In class we talked about violence, especially domestic violence as being a recurrent theme within Bol. But what is the origin of this violence and why it assumes such a physical form within the home needs to be addressed more coherently.
Bol is a film that consists almost solely of victims; Saifi, Meena, the many daughters, the mother are all at the receiving end of undeserving oppression. Here I would like to point that Hakeem Sahab despite all his flaws, his anger and his oppressive patriarchy is yet another victim-- a victim of social oppression and his own rigidity.
Whatever humiliates, insults or upsets to Hakeem in the outside world, comes out as domestic violence within the space of his home. The very first example is the instance with the young Saifi, the loss of face that the Hakeem faces when he has to remove his friend as Saifi's tutor results in him locking himself with Saifi and beating him repeatedly. Even when Pakistan loses the match to India, his frustration with the order of things comes out in him hurling his shoe at Zainub. Later when he marries Meena the prostitute without being able to pay Haq Mehr only to get paid for impregnating her, his inner humiliation is intensified when he hears about Ayesha's secret nikkah to Mustafa and Zainub gets her worst beating yet. In his
final scene when he is thrust with his new baby daughter and has to reveal his doings, his wife ends up on the floor beneath his violent kicks.
As Zainub says; "mard ke paas jab jawab na ho tou haath chalatay hain", the fear that builds up inside Hakeem Sahab, the shame that he feels on his many failures including his inability to be an adequate breadwinner, his having to resort to going to Hira Mandi to earn his keep and general societal pressures build up and intensify his bouts of violence which may not have been so pronounced otherwise. Shoaib Mansoor takes care in portraying the Hakeem as being a 'good', honest person despite his perpetration of domestic violence. Perhaps the focus of violence within the home is to depict how oppression from the outside seeps into the inside to make life unbearable for its inhabitants. The Hakeem, despite being the patriarch in his house, is a victim of the more subtle violence that reeks from within Pakistani society-- the fear of being judged, the fear of humiliation and the pressure of too much responsibility.
Bol is a film that consists almost solely of victims; Saifi, Meena, the many daughters, the mother are all at the receiving end of undeserving oppression. Here I would like to point that Hakeem Sahab despite all his flaws, his anger and his oppressive patriarchy is yet another victim-- a victim of social oppression and his own rigidity.
Whatever humiliates, insults or upsets to Hakeem in the outside world, comes out as domestic violence within the space of his home. The very first example is the instance with the young Saifi, the loss of face that the Hakeem faces when he has to remove his friend as Saifi's tutor results in him locking himself with Saifi and beating him repeatedly. Even when Pakistan loses the match to India, his frustration with the order of things comes out in him hurling his shoe at Zainub. Later when he marries Meena the prostitute without being able to pay Haq Mehr only to get paid for impregnating her, his inner humiliation is intensified when he hears about Ayesha's secret nikkah to Mustafa and Zainub gets her worst beating yet. In his
final scene when he is thrust with his new baby daughter and has to reveal his doings, his wife ends up on the floor beneath his violent kicks.
As Zainub says; "mard ke paas jab jawab na ho tou haath chalatay hain", the fear that builds up inside Hakeem Sahab, the shame that he feels on his many failures including his inability to be an adequate breadwinner, his having to resort to going to Hira Mandi to earn his keep and general societal pressures build up and intensify his bouts of violence which may not have been so pronounced otherwise. Shoaib Mansoor takes care in portraying the Hakeem as being a 'good', honest person despite his perpetration of domestic violence. Perhaps the focus of violence within the home is to depict how oppression from the outside seeps into the inside to make life unbearable for its inhabitants. The Hakeem, despite being the patriarch in his house, is a victim of the more subtle violence that reeks from within Pakistani society-- the fear of being judged, the fear of humiliation and the pressure of too much responsibility.
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