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Qala review – a harrowing look into mental health as an artist

Qala is a film that highlights mental health and the pressures of being a woman in an industry that doesn’t give you room to breathe. Everything is pre-determined for you, and not being able to make those choices can do more harm than good.

We review the Netflix Indian film Qala, which does not contain spoilers.

There have been films that highlight mental health and suicide in different ways, but the way writer-director Anvita Dutt connects the visuals with Qala Manjunshree’s ( Triptii Dimri ) emotions is powerful.

Haunted by her past, a talented singer with a rising career copes with the pressure of success, a mother’s disdain, and the voices of doubt within her, as per the synopsis on IMDB. Mental health, anxiety, and depression can all stem from childhood. The older we get, the more we realize that the catalyst of our adult issues comes from the way our parents treated us. Parents always want the best for their children and they push them too hard into something they don’t even want to do.

Qala was forced into the music industry because her father fell ill, and her mother disciplined her to become just like him. Even when others would compliment Qala, her mother would twist the words and find a way to box her into her mind, telling her that she isn’t good enough.

There are choices made to show what is happening in Qala’s mind, as Dutt utilizes flashbacks at the proper moment within the present time to trigger a memory. The film flows from past and present, and there’s a clear distinction between the two.

The cinematography by Siddharth Diwan is exceptional as he shows Qala’s anxiety early on in the film, which triggers a downward spiral into her trauma. She is at the top of her game in the music industry, but a piece of her is missing. Since the day she was born, her mother resented her. She had many things stripped from her, and it felt like she wanted to make Qala’s life difficult.

There are key moments in Qala’s life that she remembers that altered the way her brain functioned. The way she approached people, or even spoke to them, changed because her mother was present. She was never relaxed and always had her guard up.

During the musical performances, the production design and costumes were gorgeous and set the tone of each performance. Whether it was the father or Qala, they both moved differently at the centre of the room. The parallel between her father’s illness and Qala’s was hard to watch because they both loved the music they were putting out.

The pressure of everything consumed them, and it was ultimately their downfall. Qala kept flowing in and out of consciousness with her trauma and reality, and Diwan showed that visually as well. Qala’s mind is complex, and she thought that she had to deal with her mental illness on her own because she didn’t understand it. There are many things she does that were a cry for help, but even her mother wanted nothing to do with her.

Netflix’s Qala is a film that highlights mental health and the pressures of being a woman in an industry that doesn’t give you room to breathe. Everything is pre-determined for you, and not being able to make those choices can do more harm than good.

What did you think of the Netflix film Qala? Comment below.

Article by Amanda Guarragi

Amanda Guarragi joined Ready Steady Cut as an Entertainment Writer in June 2022. She is a Toronto-based film critic who has covered TIFF, Sundance Film Festival, Austin Film Festival, and HorrorFest International. Amanda is also a growing YouTuber, with her channel Candid Cinema growing in popularity.

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Qala Review: Period Drama Rides On Impressive Turns By Triptii Dimri And Swastika Mukherjee

Qala review: the film also gives debutant babil khan the space to deliver a poignant act as a gifted but ill-fated singer proud of his talent..

<i>Qala</i> Review: Period Drama Rides On Impressive Turns By Triptii Dimri And Swastika Mukherjee

Cast: Triptii Dimri, Swastika Mukherjee, Babil Khan, Amit Sial and Varun Grover

Director : Anvita Dutt

Rating : 3.5 stars (out of 5)

Fastidiously designed, heavily stylised and occasionally stolid, Qala is a music-themed, female-centric period drama that looks and sounds absolutely glorious. Powered as much by director Anvita Dutt's screenplay as by its cinematography, production design, soundscape and editing, the film delivers enough by way of theme and treatment not to be merely a surface-level sensory experience.

In soul and spirit, Dutt's soulful sophomore venture scores on many fronts, not the least of which is its sensitive exploration of the mental toll that ambition, success and disillusionment can take on the emotionally vulnerable in a cutthroat world that gives nobody any quarters, certainly not if it is a girl scarred in the manner of the film's eponymous protagonist.

Set in the 1930s, when Calcutta was the hub of Hindi film music, Qala tells the story of a female playback singer caught in a web of defeats and deceits, part of which are of her own making. Her life revolves around music and her mother. Single-minded pursuit of the former distances her from the love of the latter. The consequences are disastrous.

A meditative study of the daunting hurdles that stand in the way of a girl who deserves better, Qala is a worthy follow-up to the writer-director's debut film, Bulbbul. It sees Dutt reunite not only with Netflix, but also with producer Karnesh Sharma of Clean Slate Filmz, music director Amit Trivedi, cinematographer Siddharth Diwan and actor Triptii Dimri. The repeat collaboration yields another film that is chiselled with care, if only at times with overt artifice.

The occult makes way for the worldly. A young woman, pretty much like the child bride of Bulbbul , is up against a male-dominated society in which she has to work much harder than the men to get ahead in life. In the bargain, she must pay a high physical and emotional price.

The progress that the protagonist makes against all odds is slow and agonising, with her mother, who believes she has the girl's best interest at heart, playing both facilitator and spoilsport. There is something wrong with me, Qala intones when the family physician pays her visit after she has had a meltdown. That is a line she will have reason to repeat even when circumstances seem to be changing for the better.

Bulbbul was a feminist supernatural thriller set in 19th century Bengal. Qala , with an equally strong gender-sensitive core, is a tale that depicts the struggles of a young girl in pre-Independence India fighting for a niche in the fields of classical music and playback singing.

When a Solan boy Jagan Batwal (debutant Babil Khan), who literally comes in from the cold, infiltrates Qala 's world with the tacit encouragement of her mother Urmila (Swastika Mukherjee), the fragile girl faces a deep abyss and encounters noises in her head and fear in her heart. She is in danger of being deprived of the role she has always aspired to play as the undisputed bearer of a generations-old musical legacy.

A tragic past, her fraught relationship with her mother, the sudden advent of a male rival who threatens to scuttle her chances of making it big and her despairing response to the worsening situation combine to push Qala over the edge.

The director demonstrates a self-assured hand all the way through. She does not give in to the temptation of resorting to grand, overdramatic flourishes. She banks instead on a blend of suggestions and subtle sleights to capture the delicate state of Qala 's life and mind. Her screenplay keeps a tight leash on the protagonist's gradual descent into dire straits.

The line dividing the ponderous and the contemplative is inevitably thin. There are moments in Qala that seem a touch stagey, but the taut script ensures that the deliberate narrative arc moves along smoothly, never letting the focus shift from the struggles of the vocalist who resorts to measures that aggravate her relationship with her mother.

It is when dealing with the grey shades of the two principal characters - both mother and daughter have inner demons to ward off in the process of trying to realise their personal and familial dreams - that Qala is at its very best.

The depiction of two women determined to keep their music alive even as they take divergent routes in that direction is marked by understatement. The artistic choice to utilise visual methods rather than overtly emotional sweeps serves the film well for the most part. It carves out two differing portraits of pain, one of a mother looking for replacement for a son she has never had, the other of a daughter battling for agency in a milieu that militates against her need to assert and express herself.

Qala rides on a pair of impressive pivotal turns by Triptii Dimri and Swastika Mukherjee. They dig deep into the souls of two women who are as ambitious as they are susceptible to bouts of weakness and come up with compelling performances. The film also gives debutant Babil Khan the space to deliver a poignant act as a gifted but ill-fated singer proud of his talent.

Flitting between a feudal mansion in Himachal Pradesh and Calcutta, Qala is obviously a fictional tale. It, however, gives its supporting characters names that bring to mind Hindi film music greats of yore. The leading singer of the era is Chandan Lal Sanyal (Sameer Kochhar), a music composer is Sumant Kumar (Amit Sial) and a lyricist is Majrooh (Varun Grover). To top it all, Anushka Sharma appears in a black and white song sequence in which she evokes Madhubala.

Neither of these characters is derived from the realms of reality. Neither is the city that they work out of. Calcutta is the backdrop for a large part of the story but the city is recreated rather than real.

In one scene, an incomplete (presumably computer-generated Howrah Bridge looms in the background (in the form of a time-framing device) as Qala , at a crucial juncture of her career, negotiates with a demanding composer who believes that she isn't a finished article yet. The construction of the cantilever across the Hooghly began in the mid-1930s. With two ends of the bridge jutting outing over the river and link between them missing suggests that some years have passed.

A snow-covered Kashmir stands in for Himachal. The 'cheating' does not take anything away from the exquisite texture that the production designer and the director of photography are able to create and sustain. The constant interplay of light and shade, of warm interiors and cold exteriors, of subdued hues and extravagant glows lends the film visual variety and depth and accentuates the psychological dimensions that are at play.

Qala is out and out a director's film that has ample room for the technicians and the actors to give full rein to their skills. Meticulous to a fault, parts of the film might seem somewhat overwrought but the issues and concerns that it embeds in a story set eight decades ago have an unfailingly contemporary resonance.

Cast Triptii Dimri, Swastika Mukherjee, Babil Khan, Amit Sial and Varun Grover
Director Anvita Dutt

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Qala (2022) Movie Review – A visually breathtaking movie that artistically explores psychological themes

A visually breathtaking movie artistically exploring psychological themes

Anvita Dutt’s period musical drama “Qala”, is among the most visually beautiful movies of the year; each scene resembles an impressionist painting. Regardless of whether it’s a ferry floating over the Hooghly bridge or the snow-capped Himachal highlands, or even the rich, jewel-toned hues of a Calcutta evening, the backdrop is exquisite.

The figures in the forefront are seen next after viewers have taken in the precision with which the entire composition has been put together and it might just be what defines and influences how we watch the movie.

Anvita Dutta and Muhammad Asif Ali, the writers and directors of the movie, beautifully explores the mental landscapes of the primary characters. Following the eerie Bulbbul, she crafts a musical journey into the thoughts of a girl who resembles a cuckoo and is torn between passion and talent, expectations and realities.

The musically rich psychological horror movie is set during the pre-independence period and it paints a moving picture that revolves around Qala, a young, gorgeous, gifted vocalist who ventures into playback singing and finds fame. Sadly, though, underneath all the glitz, reverence, and honors, she is consumed by her desire to succeed, tormented by her past, and is fervently seeking approval from her estranged mother.

Qala soon begins to let her mind dominate as she struggles with the demands of the movie industry, which eventually results in her destruction.

It is challenging to like or feel any sympathy for Qala and yet you do. She seems to be a parasite; a morally grey character just like a cuckoo. According to a doctor, she ingested her twin brother’s nutrients while being in her mother’s womb. Qala chooses to eliminate the competition at her mom’s place by making a terrible choice after failing to live up to her mom Urmila’s expectations, a demanding thumri musician who is already past her prime.

The vintage lyrical drama, which features strong performances starring Tripti Dimri, Babil Khan, and Swastika Mukherjee, offers an artistic depiction of pressing issues including childhood trauma, the challenges faced in mother-daughter bonds, and the ugly side of stardom.

Throughout the movie, the filmmaker handles everything with assurance. She resists the need to overdo it with extravagant twists and theatrics. Instead, she relies on a mix of inferences and clever tricks to accurately depict the fragile nature of Qala’s reality and psyche. Additionally, she employs fine symbolisms, for instance, the cuckoo to reflect our morally questionable protagonist and the boat sequence to represent a moral conundrum as the protagonist faces a challenging decision in later scenes. Additionally, her screenplay tightly controls the character’s slow slide into psychological ruin.

The threshold between being reflective and becoming ponderous is often blurry in the movie. There are some stagey elements in Qala, however, the precise screenplay keeps the meticulous narrative arc moving forward without ever letting the spotlight leave the challenges of the musician who turns to actions that worsen her bond with her mother.

The psychological horror movie is at its strongest while addressing the darker undertones of the central leads. The mother-daughter duo, both face emotional wounds that they fight against while attempting to accomplish their own and their family’s aspirations.

The creative approach to use visual elements instead of blatantly dramatic sweeps benefits the movie. It outlines two distinct portrayals of suffering: one of a parent searching for a substitute for the child she never really had, and another of a daughter fighting for the love and acceptance of her mother.

The movie’s visual richness and complexity are enhanced by the ongoing interaction of complementary colors, warmer interiors and chilly exteriors, subtle hues and grandiose glows. This also exemplifies the psychological aspects that are at work.

Qala is clearly a made-up story that swings between a feudal palace in Himachal Pradesh as well as Calcutta, an aesthetically beautiful place. Additionally, it gives the supporting cast members names that paint a picture of legendary composers of old Hindi melodies.

Chandan Lal Sanyal serves as the most renowned musician of the time, while Majrooh is a lyricist and Sumant Kumar seems to be a music composer, and to add a crown to it all, Madhubala-inspired Anushka Sharma makes an appearance in what seems like a black and white musical scene.

A significant portion of the tale takes place in Calcutta, an unfinished and also quite possibly digitally generated Howrah Bridge hovers over Qala as she bargains with a demanding composer who reckons she isn’t quite prepared yet. This is a pivotal point in Qala’s professional life. Roughly halfway through the 1930’s, the work on the cantilever bridge over the Hooghly commenced. The bridge’s two ends sticking out into the river as well as the missing link connecting them indicate that some time has elapsed.

Triptii Dimri and Swastika Mukherjee’s stunning key performances carry Qala. They dive deep into the psyche of two brave women who are equally driven and prone to vulnerability, delivering outstanding performances. Babil Khan, who is making his movie debut here, is also given the opportunity to play a talented but unfortunate singer who is proud of his capabilities in a moving performance.

Qala is a visual treat and it makes use of its medium to present psychological elements. The movie brilliantly explores disturbing subjects while presenting sympathetic morally grey characters. The performers excel in their roles and genuinely bring the characters to life. This is a surprisingly compelling watch and one of the bigger surprises this month.

Feel free to check out more of our movie reviews here!

Verdict - 9/10 9/10

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‘Qala’ Review: A Lullaby Of A Film That Tries To Talk About Toxic Parenting, Jealousy, & The Music Industry

Netflix Indian Film Qala Review Triptii Dimri

Anvita Dutt has been in the Hindi film industry since the mid-2000s, writing lyrics and/or dialogues for movies like “Bachna Ae Haseeno,” “Dostana,” “I Hate Luv Storys,” “Anjaana Anjaani,” “Patiala House,” “Student of the Year,” “Bang Bang!” and more. But it wasn’t until the 2020 Netflix release, “Bulbbul,” that she helmed her first feature film. It received a significant amount of hype for the overall production design, Triptii Dimri’s performance, and Dutt’s subversion of the stereotypical portrayal of witches in Indian folklore. In my opinion, the film only managed to make surface-level statements about violent men, feminism, and allyship while prioritizing style over substance. Dutt’s highly anticipated “Qala” not only marks her second collaboration with Dimri but also introduces Irrfan Khan’s son, Babil Khan. And to be honest, Dutt’s attempt at entering the psychological horror subgenre is bad at best and painfully boring at worst.

“Qala,” tells the story of the titular character, played by Triptii Dimri, who is one of the most popular playback singers in 1930s Kolkata. Her assistant is Sudha (Girija Oak). She is best buddies with her colleagues Naseeban Aapa (Tasveer Kamil) and lyricist Majrooh (Varun Grover). Her future seems to be bright and full of opportunities. But she is haunted by the toxic relationship with her mother, Urmila (Swastika Mukherjee), who has always held a grudge against Qala for being the twin who survived childbirth and killed her unborn son in the process. This animosity was inadvertently aggravated by the arrival of a grass-roots level singer named Jagan (Babil Khan), as Urmila treated him like her son. When Urmila began to do everything in her power to make Jagan an established mainstream artist, Qala became more and more jealous of him. This caused her to take some unsavory steps, the consequences of which weigh heavily on her mind.

Dutt lays out the main conflict of the film, what is at stake, as well as the themes that she wants to tackle within the first 10-15 minutes. Since “Qala” is set around the music industry, there’s sexual abuse, favoritism, and a general air of disdain towards lyricists. There are loads of internalized sexism when it comes to Urmila and Qala, with Jagan seeming like an innocent soul who has unknowingly walked into this mess. And then there’s the “crime,” which ignites the horror element of this psychological horror. But, apart from mentioning the fact that these topics exist in the film, Dutt doesn’t do anything with them. She explains the obvious in the most mundane ways possible. Character motivations plainly hint towards certain plot twists, and the film’s awkward commentary on mental health runs in circles, much like the vinyl records, until they reach their hollow conclusions. And the possible reason behind it is the immense focus on the film’s “pretty” visuals.

There’s no denying that the work on display by Dutt, cinematographer Siddharth Diwan, production designer Meenal Agarwal, art director Ramesh Yadav, and the VFX artists is stunning. The use of snow, reflective surfaces, smoky exteriors and interiors, and the unmotivated lighting choices to evoke a noir-esque atmosphere is creative and hence, commendable. But what does it exactly do other than provide a faux sense of three-dimensionality to “Qala”? Well-composed frames end up being impressionable when they’re backed by solid storytelling. Or else it feels like a compilation of music videos and nothing else. Yes, Amit Trivedi’s songs are great. But they are mixed so poorly into the film and lip-synced so awfully by the actors that the final product looks rushed and half-hearted. The issue with the sound mixing isn’t limited to the songs and extends to the dialogue sequences too. However, the moment where every sense of immersion is destroyed is when Jason Hill’s “Silk Drape” from “Mindhunter” Season 2 plays around the film’s 49-minute mark. I’ll admit that I’m making this claim based on the screener I was provided by Netflix (screeners are often early cuts of the film), but if that’s in the final cut, this is horrible and inexcusable.

The acting department of “Qala” is an absolute dud. Triptii Dimri is clearly doing a lot as if she has been tasked with filling up everyone’s quota of “acting” (because everyone else is under-acting the hell out of their roles). Babil Khan’s debut is disastrous. Nothing that he does sticks in any way. Everyone from Swastika Mukherjee to Amit Sial, Sameer Kochhar, Girija Oak, Swanand Kirkire, Tasveer Kamil, Varun Grover, Abhishek Banerjee, etc., are simply there, trying way too hard to be synonymous with characteristics like “regal,” “demure,” and “sophisticated.” But much like the plot and the visuals of the film, it’s all on the surface. None of them seem to have inhabited their characters or let the characters inhabit them. They seem to be aware of when the camera is going to roll, where their marks are, how long the camera is going to be on them, and that’s it. So, technically, they are doing what’s expected of them without going the extra mile and making this world feel tangible and realistic. If that’s enough for you, then you won’t be disappointed.

In conclusion, “Qala” is a sleep-inducing movie that looks spectacular. Anvita Dutt evidently wants to talk about a lot of things because she is aware that those topics exist. But she fails to unpack them through her characters. At the cost of sounding repetitive, she does have an eye for composing gorgeous visuals. However, she must understand that there’s more to a movie than visuals and repetitive announcements of the plot’s underlying themes. She has committed the same mistake twice now, and I hope that she learns something before venturing into her third project. This is the second time that Anushka Sharma has collaborated with Dutt as a producer. This is the second time Triptii has collaborated with Dutt as an actor. So, they obviously see something in Dutt that’s not translating into her final products. It’s a good thing that she’s trying to carve her place in the horror genre, which is quite dicey in India but very fruitful internationally. I just think she needs to understand her subject matter before deciding how she’s going to present it on screen.

See More: ‘Qala’ Ending, Explained: Were Jagan, Urmila, And Sumant Responsible For Qala’s Breakdown?

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Qala’ on Netflix, An Indian Movie That Will Remind You Of ‘Black Swan’

Where to stream:, stream it or skip it: ‘modern masters: s.s. rajamouli’ on netflix, a documentary about the world renowned 'rrr' filmmaker, stream it or skip it: ‘wild wild punjab’ on netflix, a slapstick hindi-language road trip movie, stream it or skip it: ‘monkey man’ on peacock, dev patel's wild and brutal action-revenge epic.

A Netflix India original, Qala is the second feature from writer-director Anvita Dutt. Dutt’s first film Bulbbul was also released via Netflix and centered on women’s issues in ancient India. Qala moves the setting to 1930s India, but aims to tread similar themes. Does it succeed?

QALA : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Qala (Tripti Dimri) is born to a musical legend Urmila (Swastika Mukherjee), though the two have a tenuous relationship after Qala’s twin brother is stillborn. Over the years, Qala trains in classical music at the hands of her mother, but nothing she does ever seems to be enough to satisfy Urmila. One day, a fellow musician brings an orphan boy with a pristine voice named Jagan (Babil Khan, the late Irrfan Khan’s son) to study with Urmila and she is immediately taken with him — essentially adopting him — to the dismay of Qala. Jagan’s promising career is cut short due to a mysterious illness, and Qala takes the opportunity to launch her own career but loses her mother and herself in the process.

What Will It Remind You Of?: The dark side of artistry and obsession with perfection paired with filmmaking that plays with paranoia and psychosis will remind you of Black Swan .

Performance Worth Watching: Swastika Mukherjee as Urmila is at once domineering and loathsome, and loving and encouraging. Mukherjee masters the fine line of a conditional love with ease that makes you understand why Qala is so fragile.

Memorable Dialogue: In 1930s India, when this film is set, women did not have many paths in life, and when Qala’s music career seems to be slipping from her grasp, Urmila sets her up for marriage. Qala’s suitor tries to make small talk. “So you like music?” She responds truthfully — as it’s the reason she doesn’t feel worthy of her mother’s love, even though mastering the art consumes her. “No, I hate it.”

Sex and Skin: Nothing X-rated here.

Our Take: Qala is as much a meditation on parenting and women’s opportunities as it is on perfectionism in art, and the film deftly balances the three ideas. Urmila’s foul treatment of Qala, which can be seen immediately after Qala is born and Urmila is informed that her baby boy has died throughout the rest of the film, sets up her fragile persona that reaches for perfection because all she really wants is to be seen. Qala’s dream isn’t really to be a musician; she only strives for that because she is seeking acceptance from her mother, who will never give it to her because she views her as a “courtesan.”

The filmmaking is engrossing, as writer-director Anvita Dutt employs a variety of angles to convey Qala’s deteriorating sense of self and grasp on reality. The sets are both drab and lush at the same time, portraying a certain regality of 1930s upper crust circles, and the music is hauntingly beautiful.

I do wish there was more time spent on developing Qala and Jagan’s relationship because as it stands, the portrayal is colored solely by Qala’s jealousy. Had we as an audience understood more about how they interacted with one another and their bond, it would have made the final punch land with even more of an impact. Dimri’s central performance also wavered for me as she occasionally struggles to portray Qala as both a subservient daughter and a woman who will achieve her goals at all costs.

Though the ending is predictable, this film, like Black Swan before it, will have you thinking about it even after the credits roll.

Our Call: STREAM IT. With an engrossing story and beautiful music, Qala is worth the stream.

Radhika Menon ( @menonrad ) is a TV-obsessed writer based in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared on Vulture, Teen Vogue, Paste Magazine, and more. At any given moment, she can ruminate at length over Friday Night Lights, the University of Michigan, and the perfect slice of pizza. You may call her Rad.

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‘Qala’ movie review: Anvitaa Dutt’s mother-daughter tale is poignant and admirable

Marked by uplifting music and stirring lyrics, this tragic tale of a singer is worth admiring thanks to a formidable swastika mukherjee and a confident debut from babil khan.

December 02, 2022 07:36 pm | Updated 07:38 pm IST

Tripti Dimri in a still from ‘Qala’ | Photo Credit: Netflix

In an industry where storytellers usually avoid negotiating the mindscapes of their protagonists, writer-director Anvita Dutta is an exception. After the spooky Bulbbul , she weaves a musical exploration of the mind of a cuckoo-like girl who is caught between ambition and skill, between expectations and reality. It is difficult to like or empathise with Qala (Triptii Dimri). Like a cuckoo, she is a parasite. A doctor tells us that in her mother’s womb, she sucked her twin brother’s nutrition. Later, when she could not meet the standards set by her demanding mother Urmila (Swastika Mukherjee), a thumri singer past her prime, Qala decides to cull competition at home by making compromises that she ironically learnt while watching her mother walk on feet of clay.

But, in the process, Qala starts loathing her imposter self and descends into a vacuum. But the noise of her soul continues to trouble her. It is a tragic situation, and, in Amit Trivedi and a string of top lyricists of our time — Amitabh Bhattacharya, Swanand Kirkire, Kausar Munir, and Varun Grover — Anvitaa has a team to give voice to the chaos that plays havoc in Qala’s mind. Together with cinematographer Siddharth Divan and production designer Meenal Agrawal, she painstakingly paints the fuzzy inner world of Qala.

Qala (Hindi)

However, the magic of the visual and sonic tapestry doesn’t translate into interesting characters and motivations. There are moments that capture the tenuous relationship between the mother and daughter, but the screenwriting is more like sentences that have all the words, but in the wrong order. You can see that it is about a mother coming in the way of a daughter due to centuries of patriarchy, but there has to be something more that makes Qala wilt so easily. The screenplay seems full of unexplored possibilities... but Anvitaa surprisingly sticks to one-and-a-half notes.

Positioned in the film industry of the 1930s when Calcutta was still the cultural capital, the story refers to the time when courtesans were struggling to get rid of the Bai and Jaan surnames by finding a foothold in the Hindustani classical music. It was the time when the top male classical singers were addressed as ‘Pandit’ but the female stars were yet to be addressed as ‘Vidushis’.

Urmila seems to have emerged from a similar space and wants her daughter to rule the rarefied space of classical music. Unfortunately, Qala doesn’t have the mettle to make it. One day, the mother and daughter come across the performance of a boy from Solan. He sings Kabir in a soiree where Qala renders a classical bandish. The mother soon discovers that divinity sings through Jagan Batwal (Babil Khan) and decides to adopt the orphan. As expected, Qala develops a complex and goes into a shell. She feels that she could at least become a playback singer, but Urmila stops her and pushes Jagan instead. Like most of us, Qala is seeking validation from her mother who is in no mood to serve her daughter to the predators in show business. But Qala has different plans that put her on the path of self-destruction.

There are references to the legendary singing star of Bengali cinema Pahari Sanyal, lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri, and ace photographer Homai Vyarwalla by naming characters after their first names or surnames that bring alive an era when music was organically made and female artists were rare in public space.

However, as the narrative progresses, a degree of artifice creeps into storytelling. Qala may be morally weak from the inside but her confrontation with herself is not. Too much styling becomes a distraction as well. The shutter sound of cameras and the gilt-edged frames are good to marvel at, but they do not fully transport us into a bygone era. It is like building a story by looking at a photo album, and becomes impassive very much like Triptii’s performance. She has an unmistakable spark, but looks a bit stiff for the challenges that the role demands. No such issues with Swastika, who like a cascading river, evokes an old-world charm. Amit Sial chips in as the predator in the skin of a well-wisher.

Meanwhile, Babil makes a confident debut. With deep eyes that resemble those of father Irrfan Khan, he shines as a singer who breathes music. When Qala tries to insert a thermometer into Jagan’s mouth, he almost breaks into an impromptu alaap . It is such magical moments that make Qala worth admiring.

Qala is currently streaming on Netflix

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Qala Review: An Enchanting Mix of Method and Madness

Director : Anvitaa Dutt Writer : Anvitaa Dutt Cast : Triptii Dimri, Swastika Mukherjee, Babil Khan, Amit Sial, Varun Grover

Qala opens with a hero. Her name is Qala Manjushree ( Triptii Dimri ), and she has a voice. She is the nation’s leading playback singer. Having just won the Golden Vinyl in the late 1930s, Qala is seated in a roomful of reporters. Before taking questions, however, she requests the sole female photographer in the room to capture her moment. She makes the men wait, posing for the lady, who in turn reacts like this isn’t the first time Qala’s picked her. Later, at a recording session, the film director wonders why she has a female secretary unlike other stars. Qala gently chides him for using a gender prefix – "you can just say secretary, no?” – while rehearsing with her music director, also a woman, and her queer lyricist. Her breakout song years ago was about the playful politics of consent, centered on a heroine (a cameo by producer Anushka Sharma ) who croons about an entitled lover unwilling to understand that “no means no”.

Everything about Qala’s career suggests that she is the voice of the marginalised – a trailblazing girlboss determined to use her privilege and push for equality in a deeply chauvinist system. Her own path to success has been troubled. So her inner strength is now in service to others like her, those who strive to break the glass ceiling in an industry averse to short vocal cords and long umbilical cords. Maybe, while she’s at it, she might channel this power and punish all the villains of her journey – a heartless mother, a male rival, a sexual predator. Perhaps she might avenge the brutality of being a woman. She is a hero, after all.

In many ways, appreciating Anvitaa Dutt’s haunting Qala merits a look at her haunted directorial debut, Bulbbul (2020). One is the spiritual sequel to the other. Bulbbul , set in the Bengal Presidency of 1901, tells the (love) story of a mysterious landlady who moonlights as a vengeful, man-eating ‘chudail’. She nurses a chilling past by day and preys on male offenders by night. Flashbacks convey that this former child bride was subjected to years of abuse by her husband and his family. The goth-horror period tone almost wills her supernatural transformation – into a creature worthy of her fantasy surroundings. The film follows M. Night Shyamalan ’s “the broken are the more evolved” superhero motif. It’s as though the story finds solace in the mythical after being disillusioned by man; the vigilante demon is the consequence – the afterlife – of all that suppressed trauma and rage. At one point in Qala , her lyricist friend, Majroo ( Varun Grover) , hints at something similar – he mentions that her silence might trigger a “sailaab” (flood) one day.

But the triumph of Qala is that it remains tragically human. The sailaab is more life than afterlife. It’s more Black Swan than Bulbbul . Qala’s transformation is not supernatural but natural – into an anti-creature at odds with the film’s fantasy surroundings. Flashbacks convey her years of suffering and abuse, but the only demons here are internal. We see not the consequence, but the toll of all that trauma. There is no chudail, no vigilantism; just a crisis of conscience. It’s just Qala and the voices in her head. If anything, her feminism emerges as a manner of doubling down on the toxic agency that she embraced as a teenager yearning for the validation of her mother. It becomes her way of purifying the womanhood she once weaponised – her body, soul, moral core – to reach the top. Slowly but steadily, her veneer cracks. Her image fades. Her arc addresses the callousness of a culture that often trivialises the mental health of celebrities as the “pressures of fame”. We blame it on something as public as fame, but movies like Qala remind us that stardom is only the medium. The catalyst can be something as private – as achingly ordinary – as heartbreak or familial discord.

To Dutt’s credit, the striking visual language of Qala expresses the anatomy of madness. It feels like part of the narrative detail, as though the story gets consumed by man despite being on the brink of the mythical. Amit Trivedi ’s best soundtrack since Manmarziyaan (2018) combines with Meenal Agarwal’s production design and Siddharth Diwan’s camerawork to create a psychological palette that works on multiple levels. It’s not just the artful symbolism – like Qala’s Calcutta apartment reflecting the greens of envy and blues of faded masculinity, her songs playing out like melancholic pleas to be heard, or her snowy childhood home replicating the starkness of mental isolation. It’s also the way Qala thinks. Unlike Bulbbul, it’s her mind that determines the sensory tone of this film. The world she sees is very different from the one we do, almost like she’s reimagining the aesthetic of the black-and-white era to renovate her own sanity. She longs for the indoor colours to be beautiful – and the symmetry to be poetic – so that it hides the ugliness inside her. Her obsession is softened by wall mirrors and moths around flames. But when she’s outside, her strings vanish. The sky turns dark and cloudy on the day she compromises her dignity. She hallucinates when the press hounds her for an interview on the street. The snow evokes not just her mindscape but her misdeeds too. A top-angle shot reveals her body crumpled at the center of an icy hedge maze in her yard, foreshadowing the role of a mercury maze in the plot.

There are other lovely touches, too. Qala, like the legendary Lata Mangeshkar, is fondly termed ‘didi’ (sister). Except to her, it also sounds like an accusation, because it’s being a sister that Qala has failed at. Her mother Urmila Devi’s (Swastika Mukherjee) resentment stems from the fact that Qala survived at the cost of a twin brother in the womb. A son that, the woman hoped, would do justice to their family’s classical legacy. When Urmila adopts a talented orphan named Jagan (Babil Khan), who becomes Qala’s stepbrother of sorts, her jealousy shapes the story. Then there’s the choice of period – pre-Independence India – that’s just about cosmetic enough to convey that social shackles like patriarchy are timeless. The writing isn’t afraid to sound a bit contemporary – for instance, when Majroo uses a MeToo-adjacent line to comfort Qala – in its pursuit of cultural fluidity.

The cast bleeds into the film, in all the right ways. Swastika Mukherjee is eerily unsettling as the parent that subverts the Indian father-son dynamic. The late Irrfan’s son, Babil Khan , has a stirring screen presence; his face is lit in part to invoke some of his father’s most memorable roles. You keep looking for his Jagan to give Qala a bigger reason to hate him, but his only crime is that he’s a true artist; even the camera thinks so. Triptii Dimri is strangely persuasive as Qala herself. Her performance brings to mind a sheltered innocence that one usually associates with a Janhvi Kapoor character. Qala’s emotions are stunted, just like her sense of cruelty. Her imposter syndrome is literal. Her personality is derived from pieces of the people around her – evident in how she imitates her mother while seducing a man, or even the way she steals Jagan’s words to explain her condition to a doctor. There are shades of Devdas (2002) in her fraught relationship with Urmila Devi – a mother-daughter story that wears the drama of an unrequited love story.

At times, it appears like the film’s internet-age writing is taunting Qala for being fragile – for being too childish to allow for a supernatural twist. But Dutt’s script implies that a woman’s agency need not only be restricted to the act of having control; it can also be defined by the freedom to lose control. Qala’s sound is, for better or worse, a phonetic subset of being unsound. While watching Bulbbul , I remember observing that Hindi cinema is biased towards performative male breakdowns. Stories too often stage sadness – rather than madness – as the cornerstone of female heartache. Qala rectifies that. Because it is not reluctant to admit that one condition is simply the sequel to the other.

Qala movie review: A brooding portrait of the artist as a woman

Anvita Dutt’s film is a poignant, if familiar, story about artistic merit and the gendered pursuit of both affection and excellence.

In a scene from Netflix’s Qala , a mother tells her daughter “ Naam ke aage pandit lagna chahiye, uske peeche bai nahi ”. This bit of worldly wisdom feels loaded with unseen but readable context. Hidden behind the mother’s worn eyes is possibly a lifetime spent learning a woman’s place in a brutalising man’s world. Her ambitious daughter, won’t have it easy, or worse, she might never have it at all. Qala is about an artist’s pursuit of a vague form of excellence and approval but it is also about the unsaid bond a mother and daughter share. Directed by Anvita Dutt, Qala can often overindulge its eerie atmospherics but at its core it is a deeply poignant narrative about art, aspiration and of course gender.

Qala stars Tripti Dimri as a gifted young vocalist who is the toast of town in pre-Independence India’s film industry. The sight of her conquests is modern-day Kolkata, though we rarely get to take a peek at the city’s streets. Qala is a celebrated singer, serenaded by men and ministers alike. She is also, as an extension of working in the film business, surrounded by leering men. The first scene itself places her centre, at a press conference overrun by male journalists. Her reputation and fame, however, have a grim backstory. Qala is born to a doting but demanding mother in Diwan Manjushree, played by Swastika Mukherjee . The film regularly jumps between these two phases of her life, a sequestered but testing childhood somewhere in the snowy hills between Solan and Shimla and the dizzy heights of stardom in an industry that though it looks warmer, is possibly the coldest place on the planet.

As a parenting hardliner, Manjushree entrusts the harshest methods to teach Qala the most valuable lessons. From banishing her daughter from the house in the night, to replacing her with newfound, obscure talent, Manjushree is both the seed and the sickle. At a concert organised for Qala’s musical debut, the headlines are stolen from under her endearing countenance by the rookie Jagan (played by Irrfan Khan ’s son Babil ). Jagan’s voice, his raw talent becomes the line of division that distances Qala from her mother. Not only is he far more talented, but he is also the one thing she can never be - a man.

This film is a broody mix of stunning music, magical setups and some truly arresting art direction. As was the case with Dutt’s previous project, it is also a film that shouts detail and authenticity at various points and is supported by a palette that brings out the lustre of a bygone era in Indian cinema. It obviously feels nostalgic and is given the gothic treatment that also makes it equal part horror and drama. To which effect, Qala has hallucinatory episodes. Her rise in the industry itself, is punctuated by greased palms and more, a nod to the many ceilings women must task themselves with breaking. And at the end of it all, the pinnacle is satisfyingly distant from the mob, but overwhelming close to the edge. The top of the pyramid, the film tells us, is a deeply lonely place. It is lonelier still for women who get there at some personal and emotional cost.

While Dutt’s previous film attempted to rewrite a popular fairy tale here she reproduces a portrait of the artist as an incomplete woman. A woman who though she ascends to a certain pedestal in public life, descends to a far darker place on the inside. No ascent, it feels, comes without a cost, but for women it comes at the exponential price of having to also play your gender. Success can be grabbed, but not without loosening the grip on things you hold dear. It’s a truism that Manjushree beats into her daughter early. It’s possibly also the kind of truth that eventually becomes her undoing. Some lessons are maybe better not learned at all. Of the performances, none disappoint. Dimri is brilliant as the naïve and yet quietly sinister Qala the tragic monolith at the heart of a film that says as much about art as it does about the emotional cost of ‘making it’. Babil Khan is adequate though never really sensational. Amit Sial is, well, effortlessly brilliant as ever as a blunt and quietly lecherous composer. Varun Grover, in his acting debut, is serviceable at best.

Qala is obviously an acquired taste. It broods and contemplates far too much, but at its heart it has a familiar story to tell about artistic aspiration becoming a conduit for discovering the fractured, personal self. At times a little too decorated for its own good, the film can also seem obsessed with poeticising the banal, and exotifying the mechanical. The sum of these parts, however, is a memorable, if familiar story told through the syntax of arthouse and horror. As an audio-visual artefact at least, this is a specimen worth discussing, poring over and preserving.

Qala is streaming on Netflix

Manik Sharma writes on art and culture, cinema, books, and everything in between.

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'qala' review: true to its name, triptii dimri-babil khan film is a work of art, triptii dimri and babil khan's film, 'qala' is available to stream on netflix..

"Every decision I've ever made in my life has led me to this exact moment," I think as I cry in a fast food restaurant about something I'm sure I'd consider mundane now.

But that's a sentiment that every human echoes multiple times in their life. And Anvitaa Dutt's latest Qala is about those moments in life that are less experience, more consequence.

Qala is about a young singer Qala (Triptii Dimri) who dedicates her life to winning her mother's approval even as the latter shuts her out. The film's initial setting isolates Qala and her mother Urmila (Swastika Mukherjee) from the rest of the world, their home surrounded by ice.

Triptii Dimri and Babil Khan's film, 'Qala' is available to stream on Netflix.

Triptii Dimri in an as Qala.

(Photo Courtesy: YouTube)

In this isolation, there is a dense space between Qala and Urmila, one that the former struggles to wade through and the latter lets fester. Triptii Dimri as Qala is both radiant and demure, in essence exactly what her career demands. The film flits between her past and her present as her actions in the past continue to haunt her.

At home, Qala seems almost immature and childish (which is understandable considering her fraught relationship with her mother devoid of the affection necessary for a child to grow into a well-adjusted adult). In the present, she’s at the zenith of fame and uses her sway to uplift female artists around her.

Through Qala, Anvitaa Dutt manages to explore intergenerational trauma, patriarchy in families and in the industry, childhood trauma and how it affects one’s psyche, and more.

The ways in which Qala has internalised her mother’s blame and criticism are stark on screen.

Yet Qala doesn’t make villains out of its characters. One is inclined perhaps to dislike Urmila but ‘hate’ doesn’t arise because she, too, is a character born out of her circumstance. Her quiet hesitance and loud disdain are all conveyed through Swastika Mukherjee’s remarkable skill.

A still from the film Qala.

Also worthy of mention is Babil Khan, who stars as Jagan, a talented singer who was raised in a gurdwara .

In his debut film, Babil proves to be an actor to watch out for, almost evolving with his character’s arc.

Urmila’s acceptance of Jagan contrasts her disdain for Qala (something that is also connected to the latter’s birth). Even as Qala tries to make a place for herself, there are several instances that will make you wonder, “Would Gagan have had the same experience?”

The way patriarchy seeps into Qala’s life is magnificently explored in the film, exploring multiple facets of how women are disadvantaged in their lives and their careers. Even beyond the story, Qala is a film of expertise in art and music.

Production designer Meenal Agarwal and Dutt manage to create a story rooted in emotions set in places that seem almost fantastical. The suffocation of Qala’s house in Himachal (with her mother) turns into a suffocation of a much more constricted space in her own residence in Calcutta.

The motifs of moths, snow, and mercury all seem out of place in their settings in the most efficient of ways. There might be flaws in the film but they are overshadowed by the makers’ vision.

Swastika Mukherjee in the film Qala.

One might have to watch Qala all over again just to catch the references to Dutch artists like Rembrandt and Vermeer. The director of photography Siddharth Diwan executes Dutt and Agarwal’s vision to perfection – not a shot is out of place.

Saving the best for the last, Qala ’s music. The music by Amit Trivedi, consisting of tracks like ‘Rubaiyaan’ and ‘Shauq’, has a transforming quality to it. Every track drags the listener to 1940s Calcutta and is the kind of music Indian cinema came to be known for.

Qala is about so much more than I could fit in this review and that is telling of the film’s brilliance.

Rating: 4 Quints of 5

'Qala' Trailer: Tripti Dimri & Swastika Mukherjee Star In A Heartbreaking Tale

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Qala Review: Cinematic Beauty

A film that looks and sounds so gorgeous must be welcomed, applauds Deepa Gahlot.

On watching Anvita Dutt's second film, Qala , it is clear that she has the cinematic approach of an aesthete.

Like her debut film, Bulbbul , this one too is a period piece, set in the world of music in the 1940s.

It's a pity the film has to be watched on the television screen because the wonderful art deco design and detailing, the painterly frames need to be appreciated better.

Having said that, it is difficult to aim a film like Qala at the mass market, possibly no longer used to a pace that does not hesitate to linger over emotions and expressions, instead of rushing through.

Qala (Truptii Dimri) grew up in a snow-bound Himachal palace with a musician mother Urmila (Swastika Mukherjee), who is cold to the point of cruelty, so that the daughter is constantly running after her saying 'sorry'.

Qala keeps trying to please her mother with her singing, but when Urmila spots the talented orphan Jagan (Babil Khan) with a folk singer's open-throated voice, she adopts him as the son she never had, pushing her daughter into serving her prodigy (It might be a spoiler for some, but Jagan may be based on real-life singer Master Madan).

With her own guts and initiative, Qala makes her way into the movie business of Calcutta, submitting to the sexual demands of the composer Sumant Kumar (Amit Sial) to reach her goal. She has the friendship of a poet called Majrooh (Varun Grover), a female composer Naseeban (Tasveer Kamil) and a loyal secretary Sudha (Girija Oak), but after she achieves what her mother had dreamed of for Jagan, she starts to mentally unravel (a hint of Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan ).

Without overemphasising it, Dutt captures the sexism of show business that calls an accomplished male singer 'pandit' and a female ' bai-ji '. Women had to then, as now, struggle harder, compromise or give up.

It is ironic then, that surrounded by the same kind of predatory men, Lata Mangeshkar, pushed through and ruled film music for over half a century.

It is, of course, a writer-director's prerogative to tell the story she wants to, but it is dispiriting to see that ambitious women continue to be punished, when ideally, there should be more films about happily successful women.

Poor Qala spends the whole film weeping, moping or hallucinating, and with all the effort Triptii Dimri puts in, she is unable to make the character likeable or sympathetic.

For a film mainly about a toxic mother-daughter relationship, the men get better scenes, better lines and more defined characters -- even those in small parts.

Majrooh's red painted nails, for instance, say a lot, while Urmila, laden with traditional silver jewellery, says nothing.

Babil Khan's debut is not flashy and he plays the artiste with a shy pride. Hopefully, his next film will give him more to do.

Anvita Dutt's repeat collaboration with Anushka Sharma's production company (she appears in a lovely cameo), goes to show that with the right kind of support and a free hand, a film-maker can work towards a vision, rather than just making crowd-pleasers.

Qala has its share of problems, but a film that looks and sounds so gorgeous, must be welcomed.

Qala streams on Netflix.

MOVIE REVIEWS

Qala Movie Review (2022)

Anvita dutt's exquisite 'qala', on netflix, puts us into the state of mind of a disturbed playback singer.

Qala Movie Cast & Crew

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.

As played by Triptii Dimri, Qala – similarly – is a tightly wound character. With all her success, you'd think she'd be a looser person, a blithe spirit swanning through the Hindi film industry of the 1940s. Or maybe it's the 1950s. It doesn't matter – just like the British Raj period setting did not really matter in Bulbbul . Despite these carefully recreated eras, Anvita evokes an exquisite sense of timelessness that makes these films feel like Gothic dreams. There are big scenes that function as a narrative through-line – they help us hold on to a semblance of a "plot". And yet, there are gaps – and the back-and-forth of time, the segues between the past and the present, are so fluid that it takes a second or two to realise where we are. It's like how we remember dreams.

The story could be seen as both "feminist" and merely "female-centric". Qala rebels when someone calls her secretary a "female secretary". She asks if the gender indicator is really necessary. During a press conference filled with male journalists, Qala singles out a female photographer hiding in the back and gives her precedence. In another scene, Qala asks for pay parity with a male singer. And yet, these feminist shows of strength are constantly undermined. Qala comes from a musical family, and her mother – superbly played by Swastika Mukherjee, whose face is weighted with sorrow – tells her that she can be a singer, too, but she will have to work harder. The point, she says, is to have a "Pandit" before your name, not a "Bai" after – like a courtesan.

Now, this mother – she's a real piece of work, a classic Gothic character. She's like Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca , protecting the memory of a dead person and actively sabotaging Qala's efforts to take the place of that dead person in her heart. Even her smiles are tinged with pain, with memories of her big loss. And that results in an enormous yearning in Qala. She wants her mother's love, and she also wants her mother's acknowledgement that she is a good singer. Anvita and Triptii (who is magnificent) shape Qala with this yearning. At the press conference, Qala is asked how she feels after winning a big award. She says, with a slight smile, " Aisa lagta hai ki thak ke ghar pahunchi hoon aur maa ne darwaza khola hai. " What a line. It shows her tiredness, her longing for "home", her yearning for her mother's open arms.

Behind her smiles, Triptii suggests a constant tremulousness, tentativeness, the sense that her psyche is constantly walking a wobbly tightrope. Look at the scene where Qala finally confronts her mother. She pours out her emotions, but without raising her voice. It could be the mildest cinematic confrontation ever. And you see why we are hardly shown scenes of Qala's success – she just does not have confidence, and she's always feeling second-best. There are some lovely scenes - including a few with a superbly watchful and empathetic Varun Grover, as a lyricist named Majrooh (as in… Sultanpuri?) - where we see Qala in her element, in her world. But the lines in the song Rubaaiyaan say this: " Gumnaam andheron ke saaye / Aawaaz ke raaz chhupaaye… " The person with the famous voice exists in a shadow world. The story behind the recording of Qala's first film song says a lot.

Amit Trivedi's music is wonderful. The voices are not super-polished like we usually hear in films, and every time we hear a song, it sounds like a rehearsal we are being privy to. There's the sense of an unfinished quality here, too – like Qala. Why is Qala's mother this way? I am not going to explain this further – but it's because Qala, in a way, "ate up" her son. And we realise this is as much a horror story as Bulbbul . Only, the horror is entirely psychological. And Qala pays for her deed by being upstaged by another "son" who becomes her mother's protégé. This character, named jagan, is beautifully played by Babil Khan, and he is introduced after Qala has rendered a thumri in front of a distinguished audience. He is an orphan brought up in a gurdwara and he breaks into a Shabad Gurbani kirtan that pierces everyone's heart with its raw emotion. It overshadows Qala's technical virtuosity – and another layer of doubt is added to the character. Will Qala ever be able to sing like that ?

Anvita appears to love birds. There was bulbbul. Here, Qala is equated to a koel. A song comes with a line: " Ud jayega hans akela ". And based on her two films, she either makes her heroine fly or clips her wings. And what I love most about her work is her insistence that women are not born evil. They do bad things because people, in turn, do bad things to them. And that is why Qala remains a sympathetic character throughout. Even the mother isn't someone you hate. Recall the scene with the cradle and you know what's made her that way. The men, on the other hand, aren't explained so well – they come across as genuinely bad or just plain insensitive people. For instance, for all his artistic sensitivity, couldn't Jagan see how much Qala wanted to be a singer? But then, if he had, Qala would have been sorted, and we would never have gotten this gorgeous dreamscape of a movie.

About Author

Baradwaj Rangan

National Award-winning film critic Baradwaj Rangan, former deputy editor of The Hindu and senior editor of Film Companion, has carved a niche for himself over the years as a powerful voice in cinema, especially the Tamil film industry, with his reviews of films. While he was pursuing his chemical engineering degree, he was fascinated with the writing and analysis of world cinema by American critics. Baradwaj completed his Master’s degree in Advertising and Public Relations through scholarship. His first review was for the Hindi film Dum, published on January 30, 2003, in the Madras Plus supplement of The Economic Times. He then started critiquing Tamil films in 2014 and did a review on the film Subramaniapuram, while also debuting as a writer in the unreleased rom-com Kadhal 2 Kalyanam. Furthermore, Baradwaj has authored two books - Conversations with Mani Ratnam, 2012, and A Journey Through Indian Cinema, 2014. In 2017, he joined Film Companion South and continued to show his prowess in critiquing for the next five years garnering a wide viewership and a fan following of his own before announcing to be a part of Galatta Media in March 2022.

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Movie Review: ‘The Crow’ reimagined is stylish and operatic, but cannot outfly 1994 original

This image released by Lionsgate shows Bill Skarsgård in “The Crow”. (Larry Horricks/Lionsgate via AP)

This image released by Lionsgate shows Bill Skarsgård, left, and FKA twigs in “The Crow”. (Larry Horricks/Lionsgate via AP)

Bill Skarsgard attends “The Crow” world premiere at the Village East by Angelika on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Rupert Sanders, from left, FKA twigs, and Bill Skarsgard attend “The Crow” world premiere at the Village East by Angelika on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

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One of the first things you see in the reimagined “The Crow” is the sight of a fallen white horse in a muddy field, bleeding badly after becoming entangled in barbed wire. It’s a metaphor, of course, and a clunky one at that — a powerful image that doesn’t really fit well and is never explained.

That’s a hint that director Rupert Sanders will have a tendency to consistently pick the stylish option over the honest one in this film. In his attempt to give new life to the cult hero of comics and film, he’s given us plenty of beauty at the expense of depth or coherence.

The filmmakers have set their tale in a modern, generic Europe and made it very clear that this movie is based on the graphic novel by James O’Barr, but the 1994 film adaptation starring Brandon Lee hovers over it like, well, a stubborn crow.

Brandon, son of legendary actor and martial artist Bruce Lee, was just 28 when he died after being shot while filming a scene for “The Crow.” History seems always to repeat: The new adaptation lands as another on-set death remains in the headlines.

Lee’s “The Crow” was finished without him and he never got to see it enter Gen X memory in all its rain-drenched, gothic glory, influencing everything from alternative fashion to “Blade” to Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy.

Bill Skarsgård seizes Lee’s role of Eric Draven, a man so in love that he returns from the dead to revenge his and his sweetheart’s slayings in what can be best called a sort of supernatural, romantic murderfest. (The tagline, “True love never dies,” clumsily rips off Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera.”)

William Schneider, who co-wrote the screenplay with Zach Baylin, has given the story a near-operatic facelift, by introducing a devil, a Faustian bargain, blood-on-blood oaths and a godlike guide who monitors the limbo between heaven and hell, which looks like a disused, weed-covered railway station. “Kill the ones who killed you and you’ll get her back,” our hero is told.

The first half drags at it sets the table for the steady beat of limbs and necks being detached at the end. Eric and his love, Shelly (played by an uneven FKA Twigs), meet in a rehab prison for wayward youth that is so well lit and appointed that it looks more like an airport lounge where the cappuccinos are $19 but the Wi-Fi is complimentary.

Eric is a gentle loner — tortured by a past the writers don’t bother filling in, who likes to sketch in a book (universal cinema code signaling a sensitive soul) and is heavily tattooed (he’s often shirtless). His apartment has rows of mannequins with their heads covered in plastic and his new love calls him “brilliantly broken.” He’s like a Blink-182 lyric come to life.

Shelly is more complex, but that’s because the writers maybe gave up on giving her a real backstory. She has a tattoo that says “Laugh now, cry later,” reads serious literature and loves dancing in her underwear. She clearly comes from wealth and has had a falling out with her mom, but has also done an unimaginably horrible thing, which viewers will learn about at the end.

Part of the trouble is that the lead couple cast off very little electricity, offering a love affair that’s more teen-like than all-consuming. And this is a story that needs a love capable of transcending death.

There are lots of cool-looking moments — mostly Skarsgård in a trench coat, stomping around the desolate concrete jungle in the rain at night — until “The Crow” builds to one of the better action sequences this year, albeit another one of those heightened showdowns at the opera.

By this time, Eric has donned the Crow’s heavy eye and cheek makeup. He adds to this ensemble a katana and an inability to die. As he closes in on his target, mowing down tuxedoed bad guys as arias soar, the group movements on stage are echoed by the furious fighting backstage. A few severed heads might be considered over the top at curtain call, but subtlety isn’t being applauded here.

If the original was plot-light but visually delicious, the new one has a better story but suffers from ideas in the films built on its predecessor, stealing a little from “The Matrix,” “Joker” and “Kill Bill.” Why not create something entirely new?

“The Crow” isn’t bad — and it gets better as it goes — but it’s an exercise in folly. It cannot escape Lee and the 1994 original even as it builds a more allegorical scaffolding for the smartphone generation. To use that very first metaphor, it’s like the trapped white horse — held down by its own painful past, never free to gallop on its own.

“The Crow,” a Lionsgate release that hits theaters Friday, is rated R for “strong bloody violence, gore, language, sexuality/nudity and drug use.” Running time: 111 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.

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A man investigates diversity, equity, and inclusion practices, exposing absurdities through undercover social experiments. A man investigates diversity, equity, and inclusion practices, exposing absurdities through undercover social experiments. A man investigates diversity, equity, and inclusion practices, exposing absurdities through undercover social experiments.

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Trivia The wig Matt Walsh uses is the same one he used in the movie Lady Ballers.
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‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ Review: Tim Burton’s Lightweight Sequel Works as Ghostly Fan Service

Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder and Jenna Ortega star in a sequel that's no "Beetlejuice," but it's got just enough Burton juice.

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‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ Review: Tim Burton’s Lightweight Sequel Works as Ghostly Fan Service 2 days ago

BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE, (aka BEETLEJUICE 2), from left: Winona Ryder, Bob, Michael Keaton, 2024. © Warner Bros. /Courtesy Everett Collection

Back in 1988, “ Beetlejuice ” was a comedy, a ghost story, a high-camp horror film, and a macabre funhouse ride, all driven by a new kind of palm-buzzer freak-show prankishness. I first saw the movie at a Saturday-night sneak preview, before anyone knew a thing about it, and by the time it was over it was clear that the director, Tim Burton , was going to be a superstar who ruled over his own weirdly ardent world of ghoulish mockery.

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As a result, it’s one of those sequels that spends a lot of time looking back. The film opens with the tingle of Danny Elfman’s jumpy ghost music, along with another flyover shot of the picturesque town of Winter River, Connecticut, where Winona Ryder ’s Lydia Deetz, the former goth teen who interfaced with the spirit world, is now a psychic mediator who hosts her own hunt-for-the-paranormal television show entitled “Ghost House.” Lydia still wears her hair in spiky bangs, but where you might expect her to have relaxed into middle age, the way Ryder plays her she’s more distraught than ever. Maybe that’s because her TV-producer boyfriend, Rory (Justin Theroux), is a fatuous sleaze who speaks in progressive therapeutic bromides to cover his flagrant opportunism. Or maybe it’s because her daughter, Astrid ( Jenna Ortega ), has nothing but contempt for her mother’s ghostly preoccupations, which she thinks are sheer delusion.

Catherine O’Hara, winningly overwrought as ever, is back as Delia, Lydia’s narcissistic artist stepmother. And to spin past any awkwardness over former cast member Jeffrey Jones (who is now a convicted sex offender), his character, Charles — Lydia’s father and Delia’s husband — is given a claymation segment that ends with him being chomped by a shark; the character then spends the rest of the movie skulking through the afterlife as a blood-spurting trunk without a head. As for Keaton’s title pest, he keeps popping up in Lydia’s sightlines, and it’s not long before he’s summoned. Keaton, at 73, invests him with that same obscene gnashing energy and throwaway scuzzball cunning — and, in fact, Beetlejuice figures out another way to coerce Lydia into marrying him. It’s all hooked to the fact that Astrid has fallen for a sweetheart of a dude in her class (Arthur Conti), who turns out to have a very dark secret.

The movie doesn’t come entirely alive until the scene where Beetlejuice, acting as Lydia and Rory’s “couple’s therapist,” literally spills his guts, then produces an infant version of himself — a baby as disquieting as the crawling-on-the-ceiling one in “Trainspotting.” A gambit like this exists mostly for its own agreeably sick sake, and that, in its way, is the “Beetlejuice” aesthetic: Tim Burton making this stuff up simply because it tickles his naughty fancy. At least one thing he has made up is a bit cringe: the punning use of “Soul Train,” complete with a boogie-down chorus line of ’70s funk dancers (which in the movie becomes a train for dead souls — get it?). And the plot has even more of the balsa-wood quality that the Alec Baldwin/Geena Davis ghost plot in “Beetlejuice” had.

Reviewed at Venice Film Festival (Out of competition), Aug. 28, 2024. MPA rating: PG-13. Running time: 104 MIN.

Production: A Warner Bros. Pictures release, in association with Domain Entertainment, of a Tim Burton, Tommy Harper, Plan B Entertainment, Marc Toberoff production. Producers: Marc Toberoff, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Tommy Harper, Tim Burton. Executive producers: Sara Desmond, Katterli Frauenfelder, Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, Larry Wilson, Laurence Senelick, Brad Pitt.
Crew: Director: Tim Burton. Screenplay: Alfred Gough, Miles Millar. Camera: Haris Zambarloukos. Editor: Jay Prychidny. Music: Danny Elfman.
With: Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Jenna Ortega, Justin Theroux, Willem Dafoe, Monica Bellucci, Arthur Conti, Nick Kellington, Santiago Cabrera, Burn Gorman, Danny DeVito.

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Marvel’s ‘deadpool & wolverine’: what the critics are saying.

Shawn Levy's R-rated film, starring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, hits theaters July 26.

By Abid Rahman

Abid Rahman

International Editor, Digital

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Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool/Wade Wilson and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine/Logan in Shawn Levy's 'Deadpool & Wolverine.'

Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine hits theaters July 26, but the review embargo for the film broke on Tuesday, and the early reaction from critics has been largely positive.

The third Deadpool movie, and first to be included in the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe, stars Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman as the titular characters and is directed by Shawn Levy. The cast also includes The Crown ‘s Emma Corrin as Cassandra Nova and Succession ‘s Matthew Macfadyen as TVA (Time Variance Authority) agent Mr. Paradox.

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Warner Bros.? Paramount? Universal? How to choose the best Hollywood studio tour for you

An illustration of a studio tour tram made of various features from studio lot tours.

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When it comes to L.A. outings, the movie studio tour can be easy for locals to overlook. After all, surrounded by Hollywood productions, the entire city can feel like a stage. And if you’ve been on backlots or know people who work in the film and television industries, the magic of the moving picture may already be demystified.

And yet there’s still much to adore about an afternoon jaunt through a filmmaking campus.

In a city that’s too often unjustly stereotyped as favoring the new, the Hollywood studio reminds us of how much history — and, specifically, pop-culture myth-making — is rooted in and around Los Angeles. There in these spaces, you might see a spot where James Dean once stood, roll past the “Psycho” house, step into a partly dressed soundstage or walk through a sound-making Foley factory. Our studios remain working palaces dedicated to crafting dreams.

That all may sound romanticized — the reality of “ making it ” in Hollywood is increasingly challenging, and the studio itself is threatened by a global, digital and consolidating production industry — but it’s only meant to note what’s at risk.

For me, the studio tour was once a go-to destination when out-of-towners came to visit. These days, I like to revisit one every few years, just as a reminder to remain uncynical and to marvel at the talent and cinematic art that this region has invented. And each tour has a slightly different flavor. Whether it’s animation history you crave or museum-like installations, there’s a tour for every kind of film buff.

Universal Studios

A tram enters a fake Western-styled town.

Best for: Seekers of thrills and cinematic magic

It’s not an exaggeration to say that if there was no tram tour on the Universal Studios lot, there would be no Universal Studios theme park. Sixty years ago, the backlot tram tour began as a way, in part, to increase commissary sales as tourists liked the opportunity to dine on the lot. Quickly, however, those running the tour had a realization that every studio trek has to confront: looking at giant soundstages or deserted sets is fun for only so long.

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Thus, Universal Studios pioneered the concept of melding the tour with various attractions — cinematic illusions such as a flash flood, a runaway train or, in the late ’80s, an earthquake simulator. Today, the tram tour — now officially designated as the World-Famous Studio Tour — is but one part of a larger theme park, designed to show us mini-attractions such as an encounter with a shark from “Jaws” or a 3-D ride alongside King Kong. Yes, there are backlot sets, including instantly recognizable locations from “Back to the Future,” “Pyscho,” “Desperate Housewives” and, most recently, “Nope.” But this 60-minute journey is more than a behind-the-scenes look. Instead, the focus is on the emotion and excitement of movie-making mirages.

A mechanical shark leaps out of the water.

There is even a lesser known VIP option to exploring the park. Expect to spend around $400 per person for it, but the perks include a longer tour with the ability to walk around the sets, venture into a prop house and likely set foot on a soundstage.

Universal Studios, 100 Universal City Plaza. The tram tour is included with theme park admission, which varies per day but ranges from $109 to $149 per person. For more information , visit universalstudioshollywood.com .

Warner Bros.

Best for: Fans of interactive exhibits, Central Perk selfies and everything “Harry Potter”

Warner Bros. has always had a showman’s approach to its studio tour, opening its gates to the public in the mid-’60s to herald the arrival of “The Great Race” with cars, props and a behind-the-scenes featurette to accompany a backlot venture. It’s a mindset that continues today, as the Warner Bros. Studio Tour aims to walk the line between pure history and entertainment, with numerous recent expansions into interactive installations. Come for the tour, stay for a potion-making mini-game to celebrate the “Harry Potter” franchise or the ability to pose with multiple Batmobiles.

An assemblage of props, including a bear in a top hat.

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The standard tour offers about a 60-minute tram outing. Expect to stop and walk among its suburban town, where guides will point out filming locations from “Friends,” “The Big Bang Theory,” “Gilmore Girls,” “Cool Hand Luke” and more, as well as to see the wilds of San Fernando Valley, including a forest area that’s been used in the likes of “Jurassic Park,” “True Blood” and “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.” There’s also a Turner Classic Movies-themed tour , if you lean more toward cinematic classics such as “Casablanca” and “Rebel Without a Cause.”

But what truly separates Warner Bros. from its competitors is recent investments in a re-creation of the “Friends” Central Perk Café — yes, you can dine there — and its surrounding museum-like exhibits. Interactive tables will allow you to explore the actors of Warner Bros. past and present, while special effects stations can add or subtract digital accouterments with the movement of a knob. There’s up-sell green screen photo ops, short films and demonstrations of motion-capture technology. A secondary stop pulls from tricks from the theme park industry, with photo ops pegged to DC superhero films and the “Potter” franchise, including the ability to be assigned a personality by the latter’s wizardly Sorting Hat.

Warner Bros. Studio Tour, 3400 Warner Blvd., Burbank. The standard tour starts at $73 ; Southern California residents receive a $12 discount through Dec. 17 , with deluxe and VIP offerings providing additional exploration of the studio’s backlot. For more information , visit wbstudiotour.com.

Walt Disney Studios

Best for: Disney history buffs and animation lovers

If Disneyland idealizes American stories and Western takes on classic fairy tales, then a trip to the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank grounds them in a bit more reality. But it is still Disney, so expect a little bit of folkloric mythologizing, especially when it comes to company founder Walt Disney.

A centerpiece of the 2½-hour tour — open only to members of the Disney fan club D23, including those with a free membership — is the meticulous restoration of Disney’s five-room office suite. It’s a treasure trove of items belonging to Disney — or re-creations of them, such as a reproduction of the special Oscar he won for “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” with a normal-sized statuette and seven smaller ones. Marvel, too, at the Disneyland master plan, with nods to what were then recently completed projects such as It’s a Small World. The office is preserved as it would have looked at the time of Disney’s death in 1966. (Note: At the time of publication, the office was due for renovation in late 2024.)

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Additionally, no other tour is as dedicated to the art of animation as this one. No real surprise, of course, but guests will visit the original animation building — where “Cinderella” and “Lady and the Tramp,” among many others, were created — and learn about Disney’s many advancements to the medium. Discover, too, the unique construction of the lot, and clever efforts to conceal precious hand-drawn animation cels from the sun. The tour also includes a stop at the Walt Disney Archives, the working research lab dedicated to preserving all things Disney.

The Walt Disney Studios Official Tour, 500 S . Buena Vista St., Burbank. D23 members are allowed to purchase two tickets; ticket cost varies by membership level but starts at $79. For more information , visit d23.com/upcoming-events.

Sony Pictures

A Culver City movie studio with a rainbow sculpture in the distance.

Best for: Game show devotees and a vision of Oz

The Times first wrote about a tour of the famed MGM Studios lot in the late ’60s. Times, culture and ownership have changed, and the now Sony Pictures Studio Tour no longer, for instance, provides a look at Esther Williams’ private swimming pool. Today, it begins with a re-creation of the “Seinfeld” set and props from the “Men in Black” films. The Culver City lot still offers the occasional nod to its past, via architectural allusions to MGM’s history or artist Tony Tasset’s 94-foot, 2012-constructed rainbow that references “The Wizard of Oz,” which was filmed at the locale.

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A signature of the modern Sony Pictures tour is a stop on the sets of venerable game shows such as “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune,” provided they’re not in the midst of filming. But even if they are, you’ll still have the opportunity to stand before a green screen and take home a “Jeopardy!” picture as a memento.

You’ll also likely get a look at various working aspects of the studio. On the day I visited, we strolled through the sound production offices to see how Foley artists operate. Imagine a darkened, cramped room that looks like someone’s garage filled with old clothes, crusty leaves, an assortment of footwear and broken machinery.

It was a brief chance to play, as guests stepped among different floor types to create various sounds. We also spent a moment in an overdub room, mimicking the creation of white noise from a crowd.

“Breaking Bad” and Ghostbusters” fans will snare a look at vehicles used in productions. For a different perspective, schedule one of Sony’s evening tours.

Sony Pictures, 3990 Overland Ave ., Culver City. Tours start at $55. For more information, visit sonypicturesstudiostours.com.

Paramount Pictures

Best for: Those looking for Hollywood nostalgia

Paramount dispenses with the slickness and some of the how-to’s of other tours, focusing instead on its historic Hollywood locale on Melrose Avenue. A sense of grandeur permeates the lot, thanks in large part to the ornate archway of the Bronson Gate — which was a filming location for “Sunset Boulevard.” On Paramount’s standard tour, you’ll learn how Alfred Hitchcock nearly destroyed a soundstage to film “Rear Window,” and glimpse the lot’s expansive “blue sky tank,” which can create oceanic illusions. On the day I visited, we explored a soundstage dressed for Taylor Tomlinson’s “After Midnight,” and paused to watch crews ready the lot’s New York streets for filming.

At a prop warehouse specifically geared for the tour, one can step on a transporter from “Star Trek Beyond.” Also present: costumes for the “Halo” series, a full-scale Bumblebee from the “Transformers” films and mushrooms and an “egg mobile” from the “Sonic the Hedgehog” movies. This is more of a gallery-like setup than it is a venture into a working prop house.

The two-hour Paramount tour is relatively intimate, featuring a small group and a tour guide armed with an iPad. Higher-priced options offer a look into more operational archival areas of the lot, but as it stands, it’s primarily a chance to see a historic Hollywood lot, one potentially on the verge of significant change .

Paramount Pictures, 5515 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles. Tour start at $65. For more information, visit paramountstudiotour.com.

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Todd Martens is a features columnist at the Los Angeles Times who writes about theme parks and West Coast Experiences, among other topics. Martens joined the Los Angeles Times in 2007 and has covered a mix of interactive entertainment as its game critic and pop music as a reporter and editor. Previously, he reported on the music business for Billboard Magazine. Martens has contributed to numerous books, including “The Big Lebowski: An Illustrated, Annotated History of the Greatest Cult Film of All Time.” He continues to torture himself by rooting for the Chicago Cubs and, while he likes dogs, he is more of a cat person.

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Qala (2022)

I can't just comprehend what I have just watched. This is probably one of the best Indian films I have watched it a long time. The plot centers around an aspiring singer, who wants to make it big in the industry, and her mother makes sure that she achieves her dream. But her mother changes her stance when she meets another singer, who she adopts, and then she proceeds to shower love and attention on her adopted son. The most significant aspect of this film is its visual appeal. Every frame is picture-esque, and the cinematographer has done a good job of highlights the snowy landscapes and the interior of the house. Also the camera angles do a great job of giving a claustrophobic feel, showing how the main-protagonist feels trapped mentally. The actors do a great job of portraying emotional depth. Especially the lead actress Tripti Dimri, who will make you sympathize with her, and also does a good job of showcasing her inner guilt and turmoil. She does a great job of portraying her mental vulnerabilities. Lastly the script and screenplay, the movie has a distinctive narrative style which makes it stand out from the rest. The first half of the movie makes you eager to know the backstory of the characters, and the sudden ending will make you gaze into the oblivion for minutes after the movie has ended.

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IMAGES

Qala Movie (2022) Cast, Release Date, Story, Budget, Collection, Poster
Qala Review
Qala Review: A Melodious Tale Of Jealousy And Ambition With Triptii
QALA Movie Review
Qala movie review: An ambitious but unwieldy saga of a singer who
Qala Review: A Musical Masterpiece With Aesthetic Visuals.

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Dark Country (2009) Movie Hindi Review
LEVIATHAN HUNTERS EP: 1
Qala Movie Ending Explain
Qala qrupu-mocuze
Qala|| Sireesha Bhagavatula|| cover by Mala and Arjun
Shauq from Qala movie by Gargi

COMMENTS

Qala : Discussion : r/bollywood
For me, my biggest complaint was Babil Khan as Jagan. Needed someone with more screen presence and charisma. His voice modulation and lip sync while singing were also very artificial. Wish it was a different actor who could make us feel more emphatic towards the character of Jagan. 2.
Qala: Each Frame is beautiful : r/bollywood
Another lovely movie from Anvita Dutt after Bulbbul. A dark, complex and realistic story told with beautiful and haunting visuals, lovely performances and a nice retro soundtrack. Qala's story and perspective of reality is not easy to watch but is really well written and executed.
Qala is Masterpiece. Arguably, Bollywood's movie of the year ...
Now the watching experience of this movie rendered me speechless. Everything in the movie, from impeccable writing and direction, detailed production design, emotive acting performances and astonishing cinematography is near perfect. It successfully recaptured the Golden years of Bollywood, not only aesthetically, but with its soul as well.
Qala review
0. 3.5. Summary. Qala is a film that highlights mental health and the pressures of being a woman in an industry that doesn't give you room to breathe. Everything is pre-determined for you, and not being able to make those choices can do more harm than good. We review the Netflix Indian film Qala, which does not contain spoilers.
Qala
Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 2, 2022. Santanu Das Hindustan Times. One wishes the film mirrored Qala's temperament with a little more vigour. Qala, even in its persuasive best ...
Qala
Jan 23, 2024. Qala is an intoxicating juggernaut of self-doubt, destruction and road to atonement. It looks beyond the obvious to explore the underlying complexities of a mother-daughter equation ...
Qala Review: Period Drama Rides On Impressive Turns By Triptii Dimri
Cast: Triptii Dimri, Swastika Mukherjee, Babil Khan, Amit Sial and Varun Grover. Director: Anvita Dutt. Rating: 3.5 stars (out of 5) Fastidiously designed, heavily stylised and occasionally stolid ...
Qala (2022) Movie Review
Qala (2022) Movie Review - A visually breathtaking movie that artistically explores psychological themes. 24 January 2023 3 December 2022 by Sarah Almeida. ... Qala soon begins to let her mind dominate as she struggles with the demands of the movie industry, which eventually results in her destruction.
A Masterpiece From Bollywood?
I was really looking forward to #qala starring #triptidimri in the lead role and that has released on #netflixindia . The film starring #babilkhan and #swast...
'Qala' Review: A Lullaby Of A Film That Tries To Talk About Toxic
In conclusion, "Qala" is a sleep-inducing movie that looks spectacular. Anvita Dutt evidently wants to talk about a lot of things because she is aware that those topics exist. But she fails to unpack them through her characters. At the cost of sounding repetitive, she does have an eye for composing gorgeous visuals.
Qala (2022)
Qala: Directed by Anvita Dutt. With Triptii Dimri, Babil Khan, Swastika Mukherjee, Amit Sial. Haunted by her past, a talented singer with a rising career copes with the pressure of success, a mother's disdain and the voices of doubt within her.
Qala movie review: The stately beauty of Tripti Dimri-Babil Khan film
Qala movie review: The stately beauty of Tripti Dimri-Babil Khan film works against it Qala movie review: Babil Khan reminds you of his father, the late, brilliant Irrfan, because of some of his features that he has inherited, as well as, evidently, the acting gene. But it is equally evident that Babil is his own actor.
'Qala' Netflix Review: Stream It or Skip It?
A Netflix India original, Qala is the second feature from writer-director Anvita Dutt. Dutt's first film Bulbbul was also released via Netflix and centered on women's issues in ancient India ...
'Qala' movie review: Anvitaa Dutt's mother-daughter tale is poignant
Qala may be morally weak from the inside but her confrontation with herself is not. Too much styling becomes a distraction as well. The shutter sound of cameras and the gilt-edged frames are good ...
Qala Review: An Enchanting Mix of Method and Madness
In many ways, appreciating Anvitaa Dutt's haunting Qala merits a look at her haunted directorial debut, Bulbbul (2020). One is the spiritual sequel to the other. Bulbbul, set in the Bengal Presidency of 1901, tells the (love) story of a mysterious landlady who moonlights as a vengeful, man-eating 'chudail'.She nurses a chilling past by day and preys on male offenders by night.
Qala is most likely the best Bollywood movie of the year : r ...
The movie is truly fantastic, good writing which is presented in a mix of a very simple and creative way. It's gorgeously shot, with each frame looking like a painting, a pure visual feast. It's delicate blend of pain and poetry is amazing. There were a bunch of things that didn't work for me but they weren't enough to remove from the ...
Qala movie review: A brooding portrait of the artist as a woman
Qala movie review: A brooding portrait of the artist as a woman. Anvita Dutt's film is a poignant, if familiar, story about artistic merit and the gendered pursuit of both affection and excellence. In a scene from Netflix's Qala, a mother tells her daughter " Naam ke aage pandit lagna chahiye, uske peeche bai nahi ".
'Qala' Review: True to Its Name, Triptii Dimri-Babil Khan Film is a
Even beyond the story, Qala is a film of expertise in art and music. Production designer Meenal Agarwal and Dutt manage to create a story rooted in emotions set in places that seem almost ...
Qala Review
Review: Cinematic Beauty. Get Rediff News in your Inbox: A film that looks and sounds so gorgeous must be welcomed, applauds Deepa Gahlot. On watching Anvita Dutt's second film, Qala, it is clear ...
Qala Hindi Movie Review, Rating and Verdict
Qala Movie Cast & Crew. 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 ...
Movie Review: 'The Crow' reimagined is stylish and operatic, but cannot
The first half drags at it sets the table for the steady beat of limbs and necks being detached at the end. Eric and his love, Shelly (played by an uneven FKA Twigs), meet in a rehab prison for wayward youth that is so well lit and appointed that it looks more like an airport lounge where the cappuccinos are $19 but the Wi-Fi is complimentary.. Eric is a gentle loner — tortured by a past the ...
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Arriving 36 years on, this follow-up to the director's classic supernatural comedy is a gleefully zany farce packed with knock-out punchlines and great practical effects.
Am I Racist? (2024)
Am I Racist?: Directed by Justin Folk. With Matt Walsh, Robin DiAngelo. A man investigates diversity, equity, and inclusion practices, exposing absurdities through undercover social experiments.
Watched Qala. Not worth the hype. : r/bollywood
Watched Qala. Not worth the hype. Reviews. Visually stunning. Great screen presence from all the actors - Swastika, Tripti and Babil. But I found the writing pretentious and tokenistic about the issues it was trying to address. All of the themes regarding mental health didn't feel adequately fleshed out, with few one liners trying to hit the mark.
'Only Murders in the Building' Season 4 Review: Hulu Series ...
First came Ryan Gosling's "The Fall Guy," a popcorn movie built around a body double; now comes Season 4 of "Only Murders in the Building," where the latest mystery's victim is Sazz ...
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Back in 1988, "Beetlejuice" was a comedy, a ghost story, a high-camp horror film, and a macabre funhouse ride, all driven by a new kind of palm-buzzer freak-show prankishness. I first saw the ...
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The Unforgettable Journey of a Mother and Son : r/movies
The plot centers around an aspiring singer, who wants to make it big in the industry, and her mother makes sure that she achieves her dream. But her mother changes her stance when she meets another singer, who she adopts, and then she proceeds to shower love and attention on her adopted son. The most significant aspect of this film is its ...
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Qala review – a harrowing look into mental health as an artist

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