06 October,2026 07:35 AM IST | Mumbai | A Correspondent
Amruta Fadnavis executes garba dance moves for the music video of Don’t Stop Maari Mahisagar. Pics/By Special Arrangement
Navratri is celebrated with much fervour each year as it marks nine auspicious days of worship of the Hindu deity Goddess Durga. These festivities are synonymous with a song-and-dance celebration popularly known as garba. The music world rushes to capitalise on this mood of the Gujarati diaspora and brings forth a plethora of new garba and Navratri special numbers, hoping to make space in audiences' hearts as the Navratri song of the year and a favourite for every celebration.
But in today's day and age of 15-second reel memory, the competition is cut-throat, with each song striving to sound familiar, staying within trademark Gujarati beats, yet aiming to be different enough to stand out. Amruta Fadnavis's Don't Stop Maari Mahisagar seems to have found that sweet spot effectively.
Having performed and sung previously for Marathi, Banjara, Punjabi, Sanskrit, and Hindi audiences, this time the challenge was to find a voice within the Gujarati community by singing her first Gujarati garba song. The song is a reimagination of the very popular and traditional Gujarati folk song Maari Mahisagar Ne Aare - with a modern-day twist of Don't Stop - a phrase that's popularly chanted all night by garba-playing groups to sustain the tempo of the fast-paced celebratory dance.
The track has been composed by the band Faridkot of Jeda Nasha fame. Rajarshi Sanyal and IP Singh of Faridkot also feature in the fun video alongside Amruta Fadnavis. The song was written and directed by Shakti Hasija and is out on the YouTube channel of Amruta Fadnavis exclusively.
Faridkot said, "It was amazing to see how quickly Amrutaji picked up the Gujarati lyrics without even being a natural Gujarati speaker herself. We even had a dialect expert on standby, but she got the tone, the accent and the pronunciations accurate without much help."
Amruta said, "Over the years I have been invited to several Navratri events but never got a chance to play garba one-on-one with the people, so when this opportunity came I was very excited as it allowed me to explore yet another kind of vibrant dance form that represents India. Before my performance, I took the blessings of Durga Maa and literally felt the embodiment of her energy first-hand."
In the video, Amruta's high-intensity dance and complex garba moves are proof of her efforts to move beyond her image of a socio-political celebrity and be recognised as a full-time artiste who seems to have found a unique way to explore her passion and yet connect with audiences through an embrace of their cultures.
Title: Don't Stop Maari Mahisagar
Singer: Amruta Fadnavis, IP Singh
Featuring: Amruta Fadnavis, IP Singh, Rajarshi Sanyal
Composer: Faridkot
Lyrics: Faridkot, Shakti Hasija
Director: Shakti Hasija
Produced by: Paramax Studios
Presented by: Genesis Waves
Release occasion: Navratri
