Film review: ‘Bol’

4
1026

I walked out of the theatre feeling vulnerable and defenseless. That is the effect that Shoaib Mansoor’s ‘Bol’ had over me. Presented in its truest form, we see the macabre violence and the tyranny of a single man over an entire household, the torture his seven daughters and his quiet undemanding wife face because of him, the rejection his effeminate son faces only because he is born ‘a woman’, and the hypocrisy as well as pressure from society that he himself is wrapped in.
It was a film whose impact was made ten times stronger thanks to the wonderful performances by the actors, (mainly Hummaima Malick, Manzar Sehbai, Amr Kashmiri, Shafqat Cheema, and some others) and the excellent direction, cinematography, heart rending soundtrack and theme, and the dramatic lighting of what is almost a kind of gothic drama, showing the central characters’ decadence into emotional frenzy, madness, and death. The actors, each and every one of them, have played up to their characters. No one is out of place. No one is out of character and minor blemishes can be easily forgiven.
I personally find certain issues (and always will) in films that cast models as actors. Celebrities like Atif Aslam, Mahira and Iman Ali may be glamorous and attractive for the general audience, but Shoaib Mansoor should have opted for more veteran actors. Perhaps his understanding was that glamour would attract the audience to come watch the movie, but we know that neither the director – nor his wonderful story – need any celebrity endorsement for their success (financial or other).
Nevertheless, to be fair, the three amateur actors, Iman Ali, Atif Aslam and Mahira, were not too painful to watch as are many other models who fancy themselves to be veterans after doing three ridiculous dramas on TV. I would go as far to say that Iman Ali was miles better than her previous character in “Khuda Kay Liye” (maybe the role mattered?) and that Mahira’s sensitivity to the character and the situation was apt and Atif Aslam’s visible effort in trying to genuinely pull it off did not allow them to be misfits in their characters. So what if Atif’s dialogues were wooden and flat in most parts? When he came on screen, the audience (I was at Lahore’s horrible Sozo World theatre, which did not even bother to turn the lights off till about one scene later, and where ceiling fans were fixed on the walls), cheered their heads off. And when the camera slowly panned up to give a full view of Iman Ali’s seductive gaze, the whistles did not stop till about half the scene later. Now that’s audience appreciation! But honestly to put Atif Aslam in the first scene was stretching it a bit. I found the scene to be irrelevant, and with his emotionless voice the scene did not give much.
Strangely the beginning was not as strong as I thought it would be. Much of the blame goes to the cinema audience which is never punctual and takes its time to settle in, talking all the while. On the other hand, it was not as if the story did not take a direct plunge into the deep, because it did just that. It began from a very high point and carried onwards from there (most of it in retrospect). But perhaps the dialogues were not too inspiring. When the scenes were powerful, the lines were powerful, but in the former scenes the lines tended to be a bit dull. Sometimes so dull, you tuned out, and did not miss much. This was mostly in the scenes where the journalist whose voice was horribly dubbed, tried her best to do something for Zainab (Hummaima Mallick), who was given a death sentence. But Maliha Naipaul’s facial expressions were apt, and she was shown in the right measure: not overplayed, nor undermined.
Bol is essentially a crime film, a suspense thriller, a psychological horror. Its story is not simple, because it is layered with different sub plots, all linking into the main one, but this is done very cleverly and without any loose ends. In comparison to “Khuda Kay Liye”, Mansoor has done a wonderfully more refined job this time, with a much better story to watch, and much better actors to enjoy. It is mainly the actors who grab you by the head and keep you under water until you are about to burst with emotion. And then at that very moment comes Mansoor’s brilliant comedy relief, almost Shakespearean in it being needed by the audience for the horrible tale told by him.
The most important aspect is that it is a story based on issues which every individual – man, woman or child, can relate to. They can feel sympathy, horror, empathy, grief, tension, sorrow and repulsion easily, because every one of them must have experienced something out of the many themes that this film radiates. It is not a film about women, or women’s rights, or feminist issues. It is a story of one family, of one daughter who dared to speak out and fight, the story of one man who from being conservative slowly broke down to crazy, the story of the conflict between the man who was superficially righteous, but even a pimp and a prostitute, were more ethical than him. The story is full of irony, conflict, and satire.
The tension is so built up in this film, that many times I found myself not even breathing and clutching hard at the chair grip. The movie is so spine chilling that when Shafqat Cheema came along with his genuinely funny manner of conversation, his laid back, happy-go-lucky attitude, and his overall way of simply accepting what he did and what he was (a pimp), one could not help but laugh, and then every muscle instantly began to relax.
In parts there was intense black comedy, laughable, but only bitterly so, because it was not meant to be that funny. When Naeem Kashmiri says nothing but “piece tight hai”, looking at the effeminate Saifi, it becomes funny because he says nothing else, but at the same time, it is not really hilarious.
There is nothing humorous about anyone being sexually harassed by a group of merciless, crude, stone hearted men.
I felt a kind of smug achievement when the males in the audience who had been cracking sick jokes about Saifi being effeminate, suddenly attained a kind of stupefied silence when he was brutally gang raped.
It is disappointing to know that the Pakistani audience does not let emotions of any kind sink into them and feel them before moving on. The very first reaction is immature. Cracking silly jokes, as if we are still in grade nine, just learning about the basic facts of life. Perhaps if more such films are made for the big screen, some behavior may be learnt from collective watching.
Bol is something which no one from the Pakistani audience should miss. It is compelling, mind blowing, distressing, terrifying, and yet it is all realistic, and nothing, not even the makeup is out of sync. Indeed a million times better than “Khuda Kay Liye”. Not to mention the wonderful soundtrack especially ‘Din Pareshan Hai’ by Sajjad Ali, and the romantic ‘Hona Tha Pyar’ by Atif Aslam and Hadiqa Kiani.

4 COMMENTS

  1. sorry, but this is a poor review. you missed to mention the head of the story which is the bending and self interpretation of religious aspects according to their needs. And another major thing which is also not mentioned is role of mullah.

  2. Sorry to say that you missed a wonderful movie, Even I am from India but this type of male dominant is common in both countries. Superb movie with good direction, which generally absent in Pakistani movies.

  3. The research work is very necessary for the success of the students and all individuals. The topic is selected and theme is constructed. The data is collected and gathered on this base.

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