Amar Singh Chamkila Review: Imtiaz Ali Glorifies Diljit Dosanjh, Parineeti Chopra’s Film with his Artistry

Imtiaz Ali, a filmmaker, who changed the landscape of the industry when it comes to romance as a genre in totality and how audiences perceive on-screen relationships and its complexities, has arrived with Amar Singh Chamkila. It might not be the shiniest star in Imtiaz’s constellation but certainly pleasing.

Laced with much hopes and anticipation, Chamkila drops at a time when filmmakers are not voicing their artistic ambitions, but rather setting up projects with foreign investors. On the contrary, Imtiaz in today’s day and age still speaks his heart out, and that’s commendable. The whole beauty lies in Imtiaz’s vision, his mastery over telling human dramas and inner conflicts of his primary characters.

It is aspirational to see how Imtiaz decides on to narrate the life story of a popular Punjabi folk singer in 1980s, Amar Singh Chamkila, through his own lens, but there are shortcomings that run parallel to the entire film.

Punjab, as an Indian state that is infamous for drugs and widely popular for its folk music, has been canvassed by tonnes of filmmakers time and again on celluloid — Udta Punjab, CAT, Kohrra, Good Luck Jerry are a few significant examples. Amar Singh Chamkila (Diljit Dosanjh) and his second wife Amarjot Kaur (Parineeti Chopra) were shot dead publicly in March 1988, 8th of the month to be precise, the day world celebrates International Women’s Day.

Chamkila was accused of creating art with vivid language and that is what took him to ashes. His creations were made out of some serious women objectification, which is a big no-no in 2024, courtesy social media, where a remark today on any individual irks the society and even judiciary. Till date, Bhojpuri as an industry is not respected enough for reasons best known, and even South industries have been typecast for years, so why make a film that promotes appearance-based perception, especially for a non-weaker gender?

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It won’t be a surprise if a bunch of feminists pop out suddenly to shun Imtiaz and his voice on social media or they might be tightlipped this time since their pre-conceived notion about Imtiaz being a maverick is the driving force for Chamkila as a film. It is also questionable that back in the 80s, law and order seemed nowhere and Chamkila’s case was shut in no time. The above two are better debates than the prime time ones.

Imtiaz’s film might be flawed in its aim and purpose but not in his simplicity and purity, and guess, that’s why he is a genius. He makes sure that people should go back home experiencing his inbuilt sufiness, Rahman’s mood altering music, and great performances by his lead/supporting actors.

In this case, Diljit and Parineeti are pioneers. These two are tailored for it. Diljit seems to be pro at playing real-life characters. Prior to Amar Singh, he played an Indian hockey player Sandeep Singh in Soorma, who was shot accidentally in his spine but decides to comeback and win. One righteous, one non-righteous character, but he dabbles into Chamkila beyond Sandeep Singh.

With a feel like docu-feature, Chamkila is definitely going to be in Imtiaz’s list of good films, but, away from the artful storytelling lies moral compass of the society. Imtiaz, go back and make your romance, ‘kyunki pyaar mein kuch sahi galat nahi hota.’

(This article is published under a mutual content partnership arrangement between The Brew News and The Free Press Journal)

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