Maybe it is an option for you to localise the $[ like so?

!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;

package LocalBlock;
{ # localisation scope
  local $[ = 1;

  sub test {   # now a closure
    print "(\$[= $[) array has " . scalar @_ . 
          " elements, last index = $#_ (", 
          join(", ", @_) , ")\n";
  }
} # end of scope
1;

package main;

print "Pre:  \$\[ = $[ \n";
LocalBlock::test(1,2,3,4);
print "Post: \$\[ = $[ \n\n";

$[ = 5;
print "Pre:  \$\[ = $[ \n";
LocalBlock::test(5,6,7,8);
print "Post: \$\[ = $[ \n\n";

__END__
Pre:  $[ = 0
($[= 1) array has 4 elements, last index = 4 (1, 2, 3, 4)
Post: $[ = 0

Pre:  $[ = 5
($[= 1) array has 4 elements, last index = 4 (5, 6, 7, 8)
Post: $[ = 5
[download]

Cannot test it without 5.10 here, sorry.