Navratri feels energetic : Pratik Gandhi

For

Pratik Gandhi

and

Bhamini Oza Gandhi

, “Navratri feels like the most energetic time of the year.” While the actor couple has been living in Mumbai after tying the knot in 2008, Pratik still misses Surat’s garbas. Talking about how they plan to celebrate the festival this year, the couple says, “We want to play garba and while it’s no longer possible for us to celebrate the festival on all the days, we will certainly visit a few venues.

Our friends like Bhoomi Trivedi, Parthiv Gohil and Manasi Parekh perform in Mumbai duringNavratri and it gives us great joy to groove to their songs.” Excerpts from a chat:

‘Surat’s sheri garbas have the cosiest set-up ever’

Pratik:

My fatherwas a big garba lover and like him, I also love prachin

garba songs. I have some fantastic Navratri memories from my student days in Surat. We had a group of 25 friends, and we would visit multiple venues together every day. I was always keen on learning new garba steps and we would play till 2am. I think Surat’s sheri

garbas have the cosiest set-up ever and I prefer sheri garbas over the ticketed events at big venues. Unfortunately, Bhamini has not experienced Surat’s garbas and together, we have always celebrated the festival in Mumbai. I remember promoting my film Wrong Side Raju at a garba venue in Vadodara during Navratri and it was just magical.

Bhamini:

I think Pratikand Iplayed garba together for the first time in 2015. Like him, I also don’t enjoy playing garba at huge venues and I am a fan of cosy set-ups at housing societies. Like my parents, I love old garba songs. The sight of so many people dancing together has always fascinated me. As a kid, I would go out with friends to play garba at different housing societies and our parents would chase us, so that we could go home early. Lekin hum log bhaag jaate thay, and we would play garba till at least 1.30am. While there are strict deadlines now, people would celebrate till the wee hours earlier and it used to be great fun. I also love how everyone at different housing societies sits together and there is a feast daily.

‘We love wearing traditional outfits during Navratri’

Pratik:

I love wearing kurtas as well as shirts and it’s always fun to do mix and match when it comes to choosing Navratri outfits.

Bhamini:

I never fall into the trap of buying different outfits for the nine days because we play garba only for a couple of days. Although I was born and brought up in Mumbai, I am from Rajasthan and I love wearing our colourful traditional

ghagras during the festival.

Some of Pratik & Bhamini’s favourite garba songs:

Poonam Ni Pyari Pyari Raat
Jhulan Morli
Amba Re Amba

All songs from the film Hellaro
Gori Radha Ne Kalo Kaan