Qala

After impressing the audience with skillful writing in Bulbul, Anvita Dutta steps into the area with direction and she does comes out well in the today's release - Qala

Based in the lovely city of Calcutta during the 1930's era, Qala tells the story of a female playback singer (Tripti Dimri) who life goes for a toss when her mother Urmila (Swastika Mukherjee) brings home an orphaned boy, Jagan (Babil Khan) who poses threat when it comes to singing.

Debutant director Anvita Dutta creates an artistic world of Qala with mesmerizing cinematography and enchanting art direction where each frame is so ecstatically presented that it is difficult to take your eyes off the screen. The tale of aspiration, opportunity, jealousy and betrayal is well balanced thanks to the tight screenplay, fine technical aspects and electrifying performances by Tripti Dimri, Swastika Mukherjee and Babil Khan.

Overall, well written and stunning performances is what makes Qala a pleasant watch.

Dimri's acting was way better than the story pace but needed Babil's character to grow more to let Qala's feelings be justified. The Cinematography was too beautiful. The movie was a musical and it's music justifies it's genre all the music scores in the movie were soulful and heartwarming. Cinematography and music were the two things I loved about the movie. There were some things which needed research like himachali people wearing black on funeral was not good but yeah it looked beautiful in the snow. The story pace was slow but it added beauty to the tragedy but sometimes it was just too slow. Overall movie was a slow painful but beautiful and melodic death.

I do not know how to describe this movie. It's not a movie but an EMOTION! Or rather a tsunami of emotions!!!

The CINEMATOGRAPHY itself is so BEAUTIFUL that it will break your heart! I was so mesmerized, that I rewinded and rewatched some scenes 20-30 times!

The story is simple and straightforward. It's no mystery what happened even though the directors and writers could have infused some intrigue. And that's my only gripe. They revealed what happened too early and they should have kept their cards close to their heart to maintain some suspense.

But the BEAUTY of the movie has not suffered because of that. The HEART of this movie is based on EMOTIONAL COMPLEXITY. Mother-daughter relations, jealousy, competition, that eternal strive to gain the approval of your parents!

SONGS are another highlight of this film. Drawing on our folklore, spiritual and mesmarizingly haunting!

There were a few hiccups in acting from Tripti Dimri but all the others carried their roles to superlative PERFECTION!

In this era where Bollywood churns disappointing gutter movies so often, this one stands out like a diamond in a coal mine! You will not regret watching this!

The story is beautiful & so are the songs in the movie. It tugged at some mother issues I have as well, so it connected with me. How your mother labels you remains with you forever. The plot is unraveled very beautifully for the audience, Anvita Dutt is a brilliant director. And the aesthetics is just - chef's kiss.

Amit Trivedi has done a beautiful job with the music. The entire soundtrack is a banger. Hands down, best album in a Bollywood movie in 2022. Brahmastra's album is a close second, but not ALL the songs in that album are as amazing as the songs in Qala.

Tripti Dimri, Swastika Mukherjee & Babil Khan have done a fine job. Especially Tripti, showing all the emotions a mentally disturbed person might feel with her expressions, body language & tone of voice so effortlessly. I'm excited to see more of her future works.

Qala is one of those films which makes you feel books are better than films. It is just so difficult to tune everything to the same frequency the cinematography, acting, pacing, storytelling, music(which is top-notch in this one btw.) etc. It could have been one fine mystery short story, but of course, how would we have gotten the great album then?

I don't have much problem with its slow pacing because it picks up in 2nd half, and I am used to slow-paced films. What bothered me the most was the monotonicity.

Playing the role of a child who has a disturbing childhood and is continuously deprived of her mother's attention and love despite being a single child is not easy, even for someone who has done a dozen films, let alone a new actor. And it did prove a bit too much for Tripti Dimri(Qala). She's cute, but her expressions in the film are primarily scared (that too in a weird way) or terrified. Very sorry to say, but Babil Khan(Jagan) was not up to the mark either. I absolutely loved the bits with Sunil Grover(he's an absolute gem) and his thoughtful dialogue:

". . . Par daur badlega. Daur ki ye puraani aadat hai."

Apart from music, the colour grading is very beautiful, which complements the dark aspects of the film industry. The shooting locations and photography are great too.