Hindi
Antardwand: A film for the festival circuit
 |
| (Winner: National Award For Best Film) Producer: Romen Jha Story-Direction: Sushil Rajpal Screenplay-Dialogue-Lyric: Amitabh Varma Music: Bapi-Tutul |
MUMBAI: Antardwand (Inner Conflict) is a story which is more unbelievable than fiction. It is about a practice prevalent in Bihar of abducting eligible grooms by a girl’s family and marrying them off forcibly, locally called Pakrauah Shaddi.
Raj Singh Chaudhary, a Bihar lad in Delhi, has a live-in girlfriend. When he learns she is pregnant, he takes off to a small village in the interiors of Bihar to inform his parents and seek their blessings for their marriage.
Failing to convince his father, he is on his way out of the village when he is kidnapped and locked up in isolation for days on end. Eventually, he is fed on hooch till he becomes unconscious and led through the process of a marriage ritual with Swati Sen, the daughter of the feudal lord, Akhilendra Mishra.
The newlyweds are locked till the inevitable happens – the boy accepts the girl. Some examples of such marriages are cited to prove they work. Here, to make it ‘official’ the boy is finally provoked and manipulated to consummate the marriage, almost as a rape. The conclusion is on a wishful note.
The mainstay of the film is its realistic locations and performances which, to the actors’ and the director’s credit, are uniformly good. Among them Akhilendra Mishra, Raj Singh Chaudhary and Swati Sen are a notch above the rest. Music is purely regional in flavour.
While Antardwand may leave a trail of plaudits on the festival circuit and be of academic interest to many, it has no box office potential.
Tough commercial prospects for Madholal Keep Walking
 |
| Banner: Dreamcuts Producer: Apurva Tank Direcor: Jai Tank Cast: Subrat Dutta, Neela Gokhale, Pranay Narayan, Swara Bhaskar, Varnita Aglawe. |
Madholal Keep Walking tackles the issue of the the after effects of a tragedy on the psyche of an individual. In this case, Madholal, the survivor of the Mumbai train blasts who losses an arm and a whole lot of his friends cum co-commuters.
The first half is about the life of a security guard, his juggling of meagre finances and the camaraderie with his fellow travellers on the Mumbai local. Then a bomb explodes and while all his friends die, Madholal survives with a lost arm. But his whole world is shattered; he has not only lost his job but also his confidence.
The rest of the film is all about his coming to terms with the situation.
The film has a decent first half sprinkled with some humour though it has more of the Mumbai flavour. The details of commuting life and surroundings are well incorporated.
It is in the post bomb blast story that things become drab and tedious. As it were, films made on real life events and news headlines don’t go down well with our audience and a story of one bomb blast survivor hardly makes for interesting viewing.
Subrat Dutta, the main protagonist gives a natural performance, aptly supported by Neela Gokhale and others. Direction is bogged down by the choice of subject. Dialogue is good and witty. Music, as is the wont nowadays, stays within the cinema hall.
Commercial prospects of Madholal Keep Walking are about as much as the worth of yesterday’s newspaper.
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.
