Barayan

Story: Aniruddh is prepping for his class XII exam and his parents have already decided that he’ll go on to become a doctor. When the results are declared, Aniruddh’s parents’ dreams are shattered.


Review: Class XII exams are like one of the most sacred and looked-forward-to events in a student’s life; not by the student, but parents. We’ve all been through the grind, trying our best to study and secure admissions in reputed colleges for subjects that are generally considered to give ‘good returns’ later in life. But somewhere in all this, elders forget that imposing their dreams onto their kids might end up putting the kids’ lives in jeopardy. And the kids happen to accept their parents’ dreams as their own irrespective of their ability and interest. This is exactly the premise of Barayan.


Debutant director Deepak Patil has timed the film’s release well, ahead of the board exams. This gives parents and kids time to understand the impact of their decisions. Through Aniruddh’s (Worlikar) story, the film explores the average life of an Indian teenager; a life that goes through turbulence when the ‘engineer or doctor’ question pops up ahead of exams. Barayan is a sincere attempt with its heart in the right place. Unfortunately, the film lacks in terms of execution.


For starters, this topic has been handled in films before so this film treads familiar territory. More importantly, Barayan has a running time of two and a half hours and is a tedious film to sit through. It takes way too much time to unfold and the result is not that great either.


The film boasts of good performances from seasoned actors like Nandu Madhav, Pratiksha Lonkar and Sanjay Mone. The trio is convincing. Youngster Anurag Worlikar delivers a sincere performance too.


But the actors don’t succeed in salvaging the film. Barayan banks on familiar stereotypes and the well-meaning attempt lacks direction, making it a film that could’ve been good.