Chamkila's life like Punjab, glory and violence dovetailing all the time: Imtiaz Ali

He had to “break the grammar” of his own filmmaking, says Imtiaz Ali about his first biopic “Amar Singh Chamkila” in which he introduces a fourth wall to directly speak to viewers, uses animation and splits screens to bring to life the story of the Punjab folk singer killed when he was 27.

The film, which stars Diljit Dosanjh and Parineeti Chopra, rolls out against the backdrop of militancy wracked Punjab in the turbulent 1980s. The massively popular Chamkila, whose music was controversial, risqué and provocative and is still popular, was gunned down in 1988 along with his wife Amarjot.

The film, which has music by A R Rahman and lyrics by Irshad Kamil, is getting rave reviews, quickly climbing to become among the top five films on Netflix global (non English titles). And Ali is full of gratitude.