Hindi
‘Sonali Cable’… Stuck in time
Sonali Cable must have been an idea in the mind of its writer-director, Charudutt Acharya, for a long time. Finally, he gets to realize it. Why is it an old thought? Because, cable turf wars are a story of the late 20th century. Providing cable connections was a totally money-and-muscle-wielding business when it started. There was nothing legal about it because there was no control. It just flourished.
Cable was a way to watch various TV channels and infringing on other cable operators’ turf was the norm. It led to gang wars, murders and all such things that happen in other turf wars; after all, it was all about taking over a territory. But, Sonali Cable talks of a later stage. The stage when cable service was not limited to TV channels but also started providing internet connectivity.
The story of Sonali Cable is a two-way fight between a multinational powerful company, Shining, owned by Anupam Kher, who wants to control all of Mumbai’s net connectivity which, according to him, will make whole of Mumbai vulnerable to him!! (There have been weirder ideas!) He has bought over all small time operators catering to few thousand connections and Mumbai is all his except for this one small time network provider, Sonali (Rhea Chakraborty); her 3,000 connections stop him from controlling the entire city. For the convenience of the script, the national service provider, MTNL, is done away with, and so are other poor contenders owned by private companies. It is all about Kher, who walks in like East India Company, and takes over the net connectivity in the business capital of India.
Then there are the emotional angles. Kher’s mother brought him up supplying khakhras in some Saurashtra village. Today, he swears by a khakhra but has no scruples otherwise. The film waits a long while for Sonali to get her own back. Which, by the way, totally ruins the latter half of the film. The shortcomings and liberties notwithstanding, the film loses the plot post-interval.
Kher takes over Mumbai: just about every product is his, and just about every politician is owned by him. But this is the computer era as well as spy camera era. So, like all recent films where the villain ends up blabbering in front of a hidden camera, Kher complies too!
The problem with this film is that the makers, and especially the writer, take the audience for granted. Can anybody monopolise Mumbai? Especially its net connectivity? While some ideas are good, some are farfetched. Also, the film has a Mumbai-Marathi flavour and a generous use of local slang words, which will not be understood by everyone. The film has some good songs. Direction shows promise given a better script (which is also by the director here).
The story revolves around Rhea, a slum bred independent girl running her cable network with an opportunist politician, Smita Jaykar, whose son, Ali Fazal, is Rhea’s childhood love. Rhea does well except when using Marathi slang. Ali Fazal is getting better with each film. Raghav Juyal is a natural. Anupam Kher does one of his quirky characters with élan. Jaykar does well.
Sonali Cable is out of tune with time and, otherwise too, goes haywire in the second half. Faces poor prospects.
Producers: Ramesh Sippy, Rohan Sippy.
Director: Charudutt Acharya.
Cast: Rhea Chakraborty, Ali Fazal, Raghav Juyal, Anupam Kher, Smita Jaykar, Swanand Kirkire.
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.
