Hindi
‘Miss Tanakpur Haazir Ho’…Gayee bhens paani mei!
MUMBAI: The genres for film stories have become limited after television took over some of them, such as family dramas, mythological and to some extent, horror. In a quest to find newer themes away from regular genres, filmmakers have been trying to experiment. While a few of them do find interesting themes that result in films like Dirty Picture, Queen, Vicky Donor and Piku, most come out as a poor spectacle resulting in the ‘No Audience, No Show’ genre. Miss Tanakpur Haazir Ho falls into an entirely new genre called ‘Bizarre.’
Tanakpur, a small town in UP, has this annual best bhains (buffalo) contest. And the winner is… Annu Kapoor’s bhains, who has come to him as part of dowry from the family of Hrishita Bhatt, his wife. She is crowned Miss Tanakpur. Kapoor is the town head with a sidekick in Ravi Kissen. Kapoor has problems related to sex life and tries various remedies prescribed by a quack he finds at a local fair.
Kapoor is much older to Hrishita and suspects his wife of having an affair with someone younger. For all such problems and others, the town has a kind of black magic man in Sanjay Mishra who is reputed to have turned a perfectly virile man into a eunuch and vice versa, among other such miracles. Kapoor seeks his help to find who his wife is having an affair with.
Mishra is a full blown fraud tantric who mumbles some mumbo jumbo and asks his patron to perform weird and filthy rituals. (That’s the maker’s idea of comedy besides being obsessed with human faeces and animal dung. The film is generously peppered with reference to these substances.)
Finally, Kapoor catches Hrishita’s sympathiser, Rahul Bagga, red-handed with her in his bedroom. Kapoor and his goons beat him to a pulp, with a crowd gathering to witness the scene. But now Kapoor and his men are not sure how to explain this beating of Bagga. Telling everyone that Kapoor’s wife was having an affair with him would ruin Kapoor’s reputation. After all, he was the town head and aspiring for an MLA ticket.
Kapoor finds a way out. Bagga is accused of raping Kapoor’s bhains. The story gets weirder. With Om Puri as the local cop who is easy to bribe and a vet who is too weak to protest, reports of rape are generated and a case filed. The court case begins with finally the magistrate wanting to interrogate the ‘victim’. In the process, some more poorly conceived comic scenes are force-fitted in the film.
There is an institution called Khap, active in parts of North India, whose help Kapoor seeks. Khap considers itself above the law. The Khap sits on a judgements on Bagga and issues a diktat that he marry the bhains for his misdeed. The marriage is being solemnised, when the bhains plays the role of a runaway bride, taking to the highway as fast as she could. Having run out of corny ideas, the makers call it quits. There is no climax as such. You are just told that the wrongdoers, Puri, Kapoor, Kissen and Sharma are booked and punished by the law. Bagga and Hrishita live happily ever after.
With a poor conception, poorer scripting and amateur handling, this purported satire turns into an inane farce. The film has some good capable artistes in Puri, Kapoor, Sharma and Kissen but all are at sea here. Hrishita is in a few scenes and all of them seem to have been taken in one go even before she could change her expressions. Bagga wears a lost look through the film and one can’t blame him for that.
Miracles don’t happen at the box office and none expected for Miss Tanakpur Haazir Ho.
Producers: Crossword Films Production, Fox Star Studios’
Director: Vinod Kapri.
Cast: Om Puri, Annu Kapoor, Ravi Kissen, Hrishita Bhatt, Rahul Bagga.
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.
