Hindi
Table No 21: An interesting film to watch
MUMBAI: Table No 21 is one of those films which counter lack of stars and huge budget with a novel theme. The film has just three main characters and a single location, Fiji, offering the island‘s scenic beauty as an antidote to the rather heavy goings-on.
Producers: Vicky Rajani, Sunil Lulla.
Director: Aditya Datt.
Cast: Paresh Rawal, Rajev Khandelwal, Tena Desae.
A much-in-love couple, Rajeev Khandelwal and Tena Desae, are delighted to get an all-expense-paid trip to Fiji on their fifth wedding anniversary. It is a dream offer and soon as they land, they are treated to best of everything: food, wine and a villa of their own. This is not all. There are crores to be made by the couple. But, there has to be a catch. Nobody gifts such holidays and unimaginable sums of money for nothing. Barely has the couple soaked up the sun and sea of Fiji, than they are invited for a dinner by their host, Paresh Rawal.
Khandelwal and Desae are needed to play a game which is aired live on net with millions of viewers logged in. The couple will be asked eight questions each worth Rs one crore. The final question of the game will be a rapid fire round of seven questions worth Rs 14 crore. There is also a task assigned to one of the two after each answer. The proposal looks too tempting to refuse with a Rs 21 crore payoff for the couple. The only condition is if you lie you die. No wrong answers permitted.
Things look simple enough as the question answer session begins. But as the session progresses, the questions get more personal and tasks unexpected; like one task is for Khandelwal to go out on the main street parking lot and shatter a particular car. In another one, he is asked to shear Desae‘s mop of thick hair–tonsure her! Attempts by the couple to get out of the game prove futile. They are trapped and you feel empathy for them while branding Rawal as a sadistic maniac.
By the eighth round of rapid fire questions, there is one question about the couple‘s loyalty to each other and this question shatters their romance, affection, dreams and life. A wrong answer is given and the punishment will be death. One of the two has to die. If one has been waiting to watch where all this was leading to and what was Rawal‘s purpose in choosing this couple, it is time for a flashback into their college life. And you realise why some questions were asked. They realise the past has caught up with them. Following this flashback, the viewers‘ opinions change as does their sympathy for the characters involved. And there is a message to be delivered.
The film has similar theme as a 2011 film Chitkabrey in which more than one couple was facing the same kind of situation.
The casting is good as Khandelwal and Desae make a handsome couple while Rawal is, always in control, holding the narrative together despite its grim moments. His last scene is in total contrast to what he does through the rest of the film, showing his versatility. The direction is good. With just three songs in the film, Mann mera… is the pick of the lot. The film has an effective background score, much needed for this kind of film. Dialogues, mostly hogged by Rawal, are in keeping with the character.
Table No 21 is a decent enough film and its limited budget should see it through if it gets good patronage over the weekend. You may not call it an entertainer but it is an interesting watch.
Rajdhani Express: Headed for derailment
Producers: Manoj Kejriwal, Ritika Kohli, Rajesh K Patel.
Director: Ashok Kohli.
Cast: Leander Paes, Jimmy Shergill, Gulshan Grover, Siyali Bhagat.
MUMBAI: Rajdhani Express looks like an outcome of what somebody somewhere thought had a bright idea! Bring together a variety of odd characters on a train journey and these total strangers decide to play the game of telling each other all about their personal lives!
Leander Paes, the star attraction and a part of the bright idea, a domestic servant at a gangster‘s house, has boarded the Delhi Mumbai Rajdhani Express on a stolen ticket and guns as his baggage. Others travelling in the same cubicle with him are a fashion designer, Sudhanshu Pandey, actress Puja Bose, film writer Piyanshu Chatterjee with Gulshan Grover as the ticket checker. There are also assorted others like a politician, an old couple, a female cop and so on. If there are guns on board, there has to be a cop around too so we have Jimmy Shergill.
The film has no story at all, just events, twists and turns that make no sense. Just about everything in the film is ill-conceived. The Rajdhani set as well as the music and dialogue is poor.
As for Paes, a domestic help is the kind of character you cast him in? That is giving him a bad name besides defaming the premier train service of the country.
This Rajdhani Express is not going anywhere.
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.
