The brothel in Bol

As we discussed in class, Bol doesn't just address one issue, rather it manages to compress a variety of themes within its narrative. A pertinent theme in the film is the figure of the prostitute and the institution of brothel. In the short stories we've covered so far, we've seen the brothel as very secular space, situated outside the mainstream, and the prostitute as being especially homeless, even rejected by the national. As an example, Manto’s Kaali Shalwar comes to mind in which the character of Sultanah is the very epitome of marginalization and loneliness. The boundary between the brothel and the rest of society, and in particular, the shareef gharana, is very distinct. The two spaces cannot, must not, overlap in any visible way. The brothel in Bol is similar in many ways, especially in the physical setting of its space. It tries desperately to exude the charm and mystery that brothels of the partition era used to have, but it fails miserably. Perhaps this is what makes allows it to actually become a part of the mainstream rather than being outside it. And I think it achieves this mainly through the narrative of ethnicity and class. Saka Kanjar and his family/associates are very much a part of the national in the way that they are integrated into society. He fits in with the dominant narrative because first and foremost he is Punjabi, and has his supreme Punjabi values. The fact that he doesn't do anything to the daughters after he breaks into the Hakim’s house is in line with the film’s portrayal of the Punjabi identity as a whole as being morally superior. Then the lines between the brothel and the national are very blurred, and both spaces are infiltrated by the other. Hakim Sahab, for all his religiosity and money-washing, ends up falling in love with a prostitute even if he was getting paid to impregnate her. In the brothel, Saka Kanjar asks Hakim sahab to teach his children to read the Quran, adhering to the common religious practice of reciting the Quran with a maulvi sahab. Meena steps out of the brothel and has to quite literally give up her child to the national to remain a part of it in some way. So, although they are stigmatized by the society, the brothel and its inhabitants are never homeless because the national accepts them in its own way, much more than it does the Hakim Sahab’s family anyway.