Barefoot to Goa, Praveen Morchhale’s debut film, conveys a beautiful as well as strong message which is indeed very relevant, soul-touching and also thought provoking. It has been already showcased in many international festivals all across the globe and gathered many accolades. For the first time ever, a film’s commercial release is funded by 238 Proud Funders from 15 countries. After watching the movie, I did feel that, isn’t it the story of almost every household today. Yes, Praveen touches a contemporary social issue. Parents do every bit to make their children self-reliant, independent, and educated. The same children, after growing up, move to different cities, countries for better career prospects. This is inevitable. But what is saddening is that aging parents are abandoned in some distant land and absolutely forgotten in the mad race of earning livelihood or living one’s own life. They have become a liability. The relationships are not valued, turning out to be merely a ritual. Today, when a person thinks about his or her family, it is limited to his / her spouse, and children i.e. the immediate family. What about the aging parents, who don’t feature in the list, and are left to fight their own battle that too at the fag end of their lives. Relationships have taken a beating in this fast paced society. We don’t spend quality time with our loved ones. Children don’t get to experience the ‘story-telling grandmother’ in person. There is a strong need for privacy. But isn’t it ironical that one’s privacy is assumed to be at stake due to one’s own parents. Kudos to Praveen and his team, the theme has been handled with considerable sensitivity. No over-the-top dialogues, no melodrama, rather, silence is used to convey a strong message. Barefoot to Goa does explore the nuances of human values and relationships, and also it questions the innocence we overlook.

The Storyline: The movie begins at Goa where Dadi (Farrukh Jaffar) is going to a typist to get a letter hand-written for her son and his family. Legendry singer Yesudas’ song ‘Naina do Pyare…” (his return to Bollywood singing after two decades) adds so much meaning to these frames. It conveys so beautifully the whole soul of the movie. The emotions on typist’s face are captured so beautifully when he reads out the letter to Dadi. In spite of not getting responses from her son and family, Dadi is regularly sending them letters and some gifts viz. Laddu, Lattu (spinning top or wooden spinner) etc.

These letters though get delivered at her son’s place in Mumbai, but neither reaches her son or grandchildren. Purva Parag (Mother) dumps the sweets into the waste basket and hides the letters from husband (Kuldeep Dubey) as well as children. But, one day, when grand children Diya (Saara Nahar) and Prakhar (Prakhar Morchhale) coincidently find these letters from grandmother, that is where their journey Barefoot to Goa begins to bring their ailing grandmother (suffering from cancer) to Mumbai.