Ranbir Kapoor sings Kabira with Harshdeep Kaur at Durga Puja

Durga Puja pandals in Mumbai are known for celebrity drop-ins, but Ranbir Kapoor’s visit to the North Bombay Sarbojanin pandal during Navratri turned into an impromptu rewind to 2013. The Ramayana actor, dressed in a red-and-gold kurta with white pyjamas, offered prayers, greeted guests and posed for photographs before the evening took a musical turn.

A song that belongs to Bunny

After catching up with filmmaker Ayan Mukerji, his friend and the director of Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, Ranbir took the stage as singer Harshdeep Kaur performed “Kabira”. Harshdeep carried the more demanding vocal stretches, while Ranbir sang along with a microphone in hand. When the number ended, she urged the crowd to applaud him for joining in.

The moment pulled the spotlight back to the 2013 romantic drama in which Ranbir played Bunny. The original song has a precise set of credits, and it is worth remembering why it still resonates:

• Film: Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013)
• Music: Pritam
• Lyrics: Amitabh Bhattacharya
• Original vocals: Tochi Raina and Rekha Bhardwaj

That song was one of the film’s signature emotional beats, and a public rendition, however casual, is rare enough to feel like an event.

Why fans are calling it pure nostalgia

Reactions poured in under videos from the evening. One fan described the clip as “pure nostalgia”; another called it “pure emotional bliss”. The response is not only about one song. It is a reminder that Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani has stayed in circulation far longer than most 2013 releases, through its music, its dialogue and its travel-mad leading man.

Much of that staying power comes from the film’s packaging: a Pritam soundtrack that runs deeper than the usual party album, a road-trip plot that made travel look like an education, and a restless hero whose journey felt personal. “Kabira” sits at the emotional centre of that story, so when it appears in a different setting it brings all of that context along.

For an audience that grew up with Bunny, seeing Ranbir sing at a Durga Puja pandal also blends two familiar rituals: festive-season filmi reverence and the star’s community appearance. In an era of heavily staged content, an unpolished pandal moment travels because it feels unrepeatable.

From Bunny to Lord Rama

Ranbir’s next screen chapter is more serious. He is preparing to play Lord Rama in Nitesh Tiwari’s two-part adaptation of Ramayana: Rise of a Legend, produced by Namit Malhotra. The cast includes Sai Pallavi as Sita, Yash as Ravana and Sunny Deol as Hanuman, with the film scheduled for a November 5 release.

The puja performance, then, offers a warm midpoint between two very different roles: a last affectionate look at Bunny before the actor steps into a mythological epic. That contrast is part of what makes the clip so shareable: the old self and the coming avatar, briefly in the same frame.

Source: The Times of India