Imtiaz Ali's Amar Singh Chamkila is being praised by critics and audiences alike but by sanitising the life and struggle of Chamkila, the film does grave injustice to the late singer
Imtiaz Ali’s Amar Singh Chamkila has been called – among other things – a return to form for the filmmaker. My own review of the film said the same in as many words, and I stand by it. It has also been called good film, and I stand by that too. But many critics have called it one of the best biopics India has seen, and with that assertion, I do have an issue. And before you come at me with pitchforks or call me a hypocrite, I have two things to say – a good film can be a bad biopic, and a man is allowed to have complex opinions on one work of art.
Why is Amar Singh Chamkila a good film but a bad biopic?
It may sound contradictory but those things can hold true at the same time. Why is Chamkila a good film, you ask? Simply because, it is well made, a story well told. It takes us through the highs and lows of the legendary singer’s life, creating an engaging story that captures a singer’s trial and tribulations while highlighting how he was different. Add to that the amazing score from AR Rahman and Irshad Kamil’s lyrics and you get a throwback to Rockstar. The performance from Diljit Dosanjh is a cherry on top. But the Chamkila the film tells us about is Imtiaz’s idea of what the singer was. And there is nothing wrong with that, but it does rankle when that interpretation does injustice to the actual person.
Imtiaz Ali with Diljit Dosanjh on the sets of Amar Singh Chamkila
A big part of Amar Singh Chamkila’s life story is because of his identity as Dhanni Ram, a Dalit in the Punjab of 1980s. His Dalit identity was instrumental in him being accepted by many and discarded or sidelined by others. Chamkila’s fight to be accepted and come into the mainstream did have caste in the background of it. How could it not in this Indian society, where caste dictates all our customs, prejudices, and thoughts. But Imtiaz chooses to gloss over that, reducing his caste struggles to a single line of dialogue in one scene. That means that one of the biggest aspects of Chamkila’s identity and struggles is relegated to just a footnote in Imtiaz’s film. That is not what a good biopic does. You can pick and choose parts of someone’s story but you can’t alter its essence, which is what this film does.
How Imtiaz Ali failed the real Chamkila?
Amar Singh Chamkila was a phenomenon in the Punjab of ‘80s. His songs have survived the test of time and still enjoy a lot of popularity in Punjab. But outside of the state, he was an unknown commodity to many. His songs and life will now find resonance in the mainstream, outside the consumers of hardcore Punjabi music too. And that is a great win for any artiste. But they will do all that without knowing what Chamkila’s real struggle was against. In painting his fight as one against just fundamentalism and moral policing, we reduce him to a moral crusader and not a social one. But Dhanni Ram aka Chamkila fought more than just militants and ideological fundamentalists. He fought a system and society that had subjugated his people for ages. Taking that aspect out changes the dynamic of Chamkila’s struggle and victory, and also his eventual assassination.
The OG Amar Singh Chamkila
How does one judge the Chamkila biopic?
It is possible to both like the film and find it problematic. Maybe problematic is too strong a word for this one. Let’s reserve that for the likes of Animal and Article 370. But Chamkila does get a lot wrong by way of omission. In picking and choosing a sanitized version of Chamkila’s life to bring to screen, Imtiaz Ali has done him injustice, by not truly presenting the man for who he was. And like I said, that is the filmmaker’s right. Artistic liberty gives him the right to present the story in his manner. Just like it gives me the right to point out how wrong and myopic it is. Amar Singh Chamkila may go on to be remembered as one of Imtiaz’s finest works, as it should. But it should never be mentioned in a list of good biopics. Most of Bollywood’s sanitized, politically correct films fail to clear that threshold. And just like that, my wait for a good, honest biopic from Hindi films continues.
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 "Imtiaz Ali's Amar Singh Chamkila is streaming on Netflix")
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