Qala is a drama film written and directed by Anvita Dutt and stars Triptii Dimri, Swastika Mukherjee, Babil Khan and Amit Sial, alongside other cast members. The movie has a runtime of 120 minutes.
Netflix’s description of the movie reads:
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 Ending Explained Contains Spoilers –
The Story
Qala focuses on Qala Manjushree, whose life revolves around her hard-headed mother, Urmila, and the latter’s desperation for her child to make a dent in the Indian Classical musical scene after her father. Alas, the protagonist’s own desperation to make her mother proud remains unfounded when Jagan comes out of the darkness like a phoenix, giving birth to a situation where no one wins in the end.
Qala Ending Explained
So, the movie ends with our protagonist taking her own life, just like Jagan, and Urmila repeats the same repentance and heartbreak that she did after Jagan’s death. However, how did we get here? Why was Qala seeing Jagan everywhere? Why did Urmila not take her daughter’s achievements seriously when everyone around her was singing her praises?
Let’s talk about the last part first and go back to the beginning of the movie – when she was born, she was one of the twins, and incidentally, she absorbed her twin brother when they were in the womb (something that the doctor too mentions is quite common in these scenarios). This results in Urmila resenting her daughter because she wanted someone to carry on her husband’s legacy, and as she mentions, it’s 10 times more difficult for a woman to do what their father achieved.
The resentment grew into her adult life, wherein she constantly sought out her mother’s approval and did whatever was asked of her, but she never could get the love that she wanted from her. So much so that she found herself to be invisible in front of her mother.
Thus, when Jagan does the first moment that Qala has wanted to do for her entire life, it makes her jealous and angry. The feeling increases further as her mother fixes her marriage without her approval or knowledge and refuses to let her stay with her upon insistence. These intense feelings of abandonment, jealousy and a healthy dose of desperation results in her mixing mercury in Jagan’s milk, which renders him unable to sing and ultimately for him to take his own life.
But why mercury in milk? Mercury is a well-known poisoning agent, and if you remember, in one scene, Urmila chides a young Qala when she puts a thermometer in his mouth, mentioning how the mercury can ruin his voice. Interestingly, she uses the mercury from a little toy that Jagan himself had given her previously, taking away what was most precious to him with his own gift.
Anyway, afterwards, as Qala finds her voice and gains fame in hopes of getting her mother’s approval, she continues to see Jagan everywhere – a manifestation of her own guilt. Although she did want to destroy Jagan’s career, she never meant for him to die. She holds herself responsible for his death, more so because she knew that singing was his life and he lived for his singing.
Thus, in the end, she suffers a mental breakdown after years of carrying the guilt and abandonment with her and without her mother’s support, she chooses to end her life. In a rather poetic turn, Urmila, too, makes an appearance and chooses to take her daughter with her, just like she took Jagan back home as well, but she’s too late, and after her daughter’s last rites, she finally listens to Qala’s songs, the records of which have only been collecting dust, ignored for years until then.
However, it’s too late, and Urmila’s appreciation for her daughter’s talents comes at a time when she herself would never be able to witness it, bringing the entire story full circle.
Qala is streaming on Netflix.
Also Read: Qala Review: Triptii Dimri, Swastika Mukherjee Star in a Haunting Drama