Bol

Once again a lavish film with many plotlines that highlight the problems of contemporary Pakistan. If the main story were set in the recent past, it would seem distant and unreal to the audience, but its strength lies in its connection to the present. There was a patriarch who had many daughters, and a son/non-son, and he built respect in his caste all his life. He left his family to languish on the brink of poverty and always found for himself an argument for his own anger, wrath, and injustice in the Koran. The anger in his heart culminated in the murder of his son/non-son, but his helplessness also led him into the arms of a courtesan (the beautiful Iman Ali), as his reputation as a daughter-bearer preceded him into the shouting quarter... It sounds like a fairy tale, but it's yet another of Mansoor's sociological mirrors. We have the right to give life to people, but we must also let them live. (23/03/2014)