Bol

Indian Express rating:**½

‘Bol’ is a throwback to the well-crafted Pakistani TV serials that used to be hugely popular at one time,in which the girls were achingly lovely,the men were stately and handsome,and the dialogue was full of poetry. ‘Bol’s long-suffering women who are not allowed to speak their mind,wear what they like,go where they want,make you instantly and shockingly aware that what may seem anachronistic is not. Not even for women in seemingly urban areas. And makes you wonder : were those women in the 80s serials freer than these women,thirty years on,for whom silence is the only option? And how many women in Indian homes live under such restrictions,still?

Shoaib Mansoor makes his leading lady speak. And that’s why he calls his film ‘Bol’. Zainub (Mallik) is the oldest of several girls born to Hakeem Sahib (Sehbai),a man whose longing for a son makes him treat his daughters like dirt,and hate his youngest offspring,who is,as a visiting hijda declares,theirs. This is a household where the girls laugh out loud only when their father is out,and whisper fearfully in his presence,because who knows who may be the next target of his unpredictable ire. The spirited Zainub is back in the house,having left her husband,and she is the only one who can open her mouth in front of their autocratic abba. A younger sister (Khan) is in love with the neighbour’s son (Aslam),but doesn’t dare confess to it. The mother is doormat who cries constantly,and teaches her girls to do the same.

A murder puts Zainub in the dock. That’s where the film starts,with her facing a bunch of reporters,one of whom tries getting her off death-row. The flashback leads us back to her natal home in which the girls grew up learning to save the girlish Saifi from their father’s wrath. An attempt to rescue Saifi from life-long confinement leads to a fate worse than death,and an end to life as the family has known it.

Mansoor,whose previous blockbuster ‘Khuda Ke Liye’ showcased the problems of racial and religious prejudices in a world gone mad post 9/11,confirms his skill as an old fashioned story teller who believes in taking his time to fill in details and emotions. Even when it turns out to be too wordy,and much too long-winded,there’s no denying that ‘Bol’ is important. Because it has the courage to say,via its spunky heroine : utaar ke phenk do in burquon ko,apni zindagi khud banao.

shubhra.gupta@expressindia.com