Irshad Kamil on Imtiaz Ali and film lyrics: ‘You won’t need heavy words to save you’
The celebrated wordsmith speaks to ‘Scroll’ about his collaboration with Imtiaz Ali, the upcoming ‘Amar Singh Chamkila’ and his approach to songwriting.
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Irshad Kamil’s caller tune, Jo Bhi Main from Imtiaz Ali’s Rockstar (2011), is a warning, the celebrated lyricist told Scroll: “It gives a heads up to callers that I may say something but you might understand something else, and that’s not my responsibility.”
Kamil is the voice inside Imtiaz Ali’s head. Kamil has been translating Ali’s thoughts on love, life and philosophy since his feature debut Socha Na Tha (2005). Kamil’s lyrics for Ali’s song-heavy films perfectly reflect the emotional states of the characters, making the tunes instant chart-toppers as well classics.
Kamil and Ali are back together for Amar Singh Chamkila, the biopic of the Punjabi singer who was assassinated with his wife Amarjot in 1988. Starring Diljit Dosanjh and Parineeti Chopra and scored by AR Rahman, the film will be premiered on Netflix on April 12.
The producers include Saregama, which has the rights to most of Chamkila’s songs. Dosanjh and Chopra have re-recorded the tunes for the film.
Amar Singh Chamkila takes 52-year-old Kamil back to Punjab, where he was born and whose culture he frequently references in his lyrics. Kamil encountered Chamkila’s music in his teens in the 1980s.
“More than his singing and composing, it was his lyrics that were most powerful,” Kamil said. “His lyrics cut through middle-class life’s repression. If you...
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