Motherjane Are Doing It All Over Again With Dobāreh

Motherjane are back. And after everything that happened between Maktub in 2008 and Dobāreh in 2026, “back” feels like a bit of an understatement. The Kochi band helped define a certain era of Indian rock with their mix of progressive rock, Carnatic influences and ambitious songwriting, building a reputation that has lasted well beyond their last full-length album. Now Suraj Mani, Baiju Dharmajan and Deepu Sasidharan are back together, joined by Alan Santosh on bass and Alloy Francis on drums, with nine new songs that are less interested in recreating the past than asking what happens when you get another shot. And they seem to have answered that question pretty quickly. When the three reunited, their first writing session produced “Do Good, Don't Be Nice” in roughly ten minutes. Ten minutes. After years apart.

That idea is sitting right in the title. Dobāreh means “again”, and the album is built around second chances, both personal and musical. The band initially considered calling it Rewritten, but eventually landed on Dobāreh, carrying the idea of a new beginning while echoing the meaning-driven title of Maktub. Then came Kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold. Instead of hiding the cracks, you highlight them. For Motherjane, that became a way of looking at everything that happened between then and now. The nine songs move through identity, home, art, faith, celebration and the business of figuring out who you are after everything has changed. There is even a slightly mischievous side to it. “Gody Guard” takes a tongue-in-cheek swipe at people who seem determined to protect God from everyone else, while “Paint” is about making art without worrying too much about the outcome.

Musically, Dobāreh still has the Carnatic-infused progressive rock that made Motherjane distinctive, but the band isn't trying to recreate Maktub. Suraj describes it as “rock that's reflective and transformative”, while the newer lineup brings its own vocabulary into the mix. There are lush soundscapes, heavier passages and quieter moments, including the deceptively simple “Ode To Life”. “Mahabali”, originally written during Suraj's time with The Tattva Trip around a decade ago, has also returned in a punchier, happier form. The album was recorded in Suraj's home studio in Bangalore and took roughly two years to come together. The result is a record that sounds less like a reunion tour put to tape and more like five musicians figuring out what Motherjane sounds like now.

For Suraj, the road to Motherjane was almost as accidental as the reunion. He was an engineering student when getting ragged led him to start singing. Years later, he walked into a floating restaurant in Kochi where Motherjane were rehearsing, joined them for a jam and got invited to join the band. He calls himself a “listener turned musician” and says he never formally learnt music theory or songwriting, preferring to trust the instinct that got him here in the first place. After nearly two decades away, Dobāreh doesn't feel like Motherjane trying to prove that they still matter. It feels like a band that knows exactly what a second chance is worth.