Amar Singh Chamkila Movie Review: Whatever he heard and saw, he just gave it the form of a song. Vulgarity is a part of the society. There is no dearth of people who like it. By accepting this fact completely, Amar Singh Chamkila did the work of showing the mirror of that part of the society, about which people do not want to talk openly.
Many times, even after accepting the truth, the society is unable to accept that whatever is being served to them is actually their demand. Before Amar Singh Chamkila, his contemporaries and people after him also did the same. Supply according to demand. The only difference was that whatever Amar Singh Chamkila supplied according to the demand, he did it in a much better way. As a result, he was murdered. This is the story of Imtiaz Ali’s ‘Amar Singh Chamkila’.
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Story:
The story is about a person who is at the lowest rung of society. The efforts being made to bring democracy, equality, and equanimity with the help of the country’s constitution are being made for the same person standing at the lowest rung, about whom this film talks.
The story is about a man born in a small village of Punjab in a lower caste. Before becoming ‘Chamkila’, he was Dhaniram. He used to make socks. But the desire to live along with the passion of writing and singing songs made him Chamkila.
For this, he gave the audience what it wanted. From truck drivers to farmers from villages, crowds invited him to the arenas. The achievement was such that during ‘Operation Blue Star’, Chamkila became the biggest source of entertainment in Punjab amidst the bad news coming every day. The so-called thekedars of society and religion made him their target.
The story of Chamkila, who became the thorn in the eyes of contemporary singers and terrorists, came to a halt at the young age of 27. He and his wife Amarjot were shot dead. How a man who came from a poor family at a young age became the ‘Elvish of Punjab’ at the age of just 27, this is the whole journey of this story.
Amar Singh Chamkila : Hindi Biopic, 12-04-2024
Director : Imtiaz Ali
Starring : Diljit Dosanjh, Parineeti Chopra
Platform : Netflix
Rating : **** 4/5
Why watch this film: There are not just one but many reasons to watch this film
Diljit Dosanjh
Throughout the film, an attempt has been made to connect people with the original Chamkila by using old clips and photos of Amar Singh Chamkila. Every time this attempt was made in the film, it seemed that the Chamkila of the film i.e. Diljit Dosanjh was seen doing exactly the same.
Diljit brought Chamkila, who stays grounded, to the screen despite his journey from poverty to riches and superstardom. Watching Diljit’s acting in every scene, it felt that in the coming years, when the year 2024 will be remembered, it will definitely be remembered that this was the year when Diljit became Chamkila. He has not only acted in reality, but has lived Chamkila.
Parineeti Chopra
Parineeti Chopra has appeared on screen after a long time. With every scene, she has done what she should have done to make the film excellent. Most of the live performances have been shown in the film. Parineeti Chopra has helped equally with singer Diljit in this work.
Imtiaz Ali
Imtiaz Ali is both the writer and director of the film. His way of filmmaking is amazing and he has proved this many times. At the beginning of the film, he has shown Chamkila’s entire life in a summary with a few minutes of song. Even if you stop watching the film after this song, you will still know everything about Chamkila’s personality in general. This way of storytelling by Imtiaz is really beautiful.
In the film, the original songs sung by Chamkila have been presented at intervals in the same typical Punjabi village dialect as Chamkila used to sing. If you are not from Punjab, you may not understand the lyrics, but this is the beauty of the film that by not translating those songs, their soul has been saved from dying.
The film is full of dialogues and scenes that repeatedly attack the contractors of society and religion. These scenes do not seem to be forcibly preaching, rather they go hand in hand with the story and smoothly make the film beautiful.
There is a dialogue in the film – ‘Son, we have also done comrade plays in colleges, but those rules don’t work here. Wait for a few years and you will get all the answers on your own’. This dialogue tells the truth of the practical world. To see and understand many more such dialogues, it is important to watch this film.
The research done in making the film is commendable. Diljit Dosanjh’s statement seems absolutely correct when he said during an interview that- We thought what Bollywood would make a film on Punjab, but Imtiaz Ali proved us wrong. Creative freedom has been used with the true story to make the film interesting, but no negligence has been done in doing the research.
There is a scene in the film when Chamkila, who went to perform abroad, is told that more seats had to be arranged for his programme than Amitabh Bachchan’s programme on the same stage. This scene is enough to prove the claim of Chamkila being a record selling singer as a reality. It is the wonder of research that big things have been presented with the help of small scenes while maintaining interest.
The songs of the film are amazing. These songs in the voice of Mohit Chauhan and Diljit give a good feel to the ears. What AR Rahman has done for music is different. The music prepared without a studio sounds like this, that too with a desi touch. Rahman has proved by presenting such music that he is really different.
