As a parable on violence and crime, ‘Barot House’ seems too unambitious to be markedly effective. But there is a certain amount of shock value in the plot, as one of its central characters is a juvenile psychopathic serial killer. Writer Sanjeev K Jha, who wrote ‘Jabariya Jodi’, makes use of the horror-supernatural genre to bring into focus an undeveloped theme – that of severe juvenile delinquency. What does a young father of four kids do when he suddenly discovers that his only son, the nine-year-old Malhar, has been bumping off his little sisters one after another? Should Amit call the cops to take away their only remaining progeny? Or should he make the sinister boy understand that head-hunting is not for kids, so why don’t you go out and play with kids? In ‘Barot House’ the stakes are never simple.