Imtiaz Ali's 'Amar Singh Chamkila' begins from the end. From when all appears over. Diljit Dosanjh plays the titular role of the enigmatic Punjabi folk singer, Chamkila, whose flourishing career is ended by his brutal murder.
Amid the tragedy, there is a shift in tone as we join the conversation between the police officer investigating his murder and the man who has lost his 'Ustaad'. Chamkila and his wife, Amarjot Kaur, wrapped in white sheets, is a pitiful sight with their blood staining the Punjabi music industry.
The film is an extraordinary record of a man who simultaneously became a great star and was destroyed by his fearlessness. What is most striking about it is that we can almost always see his rise to stardom and his looming downfall, happening at once. There is hardly a time when Chamkila doesn't possess his special charisma, not even when he faces death threats from music rivals and Khalistani terrorists.
This movie does not intend to be a documentary about Chamkila's double-entendre songs which made him and his listeners 'ganda banda' (a dirty man) by the self-proclaimed watchdogs of society. But, it is also a commentary on the society and the times that Chamkila inhabited. Imtiaz, along with script developers, Nidhi Sethia and Richa Nanda, have shown the impact of the insurgency in Punjab in the 1980s on Chamkila's life and career.
'Amar Singh Chamkila' flips back and forth through time and uses archival footage from varied sources, including Chamkila and Amarjot's housefull akhaadas (stage shows) in Punjab, amplifying the emotional connect with them. Some scenes are caricaturish, and it is hard to comprehend why. They don't work, but their presence on the screen is, thankfully, short.
Where the film succeeds, it's not only for its strong script but also for its music and performances.
Imtiaz and Rahman have left Chamkila's original songs untampered, retaining the nostalgia for his fans, and introducing many, including myself, to his music which was made four decades ago. Besides his original song, AR Rahman, along with lyricist Irshad Kamil have brilliantly retained the earthy flavour of Amar Singh Chamkila's music in their original compositions.
The song 'Baaja', with vocals from Mohit Chauhan, aptly describes Chamkila's rise to stardom during the 1984 riots: 'Sakht waqt tha, woh bhay bhayyanak tha..Chamkila chamka aise mein...Chhedta chhabeela, bistaron ki leela...sexy geet gaata tha...(It was a tough time, he was terrified, yet he shone in such times...with his teasing, sexy songs).'
While Diljit and Parineeti's 'live' performances on Chamkila and Amarjot's songs stand out, Rahman's vocals in the Punjabi number 'Bol Mohabbat' leave you stunned.
Diljit Dosanjh is spectacular in the role: electric, vulnerable, innocent, assertive, and everything else he needs to be to capture the appeal of the man who rocked Punjab to its core in the 1980s. He is one of the main reasons that makes the movie magnetic. Parineeti fits the part of shy, quiet, and submissive Amarjot.
Each accomplice of Chamkila, some of them looking remarkably like their real-life selves, do their very best work in a short time. Actor Anjum Batra as Kesar Singh Tikki, the first musician who collaborated with Chamkila, steals the show with his spot-on comic timing and controlled emotional scenes.
The movie's lesson is brutal, sad, and inescapable: Amar Singh Chamkila was a man who gave joy to a great many people but felt very little of his own, because he never accepted his rise from a Dalit labourer to a revered musician. He always thought of himself as a 'servant' of his audience.
"Ek baat Chamkila ki bohot galat si, apne sunne vaalon ka ghulam tha woh (There was a major flaw in Chamkila. He remained a servant to his listeners)," his friend Swarn Sivia (played by Apinderdeep Singh) says in the film.
'Amar Singh Chamkila' is worth watching simply for its music and Diljit Dosanjh performing it. That it looks deeper and gives us a sense of the man himself is what makes it special. Imtiaz Ali brings quick sympathy to Chamkila as a performer and as a man.
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