Hindi
‘Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania’…Join the party
MUMBAI: The title may sound confusing. Who is this Humpty Sharma? He is no legendary lover on whom tomes may have been written. It does not give away much except that the story/ scenario would obviously be set against the background of a Delhi Punjabi family. And perhaps that is something about the Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge to it? Why not. After all, Dil Wale Dulhania… was an all-time hit, so what’s wrong with borrowing a bit from there?
Varun Dhawan shyly confesses that he was a very fat child and that is how he was nicknamed Humpty. Not bad considering he could have been nicknamed Sweety or Dimppy, which could be gender defying. Varun heads a gang of three including himself in a Delhi college. The other two are Gaurav Pandey and Sahil Vaid. As in all filmy colleges, you only have a campus with a loosely hung signboard declaring that the premises is a college. He is popular with girls around for no apparent reason except that he is the hero of the story. Despite being in Delhi, for a change, he is not the son of a halwai but, as he says, the only ‘waris of the famous Vidhya Book Store’ which caters to college students’ requirements.
For a change, Varun does not find his lady love from a college coed. She is an Ambala girl, Alia Bhatt, who is in Delhi to attend her friend’s wedding. Actually, no Punjabi love story can be told without involving a wedding. There she meets Varun who wants to date her, which she does not mind until she gets married to an NRI a few week hence. A little net practice never hurt anybody.
This is the first man Alia has ever been exposed to. All her life she has been brought up to believe in following the family tradition: marry the guy dad chooses. Dad, Ashutosh Rana, himself has had a love marriage but since then, he has had a reason not to trust such a liaison. But apart from that, Rana is okay with giving his daughter all the freedom she wants. So she takes off for Delhi to spend time with her friend, Guncha Narula, who is due to marry soon as well as to buy a Rs 5 lakh wedding dress for herself—because Guncha has bought one worth Rs 2.5 lakh!
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Director: Shashank Khaitan. Cast: Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt, Ashutosh Rana, Siddharth Shukla, Kenneth Desai, Gaurav Pandey, Sahil Vaid, Mahnaz Damania, Deepika Amin, Guncha Narula, Jaswant Daman. |
Producers: Hiroo Johar, Karan Johar.
Varun, quite popular in college, sees this new girl in town and as is wont of any Delhi boy, piles on. Alia is the kind who can take a Delhi boy in her stride but quite enjoys Varun’s company. Varun, on his part, has fallen head over heels. The happy days are over and Alia has to return to Ambala as her NRI fiancé is due to arrive. That is when Alia also owns up to her deep love for Varun.
Back in Ambala, Alia has only one option and that is to forget Varun and get ready for her marriage with this NRI doctor, Siddharth Shukla. Varun chases Alia to Ambala only to be beaten black and blue by her brother and his goons. Varun is unrelenting. Shukla is arriving and Rana decides to offer Varun a chance so as to avoid any tamasha during the wedding. It is five days till wedding, Varun’s job is to hang around Shukla and find some fault in him for Rana to call off Alia’s wedding with him. But, one look at the fiancé and Varun loses all hope. He is a perfect stud with no blemish at all. Since Gaurav and Sahil are also with Varun, the fun and repartees continue.
Despite the latter half of the film revisiting Yashraj Films’ all-time hit, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, it is all well done. The film’s writer/director deserve all the credit for coming up with a very plausible take on Dilwale…., with a taut script peppered with witty exchanges between characters. There are some loose ends like disappearance of Shukla from the scene suddenly! The film also has the advantage of some peppy numbers in ‘Saturday Saturday’…., ‘Lucky tu lucky me’…. and a melody in ‘Samjhawan’…albeit all with heavy Punjabi flavour.
Varun along with Gaurav and Sahil make sure one stays entertained. Alia does well, not going overboard in dramatic scenes. Rana is good while Shukla makes an impact despite a brief role. The supporting cast is adequate.
Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania is a joyride for youth and an entertainer that also caters to other age groups. While its business may be affected to a degree due to Ramzan month, it is generally a moneymaker.
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.
