Imtiaz Ali's Amar Singh Chamkila Is A Biopic Designed As An Obituary |
Amar Singh Chamkila is the third film in Ali’s trilogy of broken artists with beaten hearts. Ishita Sengupta writes. |
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| | Cast: Diljit Dosanjh, Parineeti Chopra | | |
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IMTIAZ ALI’s Amar Singh Chamkila, a biopic on the contentious Punjabi musician, is his first foray into the genre. But this is a technical detail — precise but not wholly accurate. If Ali has garnered the repute of telling the same story for two decades, they have also been about a distinct person. Most, if not all, of his films are coloured by the bleeding heart of someone who finds themselves after losing everything else. They are tortured and beleaguered, not unlike an artist. The filmmaker’s work over the years has fortified this premise, inviting a curious reading that his films have been different versions of a biopic and different biopics of a version. With Amar Singh Chamkila, his ninth feature on an artist notorious for his risqué lyrics and who paid the price for it with his life, the intent aligns with the form and the thematic arc running through his oeuvre comes full circle. (Stream top-rated movies and shows across platforms and languages, using the OTTplay Premium Jhakaas pack, for just Rs 249/month.) Amar Singh Chamkila inherits the disruptive existentialism that has shaped Ali’s career but mostly beats with the restless heart of Rockstar (2011) and the messy pulse of Tamasha (2015). He tracks a decade in Chamkila’s life (1977-1988) — chronicling the time from when he was merely a factory worker named Dhanni Ram, running through his rapid rise to fame, and halting at the pivotal moment when the 27-year-old singer and his wife Amarjot were shot to death. In Ali’s hands, however, the linearity of Chamkila’s legend transforms into something more tactile. The musician’s initial days of struggle are designed as a heady mix of cockiness and ambition, bringing to mind both the restive Jordan and the diffident Dev. Even the narrative language that straddles three timelines (edited to perfection by Aarti Bajaj) and set to a chaotic sonic vibe (Irshad Kamil and AR Rahman joining forces to craft an unforgettable album) evoke the visual grammar of the two outings, making Amar Singh Chamkila the third film in Ali’s trilogy of broken artists with beaten hearts. |
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Varshangalkku Shesham: An Earnest But Imperfect Hat-Tip To Cinema |
This is probably Vineeth Sreenivasan’s most indulgent work even as he makes fun of himself, writes Aditya Shrikrishna |
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| Cast: Dhyan Sreenivasan, Pranav Mohanlal, Kalyani Priyadarshan |
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WHERE THERE IS Vineeth Sreenivasan, there is nostalgia. A lovelorn over-the-shoulder look at the past. There are a lot of laughs, a romanticised stab at everything familial accompanied by memorable music. Varshangalkku Shesham, the latest film written and directed by Sreenivasan is no different. It is elaborate in its call for a certain period — the film moves from the late ‘60s to late ‘70s, with brief stops in 1989 and the mid-90s, all anchored by a present-day cab ride, the driver conveniently played by Sreenivasan. It evokes songs of MS Baburaj and name drops EMS Namboodiripad. A major portion of the film is set in Kodambakkam in 1970s Madras. It references other films and other actors and filmmakers. A sincere love for cinema and regard for friendship shines through even if the hat tips all don’t stand scrutiny considering the time period. But it’s all not enough to make this as breezy as it all sounds. Varshangalkku Shesham stars many Sreenivasan regulars, his family both in blood and cinema (he might shoot back that they are one and the same) — his brother Dhyan Sreenivasan is Venu, a young writer in the late ‘60s dreaming of the world of cinema in Madras. He chances upon Murali (played by Pranav Mohanlal, deliberately styled like his father Mohanlal) and strikes up an instant friendship with the prodigious musician. Venu goads Murali to accompany him to Madras and they set off to the world of cinema — Venu to become a filmmaker and Murali to be a music director. |
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