Spoilers ahead…
Triptii Dimri, Swastika Mukherjee and Babil Khan anchor a film that feels like a Gothic dream.
Anvita Dutt’s films do have a story. They have characters and events. And yet, her films are less about “following a plot” than entering a state of mind, a series of spaces painted by her brilliant cinematographer Siddharth Diwan. Like Bulbbul, Qala feels as though we are taking a guided tour of the interiors of someone’s head. Ingmar Bergman said that “ever since my childhood I have pictured the inside of the soul as a moist membrane in shades of red.” It’s something like that. Qala is the name of a famous playback singer, and we see her psyche through the swirls of colours over the opening credits. We see it in the textures of her clothes, in their unvivid shades. We see it in the sets and in the shadows of props and the lanterns on boats and the statues of gargoyles. We see it in a surreal spotlight from the sky. We see it in the snow of Qala’s home in Himachal and in the fringe of her hairstyle, which is often tightly bound. Rarely is her hair let loose.
You can read the rest of the review here:
https://www.galatta.com/hindi/movie/review/qala/
And you can watch the video review here:
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Baradwaj Rangan 
Sri Prabhuram
December 9, 2022
Nice to see Amit Trivedi produce a wonderful soundtrack for such a well-deserved film.
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ravenus1
December 9, 2022
Noice. While Bulbbul didn’t entirely work for me, parts of it reminded me of Crimson Peak in its lush evocation of Gothic, and Tripti Dimri was excellent there too. This girl needs to be better known.
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Anu Warrier
December 10, 2022
Haven’t yet watched it, but the soundtrack is brilliant. Hope to catch it this weekend.
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Vikram s
December 10, 2022
Your review helped me process my thoughts and feelings about Qala. The painterly quality of each frame was so sumptuous. The home in the snow gave a beautiful gothic touch. TD and Swastika performed really well. I only hope both of them get to do more in the future. TD’s performance is a joy, she is able to portray the different layers and complexities extremely well.
At times, the lack of agency shown by her was frustrating, but then that’s the way this character was supposed to be…also it’s not like she lacks agency in general…it’s just that she has agency when it comes to specific aspects (eg, willingness to do anything when it comes to career)yet she loses it (her agency) in some other aspects (eg, her struggle to ‘rise’ in her mother’s eyes)
The vignette-like structure and the refusal to dwell on her success was a bit of a downer.
The me-too touches were done really well I thought.
I am curious for the next output from the Anvita Dutt- Tripti Dimri combo
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Nawaf Khan
December 10, 2022
When I saw this at IFFI this year, I thought it would be universally panned. But I seem to be in the minority. Qala didn’t quite work for me and it was a definite step down from Bulbbul for the promising Anvita Dutt. I thought most of the characters were pretty one-note, with the central one being the most underwritten. Tripti Dimri (who I loved in Bulbbul) has to resort to playing a flat, puppy-faced, sympathetic woman we’ve seen a thousand times before. I would have loved for her to have a bit more complexity, which I’m sure must have existed on paper but isn’t conveyed enough on screen. Babil Khan shows some spark but he doesn’t have enough screen time. I also cannot believe that for such a musically inclined film(and a fabulous album), they didn’t put more effort into the singing scenes, which are quite badly lip-synced. They were pretty unconvincing and it felt as though the actors were just mouthing the lyrics.
Although the film is visually striking, I thought the constant haze and glare of lights were obstructive and took away from the mise-en-scène and the excellent production design.
Also, did no one else notice the utter absence of sound design in many scenes? I mean, in one scene, two characters are speaking and there are absolutely no ambient sounds. They turn around and there’s a party going on behind them.
Speaking of sound, the chilling Silk Drape from the Mindhunter soundtrack just pops up in a key surreal sequence. Why? There are no credits, I checked. Maybe Netflix allowed it?
I just couldn’t immerse myself in that world because of these issues. They constantly took me out of the movie.
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