Ruiz Pereira returns in a car to his now abandoned mansion in Goa. He remembers his life 24 years earlier, during the Portuguese rule of Goa: Ruiz is one of the many Portuguese people attending a funeral of the influential Ernesto. His widow, Dona Maria, refuses to accept his death, tries to summon his ghost during sessions with her maid Milagrenia, and orders that her granddaughter Ana should marry the student of medicine Erasmo. Francis is in love with Aurora, Ana's sister. However, Ana is in love with her old acquientance Leon, an escaped convict hiding in their basement. Ruiz was in love with Ana, but since she rejected him, he starts a fling with Milagrenia, who is left pregnant. Ana is also left pregnant from Leon, much to the shock of her mother Sylvia who thinks she ruined their family reputation. The Indian attack and takeover of Goa scatters the family: Ana and Leon leave for Lisbon; Milagrena marries an older man and also leaves. Back in the present, Ruiz leaves the mansion.
"Trikal" is a rare film depicting the life of the Portuguese Goa exclave before the 1 9 6 1 Indian attack and annexation, connecting the isolated lifestyle of the colonial families there with the historical changes during the decolonization of Asia in the second half of the 20th century. Hindu actors here play Portuguese characters, but speak Hindi and Konkani languages. The opening act is the best directed thanks to the competent director Shyam Benegal, elegantly setting up everything: a man in a suit, Ruiz Pereira, travels in a car through a village in Goa, stops and enters an empty mansion, as a flashback appears in the same scene, as men are carrying a coffin behind him, and the viewers are transported to 24 years in the past. As people are mourning a dead man in bed, Ernesto, Ruiz the narrator introduces several characters in the room, and finally points to a young lad among them: "That is me 24 years ago". As the grandmother (and now widow) Dona Maria sits in a chair and loudly listens to music, ignoring the funeral, she speaks in Portuguese, but then Ruiz the narrator says: "Let's switch to a language we can understand", and she (and everyone else) start speaking Hindi for the rest of the film. The funeral is a symbol for the end of the Portuguese rule in Goa—but the characters don't know it yet.
After the funeral, a man holds a speech for the guests at the table: "He left among us his good wife, a nice daughter. And other than that, some beautiful children... of which some are present here", igniting a chuckle among the crowd. The daughter, Syvlia, complains: "He shouldn't have said that", as her husband says: "Your father was like that. Who knows how many children he has?" The hypocrisy of the family is already set-up here, showing how these people accept Ernesto's illegitimate children, but will attack the granddaughter Ana and maid Milegrena for their "illegitimate" pregnancy. The debates among the locals about the political situation and the Indian blockade is interesting to listen to: "So now Indians will rule here?" - "Why not, aren't we Goan Indians?" - "Not at all. We are citizens of Portugal." - "That's why general Ferry sent the entire army to Africa. Portugal will not protect Goa." - "We want our own country. Where there will be our own culture and people". Finally, Mr. Simon concludes: "Where a person was born, grew up, resided, that's his culture. Our country is a blend of many beautiful colors. And its most beautiful color is Goa." The anxiety, fears and uncertainty of these characters, who do not know what their future will look like, is palpable, as one woman comments how there will be no more flights from Goa to Lisbon. The husband and his wife contemplate: "There is no reason to be worried." - "We are Portuguese citizens. If the Indian army arrives here, they will put us in jail." Benegal later drops politics and focuses more on the love relationships, walking on a thin line between a soap opera and a more aspirational drama, and the big flaw is the absence of the sole Indian takeover of Goa—only some brief shooting is heard during the night and a character mentions it off-screen—since this would have been fascinating to see. This reduces the film's potential, yet it is aesthetic, without typical Bollywood dancing, and allegories on the Portuguese family not realizing their lifestyle and traditions became "obsolete".
Grade:+++
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