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www.desitalkchicago.com – that’s all you need to know 19 ENTERTAINMENT July 25, 2025 Nikita Roy Sees Sonakshi Sinha In Superb Form A s a film, it is better than good, and as a first film of a director, it is better than even that. To the point, sans melodrama, sans gimmicks, follow- ing a genre and yet not suffused with tropes, Ni- kita Roy is a clever piece of entertainment that balances manoranjan with craft as well as a social comment. Spiritual leader Amardev (Paresh Rawal) has a loyal clientele and followers in London, but Sanal Roy (Arjun Rampal) of the Rationalist Society suspects that all is not above board. He plants Freya (Kallirroi Tziafeta) there as a follower and plans to expose the man. However, before he can do that, he dies an untimely death, after ghastly and ghostly things happen to him. His sister, Nikita Roy (Sonakshi Sinha), devoted to him and then in India, is summoned to London. She point- black refuses to believe that his death was either an accident or suicide, and when Sanal’s colleagues in the Society dissuade her from investigating Amardev, begins her own inquiries, aided by Sanal’s friend who has also always loved her, Jolly (Suhail Nayyar). The first stop is obviously Freya’s far-out cottage, but in front of them, the seemingly-possessed girl slits her own throat. It is now time for Nikita to confront Amardev, who coolly tells her that she has just three days to live when Nikita threatens to expose him within a week. So what is the mystery’s solution? Is it Amardev doing something in the occult department? Is there more?What evil force acted on Sanal and Freya and has now begun to act on Nikita too? A tight under-two hours thriller, Nikita Roy is a vast im- provement on recent (coincidentally) UK-based thrillers revolving around heroines (Savi, Ulajh, The Buckingham Murders) in terms of story and content. It has a neat plot, without loose ends or loopholes, and the only weakness is that the denouement, though sensible, is too hasty and possibly a tad complicated for the layman. In this matter, the scriptwriters including the director err significantly for the Indian audience. Except for this, Kussh S. Sinha’s debut as a director is easily among the brightest ones this year. The cinema- tography (Anshul Chobey), production design (Sunil Nigvekar) and editing (Ritesh Soni) are of high standards, and the BGM (Amar Mohile) is better than Mohile’s nor- mal over-the-top standards. The script is tight, devoid of cliches, and the dialogues sharp and to the point. As always, the songs are forget- table. Sonakshi Sinha is absolutely fantastic in the title-role and Paresh Rawal, sorry to employ the contrasting word, is divine! Arjun Rampal and Kallirroi Tziafeta score high, and Suhail Nayyar is perfectly in-sync as Jolly. In a milieu where overconfident producers have under-promoted the film, one wishes that this movie had released directly on OTT. It deserved much better than the reception it is likely to get and could have been an- other Jaane Jaan (2023) in terms of audience viewership as well as critical acclaim. Rating: ***1/2 By RajivVijayakar Remembering A Musical Legend: Salil Chowdhury Left An Indelible Mark On South Asian Culture T he legendary Indian music composer Salil Chow- dhury ‘completes’ 100 shortly. ‘Salilda’, as he is fondly known, was born in a village inWest Bengal on 19 November 1925; he left on 5th November, 1995. On his passing away at 69, Lata Mangeskar grieved thus: “I could not do more for Salil Chowdhury”, highlighting respect she had for Salilda! Salilda-Latadidi combination of “na jeona” (Bengali) or “o sajana” (Hindi) from the film Parakh remains amongst my all time favou- rites. Salilda was deeply influenced by Tagore; on Tagore’s death on 7 August, 1941, Salilda cried! Salilda said: “that was the first time in my life that I consciously felt the loss of someone close to me! I went into mourning….I used to come to College barefoot…I did not eat fish or meat.” Salil Chowdhury was known for his socially conscious music addressing social justice. This aligned with world saint Swami Vivekananda’s philosophy of addressing so- cietal issues. So, Tagore’s and Swamiji’s influence on Salil Chowdhury is evident. FUSION OF WESTERN AND INDIAN MUSIC Salilda’s unique contribution is fusion ofWestern and Indian music. This made him a world music composer. When I sang “old Hindi filmmelodies” in August 2010 in Kathmandu on the invitation of my friend Rakesh Sood, then India’s High Commissioner in Nepal, the moment I started “Zindagi kaisi hai paheli haye” the 1000-strong audience in the packed Army Auditorium clapped in uni- son. In the SAARCLAW conference in Dhaka in December 1996, barely a year after Salilda left, I noticed huge respect for Salilda; same in Karachi in the SAARCLAW conference that I attended in February 2004. Salida has left an indel- ible mark on South Asian culture. So, Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore and Salil Chowdhury constitute world saint, world poet and world music composer respectively, India’s contribution to soft power. Salil Chowdhury spent his childhood in the tea gar- dens of Assam. His father, Dr.Gyanendra Chowdhury, was a medical officer in a tea estate. Though Salilda’s mother was not a musician, she greatly encouraged her child. So did Salilda’s father who had a collection of westerns classical songs of singers like Bach (1685-1750) from Germany, Mozart (1756-1791) from Austria, Beethoven (1770-1827) from Germany, and even Chopin (1810-1849) from Poland. Exposure toWestern classical music greatly influenced Salil Chowdhury. He used to listen to western orchestral music in gramophone of Dr.Maloni, an Irish national, who was the chief medical officer of the tea estate. WorldWar II (1.9.1939-2.9.1945) and the Bengal famine (1943) devastated Salilda. He was still in his late teens then, having joined Bangabasi College, Sealdah in Kolkata. The British diverted food supplies from Bengal. Salilda witnessed millions dying on the streets of Kolkata during famine. He protested. And became a member of IPTA (Indian People’s Theatre Association), an associa- tion of artists, to bring cultural awakening in India. Some of the prominent initial members of IPTA were Prithviraj Kapoor (1906-1972), Balraj Sahni (1913-1973), Pandit Ravi Shankar (1920-2012), Ritwik Ghatak (1925-1976) and Salil Chowdhury (1925-1995). Even Shailendra (1923-1966), the legendary lyricist, joined ITPA; IPTA gave a fillip to the Quit India movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi on 8 August 1942. BOLLYWOOD BREAK AND PATH-BREAKING FILM After India’s independence, Salilda continued with his musical passion in greater vigour. His best friend, filmmaker Hrishikesh Mukherjee (1922-2006), brought Salilda and film director Bimal Roy (1909-1966) together. Bimal Roy gave Salilda the biggest break of his life. Salilda entered Bollywood in the film “Do Beegha Zameen”, released on 16 January, 1953. The film portrayed peasant exploitation inWest Bengal. Salilda’s role in the film was not only as a music composer, but also as the script writer of a short story “Rickshawala”; Roy enmeshed Salilda’s “Rickshawala” and Tagore’s “Dui Bigha Jomi” to convert them into a path-breaking film. The film remains a trendsetter. It be- came the first film to win the Filmfare Best Movie award, and the first Indian film to win an international award. It took Salil Chowdhury’s career to new heights. A MUSICAL GENIUS AND GURU Salilda was 27 when he achieved this break in 1952- 53. Till his last day he never looked back. He composed music in 143 films, 75 of them in Hindi, 41 in Bengali and 27 in Malayalam. Besides, he composed music in 13 languages. He was adept at playing flute, piano, esraj and harmonium. Both Rahul Dev Burman (1939-1994) and Hriday Nath Mangeshkar considered Salilda as their musical guru. When in creative or personal distress, R.D.Burman often turned to Salil Chowdhury for guidance, despite being the son of the legendary S.D.Burman. Frommy boyhood in Calcutta from 1961 onwards I used to hear “Anurodher Asor” every Sunday afternoon. I used to give marks to each song; I must say that two songs made me weep everytime I heard them. They are both Salida and Latadidi combinations: first: “O Bansi keno gaye amare kandaye” and second: “Jare Jare Ude Jare Pakhi”! As I write, droplets fall frommy eyes. Salilda is immortal! (The writer is Senior Advocate, Supreme Court Of India, former Additional Solicitor General Of India and a hobby singer of time- less classics. Views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at bbhatta@gmail.com ) -(Used under special arrangementwith South Asia Monitor) By Bishwajit Bhattacharyya, South Asia Monitor PHOTO:COMMONS.WIKIMEDIA.COM PHOTO:TrailerVideo Grab Salil Chowdhury stamp issued in 2013 by India Post, Government of India. Sonakshi Sinha and Arjun Rampal in Nikita Roiy.