Amar Singh Chamkila Was A Biopic On The Late Punjabi Singer (Photo Credit – Instagram)
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It was the unfateful day of March 8, 1988, when, at around 2 PM, in the village of Mehsampur (Punjab), two singers were shot dead. Amar Singh Chamkila and Amarjot Kaur, a husband and wife who saw fame, money, success, and, unfortunately, death together! Two singers who were bound together by fate and talent, only to die together unfatefully! Years later, in 2024, Imtiaz Ali metamorphosed this uneventful day on-screen.
But in order to make a biopic on the late singer, Imtiaz was able to justify the story of this much-loved and adored couple of Punjab. Chamkila’s biopic definitely made the singer and his wife live again. Their original video and songs are once again breathing. But at what cost?
Amar Singh Chamkila is a brilliant film, but to achieve this brilliance, did Amarjot Kaur have to die twice? We have often heard that behind every successful man, there is a woman, but behind Chamkila’s biopic’s success, there is his wife, who has been butchered intentionally or unintentionally by Imtiaz Ali!
Now, before you judge me or call this piece another feminist rant, I would just plead with you to stay with me till the end while we decode why Amarjot Kaur had to die in 2024 once again to let Amar Singh Chamkila live and shine in a biopic!Now, whoever follows Punjabi music and their history in general, might be very well versed that Chamkila and Amarjot were popular as a couple.
Was Amarjot Kaur Less Important?
Despite Chamkila writing, composing, and singing the songs, one cannot discredit what Amarjot Kaur brought to the table, making his Akhadas and records as lively as they could get. When two people climbed the ladder of success together, how did one of them become more popular than the other? On what parameters did we measure that Chamkila’s contribution towards his and his wife’s success was more than Amarjot Kaur’s contribution since she has been sidelined brutally in the film that boasts of celebrating the singer who was the ‘Elvis Presley’ of India!
Now that all of us have watched the film on Netflix, we can discuss what was totally wrong and uncalled for – Celebrating the man and leaving behind the woman who walked along with him and his professional success as an equal partner till the last breath of her life. But all we celebrate in the film is Amar Singh Chamkila’s legacy! So, who decided that Amarjot Kaur was less important in the story of Chamkila’s popularity and fame?
Amarjot Kaur’s Job Was Tougher Than Chamkila’s!
Chamkila was threatened and probably butchered for singing lewd lyrics. But imagine being a woman in the 80s in a small village in Punjab and singing those lewd lyrics out loud amongst a bunch of male spectators, mostly in Akhadas! Who was more courageous – Chamkila or Amarjot? Just think about being a woman and singing Chamkila songs even today at a gathering! And here was this woman whose courage might put the very definition of courage to shame as he matched her notes bravely with Chamkila to entertain her audiences! But we never see that woman as anything else than a supporting character in the film. It was her success, her fate and her tragedy as much as it was for Chamkila but Imtiaz Ali never lets her live on-screen despite her job being tougher than that of her husband!
Biopics are films that are once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for someone to turn immortal. And unless you are a Bhagat Singh or a Gandhi, in all probability, you only get one chance to re-tell one’s life on-screen. While Amar Singh Chamkila gets that chance, there will be no biopic on Amarjot Kaur ever, and her only chance to tell her story is the Chamkila biopic since it was the story of Amar Singh Chamkila & Amarjot Kaur together!
Such inequality coming from Imtiaz Ali is surprising since he has been one of the very few who has always worked on the gender dynamics of his film intentionally or unintentionally. Be it Tamasha, which was as much Ved’s story as Tara’s, or be it Jab We Met, which, despite being Geet’s story, never undermined Aditya as a sidekick. Love Aaj Kal breathes because of the perfect balance between Saif Ali Khan’s Jai and Deepika Padukone’s Meera! However, Amar Singh Chamkila overpowers Amarjot Kaur in a story that was much hers as his.
In addition to the valid concerns about Amarjot Kaur’s underrepresentation in Amar Singh Chamkila, one must also question the missed opportunity to explore the socio-cultural defiance she embodied as a female performer in a deeply patriarchal society. The film could have delved deeper into how Amarjot’s presence in male dominated Akhadas was not just an artistic partnership but an act of everyday rebellion. Her defiance was not only in singing sexually charged lyrics but in occupying public space, commanding male attention on her own terms, and rewriting what it meant to be a woman in performance art in rural Punjab. This narrative depth could have added emotional heft and historical value to the film, making her more than a footnote in Chamkila’s journey and instead a coarchitect of their shared legacy.
Why Parineeti Chopra Couldn’t Be The Woman Of The Moment!
Ever since the biopic was released, Diljit Dosanjh has been raved about for his performance and look, but has anyone noticed Parineeti Chopra? The actress ditched Ranbir Kapoor’s Animal to play Amarjot Kaur, and I can definitely vouch for a fact that Imtiaz Ali could not have gotten any other actress currently in the industry to play Amarjot Kaur with such perfection as Parineeti did. But she never gets to enjoy the praise and the applause in Diljit’s shadow, while she deserved more for pulling out those songs as powerfully as the original Amarjot Kaur!
Even the final farewell to two singers in one of the most beautiful songs of the film – Vida Karo, does not justify Amarjot’s farewell. While Arijit’s voice instills pain, it is Jonita Gandhi’s calmness that completes the song. But it never gets featured in the film!
Why Was Amarjot Kaur Killed Twice?
Unfortunately, on March 8, 1988, two people who were a duo died, but only one of them was given a chance to live through Amar Singh Chamkila, and probably only Imtiaz Ali would be able to answer why Amarjor Kaur had to die twice to let Chamkila live!
