Barroz

Film has decent VFX and good 3D animation. But lacks in storyline and action sequences. Movie is a yawn fest even for kids. Really laboured keeping my eyes open at the theatres. On OTT, you wouldn't get past 20 minutes of this movie. With all due respect to Lalettan his directorial debut falls flat. The movie is too long at over 2.5 hours with a storyline thats short enough to make a 20 minute animated toon episode. Even on a sunday the movie hall was running at less than 20% occupancy. My dear Kuttichaathan re release would have been far more entertaining than this. Movie is really seriously low on content.

2 star for excellent and 1 star for the animated song sequence. Nothing else works in this. Even lal looked lost in his own creation. Somasundaram had the worst role and he failed in providing any elevation to it. The lead girl's acting was pathetic. Too many unknown faces with bad acting. De gama looked silly. The puppet / doll companion character had so much promise but bad dialogues ruined it. Super stretched first half with absolutely nothing happening. Second half was faster in comparison but I was exhausted by interval time itself. My kid slept through most of the first half and was slightly entertained by the second half 3D gimmick shots. Worst malayalam movie I watched this year hands down. The folklore had so much potential. It would have worked better with full animation and some better editing and some elevated plots.

Everyday I wake up and I thank the Lord for my choice of watching the film at home instead of the theatres. I would have regretted wasting my time and money. Now I only regret wasting my time. The VFX was done on Microsoft PowerPoint and their team has a combined brain cells count of 3. On second thoughts, I'd like to try the drugs that the entire team who conceived this idea was on. Mohanlal could do better. Its a shameful movie for the actor to be cast into. The horrible VFX, the mediocre acting by the cast members and the earrape of a song "Isabella" rounds up the entire experience. The only good thing I could've mentioned about the movie is the ads that would've played before the movie if I had watched it in the theatres.

0/10 wouldn't even recommend it to my enemy.

Did I mention the horrible VFX ?

There is a saying, "Do not throw good money after bad". Barroz is the perfect example for this. Mohanlal's dream project, a movie that went through it's own production hell and inspite of hiccups and challenges, he persisted in trying to bring his vision on screen wherein he should have given up at least 3 years back with things not going his way and some of his usual accomplices walked away from the project.

There are little to no redeeming qualities in the movie. The cast and especially Mohanlal just falter so badly, you wonder how this could have been his dream directorial venture. The story has been destroyed, if ever there was one conceived. The acting is just terrible on so many fronts and performances are just so sub par that you even wonder if these are actors or people just picked up from the streets and asked to pitch in. There really seems to be no explanation for where the budget went especially in a movie with only one superstar who is the director and terrible CGI and mostly domestic locations. Most of the foreign collaborators, again not big names, have brought in zero value again leading to the mystery of what happened to the budget. The music especially disappoints and songs like "Isabella" are just jarring and painful to listen to.

Overall Mohanlal proves that he is best in front of the camera and not behind it, unless he is just producing it and not taking the creative decisions. This is a movie to be skipped unless for academic purposes where is serves as the perfect case study on how not to make a fantasy movie.

I genuinely regret wasting my time on Barroz. For a movie that touts itself as a groundbreaking 3D experience, it offers little more than shallow storytelling, laughable visuals, and an overall sense of creative emptiness. If the goal was to bore and frustrate the audience, mission accomplished.

The plot (if you can call it that) is a convoluted mess, lacking coherence, emotional depth, or any semblance of character development. It felt like a half-hearted fairy tale stitched together with clichés and incoherent fantasy elements. Not a single character stands out-they're either forgettable or downright annoying.

The much-hyped 3D effects were underwhelming. Instead of immersing you in the world of Barroz, the visuals were clunky, poorly rendered, and felt like they belonged in the early 2000s. At no point did the film capitalize on its 3D potential; the scenes were flat, unimaginative, and lacked the visual flair that could justify the format.

The pacing was atrocious. Entire segments dragged on endlessly, leaving the audience squirming in their seats, desperate for the ordeal to end. The editing felt amateurish, with abrupt cuts and awkward transitions that only added to the film's chaotic presentation.

As for the music and sound design? Uninspired, generic, and utterly forgettable. Instead of enhancing the experience, it served as background noise to a train wreck of a narrative.

Overall, Barroz is an embarrassing attempt at 3D storytelling that fails on every level. Save yourself the agony and skip this disaster entirely. It's not worth your money, your time, or even the effort it takes to think about it afterward.