Director Imtiaz Ali's film ‘Amar Singh Chamkila’ has become one of the most loved films of the year. Post the release of the film starring Diljit Dosanjh, and Parineeti Chopra, interest in Chamkila’s life has reignited. The late Punjabi singer and his wife Aamrjot were killed in 1988 in Mehsampur. The film, which is garnering praises from all quarters, has stirred a controversy now. Chamkila’s eldest daughter, Amandeep Kaur, from his first marriage with Gurmail Kaur, had voiced disappointment with Imtiaz Ali.
Why Chamkila's daughter is upset with Imtiaz Ali
In a conversation with the YouTube channel Switch, Amandeep shared the memories of her father, who was tragically shot when she was just five years old. While acknowledging the film's attempt to immortalise her father's story, Amandeep expressed dismay over the omission of crucial details provided by her family.
"We shared a lot of information with the director, but much of it was overlooked," she said.
Amandeep noted that her mother, Gurmail Kaur, conducted Chamkila's last rites, but Imtiaz failed to depict it accurately in the film. Gurmail further mentioned that while Imtiaz included the actual photograph of the funeral, he omitted a scene portraying her character's tears.
She also said that her mother performed the last rites of Chamkila but it was not shown in the film. She further mentioned that though Imtiaz showed the actual photograph of the funeral, he didn't portray or show her mother's grief.
Talking about the absence of her family members from the narrative, Amandeep said, "They showed everyone from Amarjot's family, but no one from our family. My bua, chacha, no one was shown. We are upset with him. How could he do this?"
Amandeep was also upset because of the absence of photos of Chamkila’s daughters in the closing credits.
Why Imtiaz Ali didn't show much of Chamkila and his first wife's relationship
Recently in a conversation with News 18, Imtiaz Ali shared why he didn’t show much about Chamkila’s first wife and their kids in the movie. He said, "I couldn’t show too much of her in the film because that part of Chamkila’s life was hidden from Amarjot and the whole world. It’s only later in the film that we revealed that he has another wife. I paper-edited the film a lot in order to bring it to the duration that it has today. But I agree that there’s a lot that could have been discovered in their relationship. There are a lot of interesting stuff that happened in their lives. Chamkila was six years younger than Gurmail. When they got married, he got a bicycle. After the wedding, they cycled back home with Chamkila being the pillion rider for most part of the journey. They took turns but he mostly sat in the backseat because he was less than 16 years old,” he said.