Hindi
Murder 3: Poor direction, faulty casting
MUMBAI: Murder 3 is a usual Bhatt brand of film. Expect romance, passion, adultery, betrayal, crime and, often, good music. For want of titles as well as to avoid labouring to find one, the film is titled Murder 3 though, as one eventually discovers, is a misnomer. The film is a legit version of the Colombian film, La Cara Oculta (English title: The Hidden Face)
Producer: Mukesh Bhatt.
Director: Vishesh Bhatt.
Cast: Randeep Hooda, Aditi Rao Hydari, Sara Loren, Rajesh Shringarpure, Shekhar Shukla, Bugs Bhargava.
Randeep Hooda is a renowned wildlife photographer in South Africa. One fine day, a top agency in India invites him to shoot fashion photographs! What caused this desperate situation in the Indian fashion photography scene is left to the viewer‘s imagination. Hooda arrives with his girlfriend, Aditi Rao Hydari, in tow. She can‘t think of a life without him and chucks her career in South Africa.
Hooda loves to be close to nature. He acquires a palatial villa away from the crowds, settles down with Hydari and gets on with his work. He loves Hydari immensely but is not averse to other affairs on the side. Hydari, with her woman‘s instincts, sniffs his proximity to a hair stylist but Hooda tackles her nagging by showing more affection every time. That is when Hydari learns of a hidden vault, a safe room in the villa from the time of its previous owner. It was built by the owner during the freedom struggle to escape mobs in case of trouble. Considering it was made in the 1940s, the vault is a marvel of technology. It has one way glasses, speakers with the whole villa bugged and is safe enough to survive for a long period without the outside world finding out.
Desperate to check Hooda‘s love for her, Hydari decides to hide in the vault. She shoots her departing message on a camera that she is leaving for good and leaves a note for Hooda. She watches as Hooda walks into the villa with her favourite white roses, notices the note and is devastated to watch her message. Hydari is convinced Hooda loves her truly after watching his plight and now wants to come out of the vault and surprise him. Sadly for her, in the hurry to hide, she has dropped the key outside.
Hooda has taken to drinking and drowning his sorrows in alcohol. On one such binge at a bar, totally knocked out of senses, he is noticed by a staffer, Sara Loren. She develops sympathy for him which turns into love and soon she replaces Hydari in Hooda‘s bed, oblivious to the fact that they are being watched from behind the glass. However, Loren‘s stay at the villa is not pleasant. There is an eerie feeling all around, sudden power outages and suspicious sounds from plumbing.
Meanwhile, the police, Shekhar Shukla and Rajesh Shringarpure, are searching for the missing Hydari with their prime suspect being Hooda. Shringarpure has a rather personal interest in the case and for doubting Hooda since Loren has been his love since college, albeit one sided. There are no other characters in the story and hence no scope for red herrings.
It should have been an easy enough task to adapt a foreign film but the problem starts with casting of Hooda as the lead man. Even though he wears an aura of mystery, in most parts he has to romance three girls which needed a romantic image. Dressing him up with a wig for straight hair does not help take away his hard face. The script makes the second half repeat most scenes of the first half. Vishesh Bhatt‘s direction needs much honing yet: an investigating officer, Shringarpure, is armed like a sharpshooter; a picnic spread looks like a small utility store, and so on. Music looks like a continuation of past scores and lacks appeal. Of the two, Hydari has the better part and does well while Loren is passable.
Murder 3 is a no go at the box office.
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.
