Hindi
‘Bahubali’: Visual appeal overrides script
MUMBAI: Telugu filmmaker, SS Rajamouli is known for his numerous hit films. He is also known for his penchant for special effects. Indeed, two of his films, Magadheera and Eaga, have won National Awards for Best Special Effects. Rajamouli’s latest film, Bahubali, is a very ambitious venture shot simultaneously in Telugu and Tamil and dubbed in Malayalam and Hindi.
The film is a fantasy that reminds one of Hollywood classics like Ben Hur, Spartacus, Ten Commandments and such. Closer home, it has its roots in epics like Mahabharat: it is about family politics, intrigues, betrayals and revenge.
Bahubali is a two part film. As the first installment releases today, the ‘saga’ will continue and conclude in its second part in April 2016.
The story is a bit confusing as it unfolds. First you try to figure out who is playing who since the cast is all South based. Then you join the dots on relations and later the plot. However, you are kept occupied with wonderland kind of locations created with some imaginative special effects. But, the expertise does not prevent the film from giving it an artificial look, pleasant as it may look.
There is a kingdom, which was ruled by Prabhas. After his death, Nasser wants infant son Rana Daggubati be the heir to the throne, but Ramya Krishnan, Nasser’s wife, wants to play it fair and puts Prabhas’ infant too in the succession race (also played by Prabhas). She decrees that of both the infants, the one who excels in all aspects of bravery and warfare, will be the next king.
Prabhas has been brought up by the childless Rohini. He was found by her people on the river bank. What worries Rohini is that Prabhas is always curious about what exists beyond the grand waterfalls around his abode. He makes attempts to breach them on a regular basis. One day, he finds a mask that has fallen from the mountains from where the waterfalls emerge. This convinces him that there are people across the waterfalls and upon the hills. This inspires Prabhas to reach there and soon he does everything that a film hero is supposed to do: fall in love, kill hundreds of people single handed, go into flashback, identify his enemies, and decide to wait till part two of this ambitious ‘saga’ to get even!
South makers are known to extensively try to work on technical wizardry while not forgetting Indian emotions of which maa- beta emotions are the most prevalent. A la Karan Arjun, where Rakhee keeps averring, ‘Mere Karan Arjun aayenge’, here Prabhas’ screen mother, Anushka Shetty, is convinced, ‘Mera baahubali aayega’ for over 25 years! She is also made up to look like Rakhee of Karan Arjun.
The nostalgia value in Baahubali is that it takes you back to many past films worth watching again!
The script takes a backseat in this visual enterprise. The director is so obsessed with technique that he lets numerous glitches pass where a sleeveless wear turns to full sleeves and vice versa and forehead tikkas keep changing colours and so on.
Musically, for the Hindi audience, the film has one melodious song. What stands out in the film is music composer MM Kreem’s orchestration and the sound design. Production values are of high order. Dialogue is routine while in such a film verbal battles mean a lot to the viewers. Editing needed to be crisper. Background score in good.
Not much to say about the performances as the film is more about visuals, effects and ambition. However, Tamannah is impressive.
Dubbed films with South actors find little favour with Hindi film audience and the response to Bahubali will taper down as it moves northwards.
Producers: Shobu Yarlagadda, Prasad, Devineni.
Direction: SS Rajamouli.
Cast: Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, Tamannaah, Anushka Shetty, Ramya Krishnan, Nasser.
‘I Love NY’: Forced comedy
The title is a bit confusing as you don’t quite know if it means “I Love New Year” or “I Love New York” as it is set in the American city on New Year’s Eve. The film was shot in the US in the days when shooting there was the in thing. What’s more, though the movie has been in the cans for about five years, it sports the look of a film that was made fifty years ago.
The romance is between Sunny Deol and Kangana Ranaut and the age difference between the two is about 35 years! At the time when it was shot, neither was Kangana the star she is today nor was Sunny the star he was two decades back! So, Kangana’s recent success is the reason the producers, T-Series, finally decided to venture into releasing the film to public. It is a written off investment being presented for encashment in any case!
The directors, Radhika Rao and Vinay Sapru are known for their success with directing videos for TV and have also choreographed some film songs. However, they have not been lucky or so proficient in directing movies. Their last film, Lucky: No Time For Love, released a decade back, failed despite having Salman Khan in the lead.
Sunny Deol and Kangana Ranaut end up together though they are from different cities – Chicago and New York. It is new year’s eve and this is a one night story. Though both have their own priorities when it comes to relationships, they eventually end up falling in love.
This is a romantic comedy, the kind Sunny is not quite cut out for. Kangana does okay but here the emphasis seems to be more on Sunny. The director duo is not in their element here. With little known supporting cast, the film has no distractions.
It has opened to a very poor response with shows being cancelled due to lack of minimum mandatory number of audience needed to screen a film.
Producers: Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar.
Directors: Vinay Sapru, Radhika Rao.
Cast: Sunny Deol, Kangana Ranaut.
In a music industry that often rewards speed, spectacle, and instant recall, Navjot Ahuja’s journey feels refreshingly different. His story is not built on noise. It is built on patience, discipline, emotional honesty, and a quiet commitment to becoming better with every passing year. After 14 years of struggle, learning, performing, and writing, Navjot stands today as an artist whose success has not changed his centre. If anything, it has only made his purpose clearer.
For Navjot, music has never been about chasing fame alone. It has always been about expression. It is about writing more truthfully, singing more skillfully, understanding himself more deeply, and becoming a kinder human being in the process. That rare clarity is what gives his journey its beauty.
Where It All Began: A Writer Before a Singer
Indian singer and songwriter Navjot Ahuja’s musical journey began in the most familiar of places: school assemblies. But even then, what was growing inside him was not only the desire to sing. It was the need to write.
Long before he saw himself as a performer, he had already discovered the emotional release that writing offered him. For Navjot, words became the first true channel for feeling. Songwriting came before singing because writing was the only way he could let emotions flow through him fully. That inner pull shaped his artistic identity early on.
Like many young musicians, he sharpened his craft by creating renditions of popular songs.
Those experiments became his training ground. But the turning point came in 2012, when he wrote his first original song. That moment did not just mark the beginning of songwriting. It marked the beginning of self-definition.
A Calling He Did Not Chase, But Accepted
What makes the latest Indian singer-songwriter Navjot’s story especially compelling is the way he describes his relationship with music. He does not frame it as a career he aggressively pursued. In his own understanding, music was not something he chose. It was something that chose him.
There was a time when he imagined a very different future for himself. He wanted to become a successful engineer, like many young people shaped by ambition and conventional expectations. But life had a different script waiting for him. During his college years, around 2021, music entered his life professionally and began taking a firmer shape.
That shift was not driven by image-building or industry ambition. It came from acceptance. Navjot embraced the fact that music had claimed him in a way no other path could. That sense of surrender continues to define the artist he is today.
An Artist Guided by Instinct, Not Influence
Unlike many singers who speak openly about idols, icons, and musical role models, Navjot’s creative world is built differently. He does not believe his music comes from imitation or inherited influence. He listens inward.
He has never considered himself shaped by ideals in the traditional sense. In fact, he admits that he does not particularly enjoy listening to songs, especially his own. His decisions as a songwriter and singer come from instinct. He writes what feels right. He trusts what his inner voice tells him. He positions his music according to what he honestly believes in, not what trends demand.
That creative independence gives his work a distinct emotional sincerity. His songs do not feel calculated. They feel alive.
The Long Years of Invisible Struggle
Every artist carries a chapter of struggle, and Navjot’s was long, demanding, and deeply formative. One of the biggest challenges he faced was building continuity as the best new indian singer songwriter in an era where musical collaboration is increasingly fluid.
For emerging singers, especially those trying to build with a band, consistency can be difficult. Instrumentalists today have more opportunities than ever to freelance and perform with multiple artists. While that growth is positive and well deserved, it can make things harder for singers who are still trying to establish a steady team and sound around their work.
For Navjot, one of the most difficult phases came during 2021 and 2022, when he was doing club shows almost every day. It was a period of relentless performance, but not always personal fulfillment. He was largely singing covers because clubs were not open to original songs that audiences did not yet know.
For a new Indian singer and songwriter, that can be a painful compromise. To perform constantly and still not have the freedom to share your own voice requires not just resilience, but restraint.
“Khat” and the Grace of Staying Unchanged
After 14 years of effort, Navjot’s new love song Khat became a defining milestone. Professionally, he acknowledges that the song changed how society viewed him as a musician. It strengthened his place in the public eye and altered his standing in meaningful ways.
Yet personally, he remains unchanged.
That is perhaps the most striking part of his story. Navjot says his routine is still the same. His calm is still the same. His writing process is still the same. He does not want success or failure to interfere with the purity of his art. For him, emotional detachment from public outcomes is essential because the moment an artist becomes too attached to validation, the writing begins to shift.
His joy comes not from numbers, but from the attempt. If he has tried to improve his skill today, if he has written his heart out more honestly than before, then he is at peace.
Growth, Not Glory, Remains the Real Goal
Even now, Navjot is not consumed by labels such as singles artist, performer, or digital success story. His focus remains deeply personal. He wants to sing better. He wants to play instruments better. He wants to understand himself more. And he wants to become a kinder person.
That is what makes Navjot Ahuja’s journey so moving. It is not simply the story of a musician finding recognition. It is the story of an artist who continues to grow inward, even as the world begins to look outward at him. In an age obsessed with applause, Navjot reminds us that the most meaningful success often begins in silence, honesty, and the courage to remain true to oneself.
