Qala (2022): An analysis exploring the themes of gender, self-silencing, and mental health
My mother asks
Oh, my darling girl,
What makes you so wan, so pale?
Oh, Mother, in the yonder forest,
A peacock does sing
He has stolen my dreams away
My baby girl
Should we find a weapon
Should we hunt him down
And kill him now
Let’s not kill him, Mother.
Let us just silence him somehow
Let us trap him in a cage now
- From the movie Qala (2022)
Qala, a Hindi-language film directed by Anvitaa Dutt, is a haunting movie revolving around themes of intergenerational trauma, emotional neglect and abuse, patriarchal societal influences, and mental health. Through some spectacular story-telling and cinematography, the movie weaves a moving story of a young girl, Qala and her life from childhood to her short-lived adulthood. The story follows Qala, in a non-linear fashion, showing her life today, as a successful singer who wins awards and that the nation coos over, and through glimpses of the past where Qala is just a young girl singing desperately to get her mother’s approval. Some of the main characters whose roles will be discussed in this review are Qala herself, her cold and almost cruel mother, Urmila, Jagan, an orphan boy with a magical voice that Urmila seems to adopt in place of the son she lost in utero, Suman Kumar, a hotshot in the music industry, and Sudha, Qala’s caring and well-wishing secretary, among others. Qala’s many literal calls for help were ignored by her mother, which could have been the hand in the dark, but her mother’s cold distance cruelly pushed Qala more and more into the darkness.
This analysis of the movie Qala will explore some of the themes of gender, self-silencing, and mental health portrayed in it.
Self-silencing in Qala
In a time when the higher rates of women’s depression was largely still being debated by the medical community and explained using predominantly biological explanation, Dana Jack (1999) added to the literature by expanding on the sociocultural reasons of women’s depression. Drawing on attachment theories (Bowlby, 1969) and relational-self theories (Surrey, 1985), (Jack, 1991) elaborates the interpersonal nature of depression and the strong influence of gender and power differentials on relational beliefs. Exploring the role of the cultural messages of goodness that society differentially ascribes to men and women, Jack noted how women, socialised in a culture that has explicit or implicit messages of women’s femininity which often involves self-sacrifice and being agreeable, grow to use these harsh standards by which they morally judge themselves. So women self-silence by not voicing out their concerns or demands or needs in close relationships in order to not cause conflict or lose the other person, even at great personal cost. The theory also talks about the divided self that emerges as there is a dissonance between the outward, performatively compliant self, and an inner true self that feels angry and wronged about silencing their own needs. The author also delineates that these standards primarily originate from the family, ongoing social contexts, and wider cultural values.
In Qala’s case, too, we can find evidence for this theory. Growing up in a strictly hierarchical environment where her mother is also her teacher and her master, her caretaker and guardian, and seemingly the main influence in her life, Qala has internalised her mother’s dreams for her and dedicates her whole life and career trying to win her approval, even to the detriment of her own sanity and wellbeing. Throughout the movie, one can see Qala following her mom’s commands without questioning it, whether it’s to stop singing in front of a renowned musician in order to give Jagan the chance, or to bring warm milk for Jagan every night, even when Qala is clearly in distress herself, or even when her mother arranged her wedding and for her to move to move out of her childhood house. Thus, Qala’s life with her mother was one rife with self-silencing, looking on from the shadow of her mother’s cruel neglect.
When the music director Sumant Kumar makes advances and even sexually abuses her, Qala still maintains her self-silencing, not speaking up despite her clear discomfort and disgust with the actions being done to her. Later in the movie, after Qala has achieved success and fame as a singer, he says ‘I was the one who made you. You were nothing. How would you have all of this if it weren’t for me?’ showing his male establishment of ownership over her success as an artist, she maintains her silence and merely walks away.
The movie also hints that Urmila, limited by her own roles as a woman, has performed some level of self-silencing in her life as well. She gave up her career as an established singer after having her family, carried on performing the role of ‘mother’ after losing her husband, and later her beloved unborn son. Perhaps it is this divided self that she displaces as bitterness and anger onto her young, powerless daughter, Qala. By calling Qala useless and talentless, using extreme and harsh punishment for even simple mistakes, and shooting down her needs, amongst others, Urmila constantly finds ways to express her discontentment and disdain for Qala.
Perhaps Qala’s act of poisoning Jagan’s milk with mercury was the result of the rupture of a life of self-silencing, and as a last ditch effort at gaining her place as her mom’s prized child and singer. There is a scene in the movie where Qala’s break is physically represented by the emergence of dark wings and black clouds, reminiscent of some scenes from the movie Black Swan (2010) that surround her form for a second before it bursts and moths fly away from it.
The only other time we see a rupture in her absolute self-silencing with Urmila is when she tells her mom about leaving to Calcutta for an opportunity to record for a movie and her mother cruelly asks her to leave, prompting Qala to question her mother’s words for the first time and tells her that Urmila is her mother and should love her no matter what, but she doesn’t. Qala further asks what it will take for her mother to love her, but Urmila merely walks away, leaving Qala in the darkness and with her own demons.
Intersection of gender and mental health in Qala
Gender becomes a main theme that is repeatedly explored in the movie. from Urmila having to give up her career because she is a woman, Qala’s difficult journey and the abuse she has to face as a girl from her mother and as a woman from the music industry hotshot, Sumant Kumar, to Jagan’s freedom as a man, and
Qala’s identity as a female has shaped the entire story of her life, from the way her mother brought her up, to her journey and career as a singer. From childhood, she has grown with her status as a woman made clear to her by her mother who reiterated that though she might be able to achieve success as her father and grandfather before her, she would have to work much harder than they have had to because she is a woman. Urmila alludes to the gendered landscape of a career in the industry by telling Qala that there should be a Pandit in front of her name and not a Bai at the end. This might be as Urmila herself, has been the victim of the patriarchal norms, as she had to give up her singing career for her family.
Even in terms of Qala’s singing career as an almost-adult, her mother forbids her from singing for the film industry folk, saying ‘Do you know what kind of girls sing in front of the film industry people?’ though Jagan is allowed and even encouraged to do the same as he is a man. Further, Urmila starts arranging for Qala’s marriage soon after Jagan comes into the picture and makes it clear that after marriage, Qala would not be welcome to stay at her childhood home and that she had to leave as ‘A mother’s home is where the son lives, the daughter lives with her husband.’ The movie constantly refers to the patriarchal control and gender norms that women face in society.
A vast body of psychological research has indicated that child maltreatment, especially emotional abuse and neglect is associated with the later development of hallucinations, delusional experiences, and psychosis. In addition to her abusive and traumatic childhood and upbringing, Jagan’s entry into Qala’s life, as an almost replacement for the son that Urmila lost and now dotes on, and his eventual suicide because of her actions probably served as a trigger point for her psychotic break from reality.
At the peak of Qala’s breakdown, she sees the recording studio fill up with snow, where she is clearly having hallucinations and delusions related to Jagan and her mother. There are recuring motifs of the moth, drops of mercury, and the cold, unyielding, bitter snow throughout the movie as well.
When Qala’s mental health starts steadily deteriorating, a doctor is called with the help of her secretary, Sudha. Qala tells them that she has noise in her head and fear in her heart, and says the line “Something is breaking inside me”. However, her clear emotional distress and difficulties are swept aside and dismissed by her male doctor who suggests she take a break and go on vacation. Even after she repeats there is something wrong with her, the doctor says this is common among women and it is just the result of an artistic sensitivity, and further that women have these issues every month. This scene is reminiscent of the book ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1892), the female protagonist’s very real distress is trivialised and her calls for help dismissed by male medical professionals, leading to their eventual deterioration and ultimately the ‘illness’ to take over.
The extent of Qala’s mental illness is only taken seriously by the very end, when Dr. Goenka calls Urmila to tell her that her daughter is unwell and tried to commit suicide, and Urmila finally notices just what a bad shape her daughter is in and goes to her, albeit too late.
Qala has been constantly objectified through the movie. Her mother sees her as a means to achieve her own dreams of musical fame, and Qala too, soon internalises this dream. When she is unable to deliver a good performance when recording for her first song, her body is also exploited as she is forced to sexually please the music director of the song.
The throat and voice emerges as a recurring motif in the movie, especially the taking of it in different forms. While Qala takes away Jagan’s voice by ruining his throat with mercury, Qala’s throat is quite literally taken and dominated by Sumant Kumar in a scene where Qala, in a most vulnerable state, is forced to sexually please him. In an ironic twist, the song she was singing and in fact, catapults her to fame, ‘Ghode pe sawar’ is in the voice of a woman talking about consent in relationships with men.
The movie also shows how it is the other female characters who have helped Qala at many points. It was another female singer who suggested she keep a secretary to deal with her schedules directly and stop any unnecessary outside influence on her career. Sudha, the secretary who Qala hired, was one of the few positive influences in Qala’s life who wished to help her. Qala also gives a chance to a female journalist who photographed her exceptionally and effortlessly, as opposed to the male journalists who insensitively bombarded her with questions that clearly made her uncomfortable.
Final thoughts
Qala is a heart-touching movie with a raw and sensitive depiction of how the circumstances that one grows up in shapes their thinking, behaviours and mental health, and how even people who may appear to have glamorous and successful lives may be struggling on the inside.
