Bali movie review: Tries Too Hard

Marathi horror film Bali on Amazon Prime Video tries too hard. Unfortunately, the kid is so annoying that you hope the demons take him.

Swapnil Joshi plays Shrikant Sathe, a single dad to a seven year old Mandar. Mandar is that kid who thinks he’s Sachin and daddy dearest provides support by not only taking him to practice but also cheering him on.

The opening sequence is pretty good - father son getting ready for the day - it makes me settle down to wait for the horror promised in the trailer.

Then the child faints. That infinitesimal pause for Shrikant Sathe to realize that his child has fainted is alarming. That’s good, I say, and settle down to eat some popcorn.

This film ends up making me an advocate for a child leash. Also, a little bit of the old fashioned punishment where the open palm meets the child’s cheek.

Again and again. The child has been told to stay put, and he just disobeys the poor dad again and again. The ‘mom’ in me paces up and down in the room, wanting to box the ears.

Not Mandar’s ears, but Shrikant’s ears. What kind of a disobedient child are you raising?

That Mandar keeps wandering off. And before you can say, ‘Hey! Come back!’ And if you are a Marathi mother, you’d be adding a couple of choice names too. And you’ll shorten the name to turn it rude too: ‘Mandar’ would become ‘Mand buddhi’ (brainless).

Mandar is distracted by a bald headed kid (by now the milk of human kindness has dried because I’m mad at Shrikant for looking in when the child is screaming in pain in his room and letting Mandar who is terrified of being in the hospital see that scene too), who tells him Elizabeth is going to save him…

I’m making gagging sounds now. There are not one, but two annoying kids in the movie now. I know I’m going to fall asleep, but there are so many jump scares, that you will not be able to sleep. The scary Elizabeth turns out to be a damp squib, and you suddenly perk up at the possibility of a demented doctor.

The trope of the mad scientist, crazed doctor, patients being subject to strange experiments are all super. But this twist in the tale comes too late and is barely touched upon.