Hindi
An uninspiring historical
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Producers: Ajay Bijli, Sanjeev Bijli and Sunita A Gowarikar. |
MUMBAI: Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey is a documentation of the Chittagong Rising, a local chapter during the British regime in India.
Historical films have no takers in Indian cinema since ours is a history of the vanquished and not of the victors. To choose to make a film on such a subject should be considered risky enough and to be able to justify and finally to make it acceptable to the audience is highly impossible. To add to the burden of having chosen this subject, director Ashutosh Gowarikar opts to treat it as a documentary rather than a compact dramatised version.
Based on Manini Chatterjee’s book, ‘Do And Die: The Chittagong Uprising 1930-34’, the film is a snail paced account of the event that makes one feel even the book would be faster moving than the film!
While the Congress continues its campaign against the British Raj, a group of five Chittagong lads led by Abhishek Bachchan, a school master, decides to chart its own course to deal with the British rather than continue their association with the Congress and its non-violent ways. Their way is to ambush five vital points of power of the local British Administration: the railways, the post office cum telephone exchange, the cantonment, the armoury etc. The plan works alright but due to a miscalculation, none of the British personnel could be held hostage, since the day happened to be a Good Friday and all had called in early. Expectedly, the manhunt begins and all rebels are caught to be dealt with mercilessly; apparently, they may have planned for the ambushes but not for the aftermath.
The first half is entirely devoted to starting from scrap to go on to the enrolment of an army of 56 teenaged school boys, training them (which looks as serious as some kids playing war games!), raising funds to arranging for resources, reconnaissance of targets and detailed planning. This takes its toll on the viewer who would rather get this over and done with quickly.
Also, disappointingly, the execution of the operation, the ambush and destruction of the targets is lightening fast, done like a cakewalk without resistance or dramatics. Post this, the tedium sets in again as the film goes in details of how each group or individuals on the run was caught turn by turn; though they may mean something to the story, they mean nothing to the audience who don’t care if they live or not. Eventually, like it has happened in case of all the martyrs of Indian freedom movement, the heroes are sacrificed at the altar of the British Law.
There is quite an assembly of unknown faces in the cast led by Abhishek Bachchan and Deepika Padukone and they remain unknown since none of them has a scope to stand out by some sort of heroics or sacrifice. Along with few top rung characters, Abhishek Bachchan also has little to do by way of acting and to watch him in dhoti is hardly exciting for his fans. Deepika Padukone is bland.
Direction is lacklustre, falling victim to details rather than coherence and a compact narration; resultantly, nothing in the film evokes either sympathy or patriotism in the viewer. Dialogue is uninspiring and routine. Music lacks appeal. Cinematography is good.
Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey will just end up adding to the big league failure count.
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.
