In an interview that I now struggle to remember, a filmmaker says, “On the edit table, a movie is made for the second time”. That is the importance of the craft and people who pursue it.
With that as context, we look at Netflix’s latest Amar Singh Chamkila. The movie made me go through several feelings – some scenes made me smile, some made me cry and some were simply eye-opening. The film had a brilliant star cast and music album, but the one thing that stood out to me was its masterful editing.
From showcasing the 1984 riots through a song to depicting the protagonists as comic characters to add a dash of amusement in some scenes, the editing made the movie what it is – a cinematic gem – and, the woman behind this is Aarti Bajaj.
Aarti Bajaj is a renowned film editor who has worked on many hit movies, including Jab We Met, Dev D, Paan Singh Tomar, Highway, Tamasha and Jubilee. In fact, it’s safe to say that she brings out the brilliance of each character and the narrative she works on.
In movies like Dev D, Tamasha and Rockstar, she beautifully builds a contrast between a character’s past and present through her editing – which only enhances and heightens the plotline of the movie.
In 2019, she received The Asian Academy Creative Award for her work in Sacred Games – another drama that was a visual treat to our eyes.
After moving to Mumbai from Delhi at the age of 21, she finished her film course at the Xavier Institute Of Communication in 1994. Even though her father wasn’t in favour of her career choice, he eventually gave in.
In 1997, she married filmmaker-actor, Anurag Kashyap and kick-started her career with his unreleased movie, Paanch, in 2003. And the rest, as they say, is history.
It’s not just us, the entire social media is now raving about her editing in Chamkila and rightly so. Take a look:
We are glad that she’s finally receiving the credit she deserves!