Bol – Break the silence!

Yesterday night, I watched a nice, thought provoking movie ‘BOL’ which is directed by Shoaib Mansoor.  Like ‘Dor’ and ‘Pinjar’ the story of the movie ‘Bol’ is based on the real life of women which touched my heart and really made me cry. It left me speechless. The story starts with Zainub a young woman who has been sentenced to death. Her last wish is to speak about her life story with the media people and the world just before being sentenced. She tells the media that ‘Main sirf katil hun, gunahgar nahi’ and the story goes  into flashback.

Zainub’s father Hakim (an herbal medicine doctor), wishing for a son ended up with seven daughters one after another. His eighth born is a transgender so he wants to kill the child but his wife does not let him.  Saifi, who is kept in home, grows up tenderly under the love of all his sisters and mother but is disliked by the father! Later, his father Hakim kills him and in order to get away from the murder charges, he bribes the police, using the money that the Masjid Committee has entrusted upon him.

In the flashback, Zainub reveals that she gets married but she soon gets divorced because she refuses to have child due to poor financial conditions.  The eldest daughter in the family, after divorce, returns home, where her mother keeps getting pregnant. She takes her mother to get contraceptive operation done in the absence of her father, in order to prevent repeated pregnancies in future. Hakim while finding out about the surgery, he gets angry, abuses and slaps her. She replies ‘Mard hain na, jahan lajawab huye wahan hath chalne lage. Kash main khuda hoti, main her mard se ek bachcha janwati!’

The second daughter, Ayesha forced by her father to marry a man who is quite aged and not of her choice. Her mother objects her father on the age of the person, but he shuts her up. Ayesha is not willing to go with his father’s choice and says to her mother, ‘insan paida kiya hai ammi, dawaiyon ki botalen nahi ki jise chahe de denge, jahan chah rakh denge’.  The mother is helpless. However, Zainub goes to the extent of getting her younger sister married to the boy she loves.

Masjid committee asks Hakim to return the money. Hakim left with no other option, makes a deal with Saqa, a brothel owner, to marry Meena, Saqa’s daughter, for procreation of baby girl. Saqa would  keep the child only if its baby girl.  He agrees on it and marries with Meena. She gives birth to a baby girl but Hakim doesn’t want Saqa to turn the baby into a prostitute , thus he urges her to hand him the baby so he can save her. However, Saqa kicks Hakim out of the house.

The so called religious fundamentalist and the head of family, Hakim always gives the reason that ‘uparwalah will take care of them’. He feels, he knows everything, and he always does is the right thing. Before taking any decision, he blindly opens and plays with the holy book ‘Kuran’ but his each and every step has been a wrong decision for entire family. He believes, and says ‘Halat sudharne ke liye hi to beta chahiye tha’, and on the other hand, Zainub argues ‘hamne to jid nahi ki thee paida hone ke liye’.

 

One night, Meena comes to Hakim’s place to give him her baby. When truth reveals, the fight begins between Hakim and his wife. He beats up his wife when she breaks her silence. Realizing about her father’s mistakes, Zainub asks her father to bring back his second wife to home and she will leave the city with her mother and sisters. And later when Shaqa arrives to take the baby girl, the father tries to kill the baby. While saving the baby’s life she kills her father.

Zainub is the one who dares to speak out- ‘Bol’.  She opposes her father at every juncture. She is being hanged but she leaves people with a few questions. The most pressing question she asks, ‘Maarna hi julm kyun hai, paida karna kyun nahi?‘ She emphasize to think that ‘Jayaj bachche paida karke unki zindagiyan haram kar dena, ye julm kyun nahi hai’? And in the last scenes, especially the one in the end when Zainub screams ‘Jab khila nahi sakte to paida kyun karte ho!?’

The entire story highlights the true condition of women, who are often treated as burdens in a male-dominated society. It brings the actual subject that ‘raises questions, challenges the age-old traditions’ that do not provide liberty to woman to right of freedom in choosing life-partner, refusing reproduction, gaining education or working independently. The social status of women in India, Pakistan, and in the neighbour countries is same.

On the whole, ‘Bol’ is a story that ‘dares to bare’ the dilemma of a rigid society’. I strongly believe that you cannot beat a person like Hakim! Nevertheless, such kinds of people are called “impossible“ for a reason and have an endless supply of arguments to support their so called religious fundamentalist thoughts.  Last, but certainly not the least, I feel, these fundamentalists (religious, ethnic, political, ideological, etc.) who hold rigidly to their beliefs, are now afraid and feel ‘lost’ their identity, beliefs and regid practices.

Bol, ke lab azaad hain tere
Bol, yeh thoda waqt bohot hai
Jism-o-zaban ki maut se pehle
Bol, ke sach zinda hai ab tak
Bol, jo kuchh kehna hai keh le
~ Faiz Ahmed Faiz

I thank Avinash for suggesting this movie to me!