[ad_1]
Distinctly inspired by the tale of slain folk singer Amar Singh Chamkila (also the subject of Imtiaz Ali’s upcoming film starring Diljeet Dosanjh), who was gunned down along with wife Amarjot in Punjab’s Mehsampur just before their performance, SonyLIV show Chamak opens with the shot of the fields, with men and women listening to local folk singer Tara Singh (Gippy Grewal) crooning a Punjabi ditty with his wife Navpreet by his side when the two are shot dead by two unknown men. The similarity of this one part of the story with Chamkila’s life is uncanny in Rohit Jugraj’s “work of fiction”, attempting to showcase the underbelly of the Punjabi music industry.
Cut to 20 years later, and one meets Kaala (Paramvir Singh Cheema), Tara Singh’s son, a Canada-based angsty musician with a bunch of criminal charges on him, who, while running away from the charges, comes to Punjab and discovers his provenance. He then decides to find his parents’ killers with the help of a retired journalist who once investigated the case.
Since Chamkila’s death in 1988, three conspiracy theories have done the rounds. These suppositions – that the musician was killed by those jealous of him in the music industry, that it was an honour killing by Amarjot’s family for marrying a man from the Dalit community, and the last being that it was a terrorist attack since his lyrical content was considered vulgar by many who supported and were a part of the then terrorist organisations. The same three theories form Kaala’s three possible explanations as he hunts for his parents’ killers.
While the premise is well-known, the show is interesting because the hunt for answers remains. The first couple of episodes allow one to dive into the Punjabi music industry, shown with quite some authenticity – the diction and accents are spot on, and Manoj Pahwa’s Pratap Deol as the music mogul and Prince Kanwaljit Singh as a politician’s henchman are fabulous. But it’s Cheema’s Kaala, promising in the beginning with those big eyes and just the right look, who is completely lacklustre. He just doesn’t stick.
But what does make an impact is the show’s music and the range that it covers. From rap to folk to Sufi to a typical Punjabi film song, the music of the series is very carefully curated and produced. Every song comes from a deeper, interesting space and is worth a listen. The show also has guest artists, including Mika Singh, Asis Kaur, and Kanwaar Grewal, among others.
But the most ludicrous bit in the first season of Chamak is not the lip sync gone awry in a web series set against the backdrop of Punjabi music (actors lose lyrics, sargams and rhythms far too often). Things become notoriously dotty when a classical guru Jugal Brar (Suvinder Vicky) ties his student Kaala’s hands, and forces him to fill his mouth with marbles during his vocal riyaz. Besides the cruelty of the practice (also shown in The King’s Speech to cure the king of his stammer), I have never heard of it in the world of Indian music. Students always did sewa – domestic work among others (The Disciple portrays it to the tee) and even suffered much at the hands of gurus who were tyrants, but singing with a bloody mouth was definitely not one of them. Unlike his last outing, this time Vicky is lost among some better performances.
Another problematic bit is when the times one lives in today creep from the peripheries. In an achingly naive move, a dialogue – “Kesri rang chahiye, galti se bhi hara dikha toh gaal laal kar dene hain tumhare,” is quite disturbing.
While the series does come close to portraying the complex music industry of Punjab, fraught with crime despite the existence of some of the brightest musicians, it lacks the substance and the gravitas to put a spotlight on this entangled entity. It ends up being a middling mishmash that lacks any solid punch.
Chamak cast: Paramvir Singh Cheema, Suvinder Vicky, Siddharth Shaw, Gippy Grewal, Prince Kanwaljit Singh, Manoj Pahwa, Navneet Nishan, Ankita Goraya, Aniruddh Roy, Dhanveer Singh, Isha Talwar
Chamak director: Rohit Jugraj
[ad_2]
