Bol-an eye opener

The film, directed by Sohaib Mansoor, revolves around a family with an arrogant Mula father, a helpless mother and their four daughters who suffer torture and abuse under their father every day just because they are daughters and not sons. The basic theme of the film focuses around households which are anti female offspring and reject them out right. Such is the story of every Pakistani household and we as a nation not only suffer through such an ordeal but we are the ones who have encouraged it either directly or indirectly. We as a part of this society have followed such trends obeying to them and thus promoting them.

This is just not the case of people belonging to rural areas but of most people living in urban areas as well. A common example to this is that at the time when a woman conceives the first ultra sound makes the hearts beat in hope for a son. It is just not the grandparents, whom we consider old fashioned, but the parents as well who wish for a male heir. People in a country like ours wish couples the birth of a son every time they want to truly bless them. Why does this happen in every other family? Because we believe in such traditions where the birth of a son means prestige and high esteem.  

A family with daughters is regarded as weak and their father is looked at with pitiful eyes though facts prove that it is a daughter that turns out to be more faithful than a son. Individuals realize this fact but still pray for the birth of as many sons as possible. If we compare other nations and societies within them such a concept has been erased in many while it still strongly persists in Pakistan.

Other factors that persist in our society and that we tend to adapt in our lives is the dominance of one person whether he/she is right or wrong. Freedom of speech is what we lack in along with many other rights especially in the case of women. Even in the film we see a reflection of our country where the sisters have to obey to their father even though they disagree on all the things he has to say. The older daughter, who is divorced, manages to speak herself out but is beaten up with great violence every time she does. However it is her spirit that we all relate to since every human being wants to retaliate against the norms of the society but is forced not to. We see the older sister struggling throughout the film trying to bring justices to her family members and saving them from the tyrant father but is only successful till she sacrifices herself. Their mother who has been subjected to constant violence and sex since she is unable to produce a male child is helpless in front of her husband and has absolutely no right to speak in the matters of her daughters.

Though the film does have elements of exaggeration but at the same time one must accept that it is the reality and this is exactly who we are turning against our own people and fighting them as enemies. Is this how we are building ourselves? Dominating the lives of other individuals with wrong decisions just to satisfy ourselves is the start of destruction of a strong society and when most of us agree to those wrong decisions we further the damage. The film proves to be an eye opener for our society from which we should learn in order to give ourselves a better standing that what we have today.