Netflix India’s latest film seems like a perfect fit for its star Diljit Dosanjh, the Punjabi actor and singer who is going through a crossover moment after playing Coachella in 2023 and recently collaborating with Saweetie on a single called “Khutti.” In Amar Singh ChamkilaDosanjh plays Chamkila for the second time (he played the singer last year in the Punjabi film jody). Will this second biopic on a low-caste Sikh singer-turned-superstar give Dosanjh another hit?
AMAR SINGH CHAMKILA: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The essence: In 1988, when singer Amar Singh Chamkila arrives at a concert, he and his singing partner-turned-wife, Amarjot, are shot to death in cold blood. After his murder, Chamkila’s life story is retold by his old friend and first collaborator in a series of flashbacks detailing his rise from a low-class factory worker to a music legend. India. The film uses Chamkila’s songs throughout, highlighting his knack for catchy, yet sophomoric lyrics, as well as real footage of Chamkila and Amarjot, underlining the true story directed by director Imtiaz Ali.
What will it remind you of?: Amar Singh Chamkila It plays like a typical biopic, with much of the story in flashback. There are many recreated performance scenes based on real footage of the central couple, reminiscent of musical biopics such as Bohemian Rhapsody. However, its insistence on portraying its main character through rose-colored glasses puts it in the same camp as Bob Marley’s feature film. One Love.
Performance worth seeing: Dosanjh, who has had a career on both screen and stage, feels at home here. The singer imbues Chamkila with humility and chutzpah, giving the audience a sense of who the real man was – clearly a figure that fascinated Dosanjh.
Memorable dialogue: “Not everyone has the luxury of thinking about good and evil. People like me have to survive somehow… I have to serve my audience,” Chamkila tells his booker and financial manager halfway through the film as his career begins to take off. It serves as a reminder of his rise from the bottom and the controversial themes of his music.
Sex and skin: The most sexually explicit thing about the film is Chamkila’s lyrics.
Our opinion: One of the first lines on the real Amar Singh Chamkila’s Wikipedia page details his mischievous and incendiary lyrics: “His themes consisted mainly of the objectification of women, alcoholism, sexual violence and domestic violence.” (The notion is repeated in his retellings of the story, including this article on Republic World.) I was nervous that a film coded in Bollywood and produced in India would soothe the real man’s thorns, but refreshingly, the song that plays over the film’s titles shamelessly details his controversial personality. “Everyone hears the lyrics of Chamkila, whether they admit it or not,” the villagers sing directly to the camera in the first of many musical numbers.
However, that’s where the film stops in really interrogating its lyrics; The film of the same name makes some nods to its objectifying lyrics, but explains them with the support of the town’s women who sing behind closed doors. This is fine when it’s just about sex, as it’s refreshing to see Indians reclaiming their sexual desires, but the film consciously doesn’t touch on themes of sexual violence. Similarly, the film glosses over his controversial second marriage, only briefly showing the resistance in the community when he effectively left his first wife and first two children for his singing partner, in order to make their partnership acceptable. for conservative minds.
Told through flashes between past and present, the jumps between time are a bit disorienting and cuts to the post-murder timeline interrupt the momentum of Dosanjh’s Chamkila. Occasional episodes of hand-drawn scenes also indicate moments in Chamkila’s history that the filmmakers deemed unsuitable for the camera (such as when his fans crash through a roof during one of his concerts), but they are used somewhat randomly, which That doesn’t seem natural. The rhythms of the film.
The bright spots of the film are Dosanjh’s layered performance and the music, composed by the great AR Rahman and sourced from Chamkila’s library, and sung by Dosanjh and his co-star Parineeti Chopra. The format, which adheres more closely to American musicals in which the musical number advances the story rather than functioning as a dream sequence, helps educate audiences about Chamkila’s personality and her exploits.
But other than that, the film fails to dazzle at 2.5 hours and is bogged down by a worn-out structure and sanitized narrative. With his murder as a central framing device, the film has no clear point of view on the motivations behind Chamkila’s murder; It’s important to note that there are still mysteries surrounding the events of that day, but the film chooses to downplay everything. half. For a film centered around such a colorful character, it’s a shame that the end result is boring.
Our call: SKIP IT. Diljit Dosanjh’s film is a mediocre biopic, the complete opposite of what a character like Chamkila demands.
Radhika Menon (@menonrad) is a television-obsessed writer living in Los Angeles. His work has appeared in Vulture, Teen Vogue, ELLE.com and more. At any given moment, he can reflect long and hard on Friday Night Lights, the University of Michigan, and the perfect slice of pizza. You can call her Rad.
