Netflix’s Amar Singh Chamkila Movie Review: Diljit Dosanjh, Parineeti Chopra starrer Imtiaz Ali’s biopic is outstanding

Language: Hindi and Punjabi

Director: Imtiaz Ali

Cast: Diljit Dosanjh, Parineeti Chopra

For many who are not aware of Amar Singh Chamkila, this Netflix film will enlighten all about this star from Punjab. This is not the first time that Imtiaz Ali had given us a musical. Way back in 2011 he made Rockstar. After several movies which failed, Netflix’s Amar Singh Chamkila is indeed a sure shot success. One doesn’t need expensive sets to make a good film. All you need is a good story. Amar Singh Chamkila was called the Elvis Presley of Punjab. Born to a poor Dalit family, things weren’t easy for him. He and his wife were shot dead in  Mehsanpur, Punjab. His murder is still a mystery though there are different theories around it.

Imtiaz Ali has truly reinvented himself with Amar Singh Chamkila . Diljit Dosanjh performance as Amar Singh Chamkila was impeccable. Starting from his mannerism to his diction and his look, he completely nailed it. His expressions too look so authentic and closer to the character. In a very balanced way, the Netflix biopic has captured the artist and has done justice to his contribution to Punjabi music. It is undoubtedly one of the best Hindi biopics and it’s done with a lot of honesty and dedication using archival footages and computer graphics.

Amar Singh Chamkila is about chasing dreams and how he was so confident about his talent that he was willing to take the chance risking everything including his job in the sock factory.

In Amar Singh Chamkila movie, Imtiaz Ali could tick all the right boxes. From what I understood or rather what Ali wanted to show was ethics is kind of a luxury which only the middle class people can afford or rather try to follow. But for Chamkila that was not the situation. He sang what the audience wanted and there is no denying that his lyrics were suggestive. The best part of the  film is that AR Rahman and Imtiaz Ali kept the original songs of Chamkila and didn’t modify it.

One of the reporters in the film asked him as to why he has a problem with women wearing jeans, when he himself think so lowly about women and objectify them all the time with his dirty lyrics. To which Chamkila said that it is indeed easy for you (reporter) to talk about ethics, but you will never understand where it is coming from and why I had to do it. One truly needs to live that life to understand the struggles and these struggles are real. When one has to fight a war every day to bring food to the table, then ethics automatically flies out of the window. The best thing about the character of Chamkila who came from a real downtrodden family living below the poverty line was that, he never forgot his roots and the people who were a part of his journey.

But never once did Imtiaz Ali try to whitewash the character of Chamkila. He was in fact very honest with the late singer’s legacy.  Amar Singh Chamkila too had flaws. As an audience I wanted to see the emotions of his first wife who was mother of his two kids. How could he just wipe out that chapter of his life. Chamkila mentioned that he didn’t want to go back to that life where he came from, but wasn’t he responsible for the birth of his two children? If he was ashamed of going back to that life, then why did he have two children? He also knew what side of the bread is buttered and acted accordingly. He didn’t hesitate even once to abandon his first wife and give all his affection, love and support to his second wife.

The movie, Amar Singh Chamkila gives a lot of importance to his second wife whom he remarries before getting a divorce from the first. The film starts with Amarjot Kaur (Parineeti Chopra) getting shot by an unknown person right on the head and soon after that Chamkila also gets shot. There are many theories about his assassination and movie tries to find out what could have been the reason behind the untimely demise of Amar Singh Chamkila and his wife Amarjot Kaur who was not only his life partner, but also his partner on stage.

Going to the performances, the movie belonged not only to Diljit Dosanjh whose performance was brilliant and I don’t think that anybody else could have done it that well. But we cannot completely ignore the performance of Parineeti Chopra as Amarjot Kaur. They make a brilliant pair on screen. Both Parineeti and Diljit share a beautiful chemistry. Their looks are also so close to the couple, that when both the real one and on screen one is being shown, you can make out how much attention to details has been paid by the makers including the outfits and the way Parineeti drapes her dupattas.

The story of Amar Singh Chamkila’s rise to fame and then murder takes place during the time of turbulent times of 1984 of Khalistani militancy in Punjab. Many say that the Khalistani leaders didn’t like his suggestive lyrics. Many even threatened him and he had to shut their mouths with money. Towards the end, Chamkila became fearless and he stopped paying them. This could have been one of the reasons he and his wife, Amarjot Kaur were gunned down by the militants. It is an important movie as it shows how art, most importantly performance art can bring about a revolution and influence you the most. One thing is for sure that this biopic made us realise that everything that goes up must come down too and that’s exactly what happened to Chamkila. There were people constantly plotting against him and he paid the price for his success.

Rating: 3 and half out of 5

WATCH Amar Singh Chamkila trailer here: