered copies being made on cassette and CD in Vadodara, more than 1,700 km from Kochi, by fans who knew only that the band came from "down South". "Among the last few songs we composed were 'Maya' and 'Soul Corporations', and you will see the beginning of the Indian elements in those songs," Mani said.

What makes Maktub a landmark album?

After a few years of stand-in guitarists, Deepu Sasidharan joined in 2005. Back from playing with 13AD in Dubai, he was ready to sell his gear; Thomas talked him out of it. "Sometimes when a new person comes into the room, the vibe changes," Mani recalled. The songs that came next became Maktub, released in 2008.

Baiju had called the first album "white man's music". Now his guitar followed Carnatic phrasing, and Thomas played the chenda, a Kerala temple drum, on the record. Rolling Stone India's 2008 review opened on the "ta-ka-ta-ki-ta" thalams of "Chasing the Sun" and ended: "I would consider us extremely fortunate if another Indian band manages to come up with an album that betters Maktub this year." By the magazine's own reckoning, none did: Maktub topped its list of the best Indian albums of 2008.

"I think what has happened to us is that we are becoming a progressive Carnatic rock band," Mani said in 2009. It was never a strategy: "If it happens by default, we keep it there."

The Maktub years brought big stages: an opening slot at the first Rock in India festival in 2008, headlined by Megadeth and Machine Head, and a show opening for Opeth at IIT Madras. In 2009 they were named Best International Rock Act at the Asian Voice Independent Music Awards in Malaysia. Baiju won Best Guitarist at the Indian Rock Awards for "Broken", a song whose video tells the story of a Kathakali artist and his son. Mani also brought in half-face Kathakali make-up, a way of saying, as The News Minute put it, that they were half god and half human. It faded out for years; in the portrait that leads this article, the current line-up wears it again.

What happened to the Maktub line-up?

It fell apart within three years. Baiju left in November 2010. In December 2011, Mani stepped down with a spinal injury after commuting from Bengaluru to Kochi for rehearsals. "The frequent travelling and the 12-hour bus rides for practices were taking a toll on my health," he told the Hindustan Times.

Thomas and Rozario kept Motherjane going with singer Vivek Thomas and guitarists Santhosh Chandran and Nithin Vijayanath. That band released the single "Clay Play" in 2015 and, with singer Niranj Suresh and guitarist Anubhav Langthasa, the four-track EP 1 1 1 in 2022, produced by Rex Vijayan. In 2023 it played shows marking 15 years of Maktub. Baiju released a solo album, The Crossover, and Mani a solo project, The Tattva Trip.

How did the Motherjane reunion happen?

It began with a lockdown phone call. "I was having a friendly call with Deepu when I said maybe we should get together and play our music and he immediately put Baiju on the call," Mani told The Telegraph. The three agreed straight away. A tour named Rewritten, meant to mark Maktub's 15th anniversary, "took on a life of its own", the band told Deccan Chronicle. With Alan Santosh on bass and Alloy Francis on drums, the reunited band played its first show after 12 years on 16 March 2024, at Bira 91 Taproom in Saket, New Delhi. They debuted a new song there, "Do Good Don't Be Nice".

Mahindra Independence Rock in Mumbai followed that November. "Four thousand people came early just to see us," Mani told ETV Bharat. Then came the 25th Hornbill Festival in Nagaland that December and BLR Hubba in Bengaluru in January 2026. The rule that guides them, Mani told The New Indian Express, has not changed: "The song is the hero."

Dobareh and "Home": where Motherjane stand in 2026

Dobareh, meaning "again", came out on Bandcamp on 6 June 2026 and on Spotify and Apple Music on 20 June. It has nine tracks and runs just over 41 minutes. Mani wrote the lyrics, all five members share composition credit, Sasidharan mixed it, and Ted Jensen of Sterling Sound mastered it. According to Savaal Magazine, it took about two years to make in Mani's home studio in Bengaluru and was nearly called Rewritten. Its central idea is kintsugi, the Japanese practice of repairing broken pottery with gold so the cracks show. In the title track Mani sings: "My kith and kin in Kintsugi / Like clay that gold fills to free."

"Home" is the song that has reached the Rock in India playlist. Sinusoidal Music called it "the emotional centre of the album". It is a slow song about counting down the months to a flight back to someone you love: "I think of home, it's you / Saved up my fare to cross the big blue." Midway through, the tempo relaxes and Baiju's guitar climbs into a long, singing solo. Eighteen years after Maktub, it is still unmistakably him.

"Mindstreet", in its revised Maktub version, sits a few places above it on the playlist. Between them, the two songs tell the story: Motherjane made Indian rock sound Indian before that was common, and came back without pretending to be young again. If you came here from our piece on Indian rock's DIY roots, Motherjane are where that story found its voice. Thaikkudam Bridge, also from Kerala, carried that spirit into Malayalam folk rock. And if Parvaaz's long-awaited third album showed that waiting can pay off, Dobareh shows it too.

FAQ

Who are the members of the Motherjane band?

The current line-up is Suraj Mani (vocals), Baiju Dharmajan (lead guitar), Deepu Sasidharan (rhythm guitar), Alan Santosh (bass) and Alloy Francis (drums). Co-founders John Thomas (drums) and Clyde Rozario (bass) were with the band from 1996 to 2023.

What are Motherjane's albums?

Three studio albums: Insane Biography (2002), Maktub (2008) and Dobareh (2026). The John Thomas-led line-up also released the EP 1 1 1 in 2022.

What does Maktub mean?

Maktub is an Arabic word meaning "it is written". The title song plays on that idea: "I say to you / It is written / And by your hands it is rewritten." Dobareh, meaning "again", echoes it.

Where can I hear Motherjane?

On Spotify, Apple Music and Bandcamp. "Mindstreet" and "Home" are both on Spotify's Rock in India playlist.

Sources

Cover photo: Motherjane's current line-up (left to right) Alan Santosh, Deepu Sasidharan, Suraj Mani, Baiju Dharmajan and Alloy Francis, by Pranav.bhat25 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Motherjane_LINE-UP_2026.jpg). Modified: cropped and resized.