AR Rahman is famous for composing his music in the middle of the night in an atmosphere that can best be described as spiritual. Amar Singh Chamkila was no exception, as filmmaker Imtiaz Ali revealed stories about the film’s songs were realised and composed. Talking about the emotional Amar Singh Chamkila climactic song “Vida Karo”, the filmmaker said in a conversation with Radio Nasha how it was composed at 2:30 am in the night.
“Rahman came and sat at his piano at 2:30 am when I and Irshad Kamil were getting ready to leave his studio. He said to switch off the lights and asked for some candles to be lit so that we enjoy the process. He started playing the tune while we spoke about old Hindi film songs… Rahman was talking about music in Guru Dutt films. I was simply enjoying the music as an audience.
“Irshad sat down and wrote the lines within 45 minutes. Rahman said let’s sit down and compose the song right now. While it was happening, some people started crying in the studio. Rahman joked ‘what have you done Irshad Kamil, you are making people cry,’” he said.
“Vida Karo” serves as farewell to the characters of Chamkila (Diljit Dosanjh) and Amarjot (Parineeti Chopra), who were killed for their music after facing years of prejudice and judgement. The song — written By Kamil and inspired by a poem of Shiv Kumar Batalvi — has Chamkila accepting his fate while calling out the bias.
Imtiaz also spoke about choosing Arijit to sing the song, adding that his name was suggested by Rahman. “When a composer sings their song, there is a gravitas and attachment to it. Sometimes you need a singer who can sing the melody with the same attachment. Arijit brings that to the music — he sings truthfully and without milawat.
“I also enjoy that he sings the whole song. He doesn’t sing one line to bring it in ‘sur’. In this era when people say you can auto tune or get AI to sing the song, he sings truthfully,” Imtiaz said.
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