Amar Singh Chamkila
Drama Music Hindi
A humble singer’s brash lyrics ignite fame and fury across Punjab as he grapples with soaring success and brutal criticism before his untimely death.
| Cast: | Diljit Dosanjh, Parineeti Chopra, Apindereep Singh, Anjum Batra, Rahul Mittra, Nisha Bano |
|---|---|
| Director: | Imtiaz Ali |
| Writer: | Imtiaz Ali, Sajid Ali |
| Editor: | Aarti Bajaj |
| Camera: | Sylvester Fonseca |
Guild Reviews
A disorderly protest
What is decency? And who gets to define it? In a country where taking offence and sentiments being hurt has morphed into a crutch and a pastime, the boundaries of what’s appropriate shrink every day. But this isn’t anything new. Intolerance has always been widespread—it’s now just easily disseminated. In the eighties, that’s how singer-songwriter Amar Singh Chamkila earned the moniker Elvis of Punjab. (A line in the movie takes it too far and calls him “the Elvis of Punjab, US, UK, and Canada”, which is funny on another level because, you know, Elvis is American.) It was given for his popularity, for shattering multiple sales records over his short life, but it applied to how society was enraged by the content of his lyrics. A sentiment that likely led to his assassination at the ripe age of 27.
A Spotify Review
Is Amar Singh Chamkila a long-awaited return to form for director Imtiaz Ali, or is it another let-down from the once-promising filmmaker? We discuss the film’s inventive approach to the music biopic genre, if not narratively then at least formally. We also talk about Diljit Dosanjh and Parineeti Chopra’s central performances as the slain husband-wife folk singer duo and address the ‘Hindi gaze’ that Ali brings to this inherently Punjabi tale. Along the way, we also discuss the nature of high and low art and the film’s many defences of Chamkila’s controversial music.
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