Barefoot to Goa Press Meet

Barefoot to Goa is a ‘beautiful story that is heart touching and thought provoking. Amidst this fast paced society, this movie brings a sense of freshness and takes on a journey exploring the nuances of human values and relationships and discovering the life and questioning the innocence we overlook. This is a story of two children who leave home to get back their ill and estrange grandmother who lives alone in another town and is neglected by parents and suffering from cancer. It’s a parable on the moribund human bonds in a cinematic essay that celebrates the innocence of the young, mocks the indifference of the adults and mourns the loneliness of the old.

This movie comes as calmness in the chaos!!!

Director’s Note
Barefoot to Goa is kaleidoscope of modern society through eyes of children particularly of India, with its contradictions of modernity, economic expansion and traditions. In today's nuclear family era and race of materialistic achievements and migration to big cities, aging parents are being ignored and they are assumed as burden. It might be due to the pressure of city life, space constraints and economic limitation. All these lead to the disintegration of the family and old age parents are left to fend on themselves at the fag end of their life. I understand our aging parents / old age people don’t expect anything except the love and caring. But do we really care about them?

Are we not responsible for this situation of neglect and their abandoning? Film’s morally correct two children protagonist revolting silently against parents and embark on a journey to bring back their abandoned grandmother. They face challenges and hurdles, which raise questions for those, we have no answers.
Old age people could be metaphor too. Are we not leaving behind our culture, rituals and our own self in the so called race of development and self-centered materialistic life.

18 Proud Funders are bringing “Barefoot to Goa” to Pearl City

Barefoot to Goa a Hindi feature film, which is releasing all over India and will be in theaters in Hyderabad on 10th April, will go down the annals of Hindi film history not only as a superbly plotted script, but also as being the first ever proud funded and distributed Hindi feature film which managed to raise Rs 50 lakhs from public in a span of just 45 days! Many good cinema lovers from Hyderabad also proudly funded the film and they made film’s release possible in Hyderabad.

“I wanted to support this film because I liked the concept. Loneliness’ of the aged, busyness of the young, and the innocence of the children, all woven into a gripping story tells Mr. Sivakumar Surampudi, CEO of ITC Agri Business, Hyderabad who proudly funded the movie Barefoot to Goa from
Made with a shoestring budget, film has garnered the love of audience around the world. Around 240 people from 15 Countries (India, USA, UK, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, Finland, Holland, Dubai, Nepal, Singapore, Brazil, Africa, Indonesia and Taiwan) have proudly funded the film commercial release so film reaches to the public and good cinema gets support.

“Barefoot to Goa is like a mirror to us to look at ourselves and change and be more humane, says Mr. Ashesh Mamidi, an IT professional from IBM Hyderabad and a Proud Funder of Barefoot to Goa.

Another Proud funder of Barefoot to Goa, Mr. Trinadh Naga, a published writer from Andhra Pradesh echoes that Barefoot to Goa is fresh, simple and innocent film. Its all about home and a journey that touches hearts”

Director’s Profile
Born in central province of India and raised in small dusty town of rural area of MP, Praveen Morchhale has been active in theatre for many years. With background of theatre, Praveen Morchhale has been involved in many stage plays with themes of the war, love, partition and children as director actor. He
has expanded his work into the film arena. He made his first short film “Jhum Jham Jhum” ( A Tree That Told Stories), which was screened to many film festivals also won award at Indo American Film Festival, Atlanta. He has been always concerned about the social issues the modern day society currently facing and presenting them in very cinematic styles for universal audience.

Praveen did his MBA from prestigious management institute of India, IRMA (Anand).
Presently he resides in Mumbai. “Barefoot to Goa” is Praveen’s debut feature film which has been to many international film festivals.

FAQ -1
Question and Answer (FAQs) with Director Praveen Morchhale, which were asked at many film festivals.

1. Your film is visually very lyrical and you have given a lot emphasis on landscape. Why?
A. I had a very specific visual plan so that the film becomes a visual poetic in narration. I tried to embrace the landscape in the film as its core element and character. I used the dryness of outdoor as a reflection of our family and society. Every background of the film has a layered meaning reflecting the character’s mind and emotions. Long panaromic shots with complexity and simplicity are used to capture the essence and spice of life.

2. Barefoot to Goa is a very realistic and shuttle in expressions. Was it consciously decided?
A. My film is simple but not a simplistic film. It is layered with many philosophical inferences. Silently it raises many philosophical questions without giving answers. It was really hard to make it less verbal and realistic in narration and composition.

3. In many scenes, characters are invisible and still their presence is felt. Why this kind of treatment?
A. In the climax and long shots, consciously I have mentioned distance from characters or they are almost absent, so the audience can relate more on the characters fate and situation and this way an imaginary hope and despair is created in the minds of audience and many interpretations can be drawn.

4. You have used almost all non-actors including children baring one or two actors. Was it not scary, as you being the first-time director? A. It was conscious and determined decision. I believed non-actors
have only real experience of life to express, thus for them it is not a job. It was easy to portray the slice of life kind expressions by non-actors. They were just being themselves, just like they are in everyday life. For example, I persuaded a real deaf and dumb couple to act as a deaf and dumb farmer couple, to get almost perfect expressions and they left a perfect expression. Non-actors made my film special.

5. Why you used minimalist approach towards dialogues in the film?
A. When the film can speak visually then where is the need to use the
words? In fact, silence itself is a character in the film and it raises concern about the way we have relationships and behave in society. In the film, silence hovers around the narrative like a shadow, impossible to shrug away. The film's protagonist silently explores and experiences the contradictions of the contemporary society.

6. Barefoot to Goa has children as protagonists but still film's main theme is for adults. Is it a children film for adults?
A. I believe film works at many levels. For simple joy of trave and innocence, love for elders, it suits for children as they would love it for its fun and travel element. But as we look deeper into the meaning of the subject and theme, film explores the nuances of loneliness of urban life, dryness of relationships and neglect of elders. Philosophically it makes us think about futility of life and pointlessness of death. Film raises more questions than the answers,. It explores landscape of life's colors, rhythm and harsh realities

7. It’s not strange that during such a long journey children never met any bad element of the society? They always met good people who helped them. Where in reality this may be untrue...
A. Why should we have negative aspects in our day-to-day life? From morning to evening we see all bad news, bad things happening to children and women. I don’t like such things and would not like to show in my film. It was conscious decision to keep away from such bad elements from story and narrative. My all characters are humble and victims of circumstances. As such they are not bad. I tried to show the positive side of the people.

8. In one sentence how would you define your film Barefoot to Goa?
A. A film which brings calmness in chaos !