Amrita Kaur - A Magical Voice

Amrita Kaur started singing Kirtan at seven. Her father, who learned from his own mother, needed an accompanist when the family moved to New Zealand, and he saw something in his daughter before she saw it herself. He sat her on stage early, kept her practicing through the reluctant years, and watched as the music slowly became hers. By the time she was a working architect with seven years and a stable career behind her, the demand for her performances had grown beyond what her leave allowance could hold. Architecture gave way. Music took over.

What makes Amrita's story particularly worth watching is the complexity she carries with it. Born in the UK, raised in New Zealand, parents from Malaysia, Punjabi at her roots, she describes her identity as a "kichadi," a mix she's still working through. She sings both devotional Kirtan and Sufi, Punjabi folk, and Ghazal, a combination she was advised against but chose anyway. People have told her that her voice helped them through cancer, through grief, through the ordinary weight of being human. She doesn't take credit. "It's divine energy," she says. "Waheguru does that." But those moments shaped her decision to give herself fully to this. "Amrita Kaur: A Magical Voice" is a Sikhlens film about what happens when someone stops treating their calling as a side pursuit.