This kid-friendly film is not a thrill-filled action-adventure, as the premise might suggest. And that’s a relief in these frantic times. But after a while, the adult in me started getting a bit restless.
Barroz is a film for kids – or, for the kid inside us – and Mohanlal, with his bald head and shiny cheeks looks like a cute, big baby himself. The screenplay is based on a Portuguese folktale – and Mohanlal plays the Barroz of the title, a loyal spirit that is guarding its master’s treasure until a legal heir comes along. Small complication: the guarding began in the 17th century, and four hundred years later, there’s still no sign of the heir. So Barroz remains chained to his room of treasure, with only a chatty voodoo doll for company. In a parallel narrative, this heir, named Isa and played by Maya Rao West, lands up in the film’s setting of Goa. How she meets Barroz and whether the treasure reaches her hands forms the rest of the story.
How is Mohanlal as a director? That’s the question I had while going into the movie – and it turns out, his vision is very strong. There’s an early scene – a sort of set piece, if you will – that climaxes with an embarrassing accident for a minister. Like everything else (and like his own acting across the decades), Mohanlal stages it casually. He doesn’t build and build and do some hectic cross-cutting or escalate the music, and the minister’s embarrassment doesn’t come off like a visual joke. Mohanlal knows that the real point of the scene is something else, a human moment, a connection – and that’s what he’s after. The pacing throughout is a bit off, but I didn’t mind. Except for the climax, Barroz is not a thrill-filled action-adventure, as the premise might suggest. And that’s a relief. In these frantic times, it’s nice to watch a film take its own time to tell its story.
The voodoo doll has beady eyes and spiky straw hair, and a Disney movie might have made it a wisecracking comic sidekick. But despite some humour, this doll remains a “character” – and remains in character – throughout. Despite the 3D, there’s very little flinging things at the audience. Santosh Sivan lights up the old-time scenes to look like Renaissance paintings, and the delicate tonality of the colours and shades is gorgeous. He keeps moving the camera back and expanding the frame – this looks fantastic in 3D. An animated song sequence with sea creatures is charmingly done – though I wish the connection between Barroz and the sea had been better established. (It’s established visually; I wished the narrative had expanded on it a little more.) The visual effects are, again, casual – nothing more than Barroz passing through human beings and walls. For a while, Mohanlal succeeds in winning over the kid in you.
But after a while, the adult in me started getting a little restless. It’s not the trance-like pace. It’s the fact that the screenplay doesn’t do enough to hook us to the emotional beats of the story. When Barroz is betrayed, we should be weeping. When Isa connects with her emotionally aloof father, we should be cheering. The treatment can be casual and laid back, but the content cannot be so. The film hinges on the bonding between Barroz and Isa, and we don’t feel this closeness. There is a great moment where Barroz steps out into present-day Goa and realises that hundreds of years have slipped by. You feel the character’s existential weight. The film could have used more such writing. Barroz certainly isn’t generic in any sense. It has a very unique story and style. But the high points needed to be more specific.
Mark Killian’s gentle score and Lydian Nadhaswaram’s song are in tune with the spirit of the film. The Fado numbers are lovely. But apart from Mohanlal, no actor’s performance works – and even with Mohanlal, it’s not really a stretch. Guru Somasundaram plays a cop who’s meant to be funny, but he is let down by the staging. Barroz is not something you dismiss easily, but it is one of those films which make you wish it had been better. It’s so rare to find a movie that allows you to sink into it. But perhaps Mohanlal should have also given some thought to the mind of the modern-day audience. I loved that he has made a sweet, gentle film, where even the interval is just a smile. I didn’t miss the explosions. I missed the emotions.
