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Lal Chand, the dholak player who was with Amar Singh Chamkila on the day he died, has often spoken about the impression that he had of the slain folk singer. Lal Chand himself took a bullet when Chamkila and his wife, Amarjot, were shot dead in the village of Mehsampur in Punjab, in the year 1988. Chamkila’s story was retold by director Imtiaz Ali in a new biopic, released on Netflix on Friday. As interest in the singer’s life grows, here’s looking back at Lal Chand’s stories about him, and his recollection of what transpired on the day that Chamkila and Amarjot were shot dead by unknown assailants.
Speaking to Noble TV Canada in 2020, Lal Chand looked back at the threats that Chamkila had been receiving prior to his death. Having risen to the pinnacle of Punjab’s local music scene, Chamkila was extorted for money by several local goons, Lal Chand said. His rise coincided with political conflict in Punjab, which reached a peak in the year 1984, when anti-Sikh riots broke out in North India. In the interview, Lal Singh retraced his steps on the fateful day, recalled how he escaped from the scene of the crime, and offered his theories about who could, and could not have been responsible for Chamkila’s murder, which remains unsolved.
He said in Punjabi, “All of us showed up at the office at around noon. Chamkila came by, and we sat around for about 10 minutes before departing for the show. Just as we were about to leave, Chamkila told everybody to not be afraid. He said, ‘I sing the songs, not you. Jis goli te mera naam likheya hoga, o mere te vajni hi vajni aa (The bullet that has my name written on it will strike only me).’ Some of our older friends had stopped associating with us. But I knew that I had to work somewhere, so it might as well be with Chamkila.”
Lal Chand continued, “On our way to Mehsampur, we saw posters of the film Patola. I pointed them out to him. Chamkila was a part of that film, and he said that after the show, we’d all go to watch it together. But that time never came. Before the show, we decided to eat.” The troupe decided to stop by at a nearby house to have a meal that they didn’t realise would be Chamkila and Amarjot’s last. When they got word that the venue for the show was ready, they squeezed into a car and drove across the short distance. They parked the car on the side of the road. And that’s when the bullets started flying.
“Everybody exited the car, including Chamkila. Amarjot and I were the only ones still inside. I stepped out and opened the boot to take my dhol, Amarjot was still inside. No sooner had I picked up the dhol, I saw from the corner of my eye a man with a covered face pull a machine gun out and start firing. I bolted from the spot, but as I was trying to find cover, I saw Amarjot get hit. She was just about to step out of the car. I could hear them swearing at Chamkila while they were shooting. They shot him in the back, but before being hit, Chamkila looked at Amarjot and noticed the blood coming out of her belly. He asked, ‘Babbi, tenu ki hoya (Babbi, what happened to you)?’ I never knew before then that Chamkila called Amarjot ‘Babbi’,” Lal Chand narrated.
After the shooting, Lal Chand discovered that he’d been shot as well. Bleeding, he hitched a ride to the nearby town of Phillaur, where he went to the police and told them what had happened. Opening up about the threats that Chamkila would receive, Lal Chand said, “The militants wouldn’t interfere. They would leave artistes alone. But lenders and other goons would extort money through intimidation. But from what I know, the militants would leave us alone. Some singers would give in to the intimidation, but Chamkila wouldn’t. And this angered them. He even wrote a song about them.”
Four people died that day, including Chamkila and Amarjot. In the interview, Lal Chand said that Chamkila was a grounded person, despite his fame. Other singers develop egos, he said, but Chamkila didn’t. “He would smoke cheap beedis even though he could afford cigarettes,” Lal Chand recalled. Starring Diljit Dosanjh and Parineeti Chopra, the biopic Amar Singh Chamkila was released to positive reviews on Netflix on April 12. This is the second time that Diljit has attempted to tell Chamkila’s story, after having played a facsimile of the slain singer in the Punjabi film Jodi.
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