The movie had a very punjabi flavour, and I had to at-times watch it reading the subtitles mostly during the songs. Both the songs and the subtitles were important in the movie, that was what the film is all about.
A young boys fascination with sexually explicit language and how that made him flavour of Punjab, mostly referred to Panjab through the film.
The language was so explicit, I was silently hoping kids in the room were not interested in the subtitles .
However what was interesting, the movie nor the body language of the singer made them sound vulgar.
They were like a tease between lovers, as they whisper loving profanities into each others ears.
Imtiyaz Ali who has given us the ever refreshing Jab We Met, the rocking Rockstar, makes you believe that was simply the intention of Chamkila, the mass singer. Chamkila who is not comfortable sitting with a woman wearing jeans but is fine singing about intimate body parts of a woman. When the journalist , who is visibly annoyed by his discomfort ask about the dichotomy, he says because he is not familiar with ‘women wearing jeans’. But he can talk lewd as that’s “what he has seen’.
The brilliance of Ali is making Diljit Dosangh who had played the role most soulfully, sing with innocence. You know Chamkila is neither vulgar nor a pervert. He is an entertainer and knows what his audience wants.
Chamkila, it’s a brilliant biopic of Amar Sigh, a Dalit Sikh singer who was known as ‘Elvis of Punjab’, who along with his wife and co singer Amarjot kaur was killed in cold blood by unknown gunmen. . How meteoric rise, the jealousy, the envy surrounding his success. Change of situation in Punjab, the rise of militancy and extremism at the same time yearning of common people for normalcy. The normalcy which only few lyrics from Chamkila songs could provide.
The film will not provide you answers to who killed the singer but it will leave you with a desire to know more about him/