An intimate portrayal – The Tribune

At best, documentaries about celebrities tend to be an ode to their stardom; at worst, these end up as an exercise in image makeover for those who have fallen from grace. Rare is a documentary, especially of a living person who dares to face the truth and gives a balanced, insightful account. Is Sikhya entertainment’s Netflix movie what it strives for? Maybe yes, maybe no, but while documenting the story of Punjabi singer Yo Yo Honey Singh, who has seen both the dizzying heights of fame and the lows of infamy, director Mozez Singh addresses the elephant in Honey’s life right from the start.

After a brief flashback to his younger years, we see news channels screaming decency murder in his songs. If memory serves you right, let us remind you that Honey Singh was a musical phenomenon more than a decade ago. Concerts, movies, reality shows, he was everywhere. And then in 2012 the horrific Nirbhaya incident happened. Social post mortem pointed fingers at Punjabi singers and their obscene lyrics with subtext of sexual violence. Honey Singh was the first in the firing line. Songs like ‘Main Hoon Balatkari’ were attributed to him, a charge he denied then and still does. Honey Singh may not own two particularly creepy songs, but still, he reveals a lot.

For years, Honey had disappeared from the scene. He talks about his mental state during these years of oblivion. In fact, it takes more than courage to let your audience into the dark recesses of your mind, talk about your bipolar disorder, break down in front of the camera and share your vulnerabilities. Much of his defense is done by his sister Sneha. However, it is the reluctant father’s expression that speaks volumes, and provides a window into the trauma the family went through. Honey’s fragility comes across.

One could argue that the documentary doesn’t answer all the sticky questions, especially about substance abuse (he’s been more open about it on talk shows). However, he admits how he would smoke 20 joints in a day and does not want to fall into the cycle of drugs, alcohol and overtime again. At the end of the day, the 80-minute documentary is not meant to crucify him, but to give him a voice. It marks his courage to climb the ladder of success again, but with a touch of skepticism. As a music lover wonders aloud: he climbed the ladder and came down. Can he reach the top again?

Apart from exposing Honey the person, Mozez scores in accommodating divergent viewpoints. When the good old argument, ‘that’s what the audience wants’, appears as an alibi for the socially inappropriate messages in his songs, the journalist’s opinion, ‘is he an artist or a supplier’, is in place. How Honey might not be as relevant to the millennial accidentally falls into a model’s indiscretion during the recording of his second comeback song, ‘Designer’. As she mistakes his popular song ‘Brown Rang’ for AP Dhillon’s ‘Brown Munde’, the subtle hint is clear: here is the original singer who made a brown trend just as the audience has moved on.

Yet Honey, who at the time of the making of the documentary was and probably still is on medication, is included in the accounts. Where he wants to go in his second innings is hard to say as other Punjabi singers have moved into the space he created. In ‘Designer’ he has even collaborated with one of them, Guru Randhawa. Apart from Guru, singer Jazzy B is also seen in the film. He rightly says, “It’s easy to criticize artists.” And it’s just as easy for artists to fall into the trap that fame and money bring. ‘Yo Yo Honey Singh: Famous’ may not be designed as an outright cautionary tale or a piercing anatomy of fame, but it is an honest account where an unfiltered Honey puts you in mind. You empathize, but not in a tearful way.

If you’re wondering why he deserves a documentary and have forgotten his chartbusters, this is also a quick check on his countless memorable hits. In that light, if the words ‘he moved pop music’s cultural gravity’ don’t sound off-key, neither does the raw and intimate documentary.