Right to Marry

Recently, I came across an article about three girls who were buried alive by their tribal heads in order to punish them because they wanted to choose their own husbands and not marry the men whom their parents had chosen for them. The orders for their brutal murder were given out by their tribe heads who made a point to murder the girls themselves as they found their deed extremely dishonorable. According to the United Nations Organization, these girls had absolute right to choose their spouses and certainly were not supposed to be brutally murdered.

In rural areas of our country, Pakistan, decisions regarding many matters are not taken to the courts. They are solved by groups of people within the areas who are the heads of the tribes. They are the respected lot of the community whose decisions are taken to be the final ones. They are usually the powerful people who give the final verdict to one’s punishment by deciding with each other and observing the matters carefully.

As the news reached the masses, politicians from their area defended the killings by calling it legal in their area. They stressed over the rules of their tribal system that did not allow women to choose their own husbands instead such decisions were taken by the families or tribal heads. They highlighted the displeasing fact that such was a tradition of their culture that has been carried forward and will be continued.  No arrests have been taken place and the government itself is hesitant as the ministers from Baluchistan favor the event themselves. For them speaking regarding the decisions that they make is talking against their culture which for them is highly offending. They are proud of the decisions that they make regarding the treatment of women in such cases. For them it’s the matter of their respect and ‘honor’ which they avenge by sentencing the ‘culprits’ to shameful and agonized deaths.

The girls were human beings and had the right to all the human right articles set by the United Nations. Though such traditions do exist in our society, it is the government who needs to take action against such happenings. Burying humans just because they willed to live a life of their own choice does not mean they should be killed. And instead of condemning the event, the tribesmen and politicians from the province were proud of the practice and were ready to fight for it. The government here should have taken action in order to stop future such practices but of course hesitated as the powerful ministers of Baluchistan found the incident satisfactory.

Every day we hear or read about many such practices in a country like ours and even some remote areas of India. Women being shamefully stoned to death, black polishes rubbed onto their faces in public, their hair being shaved off, burned in front of everyone and so on are all common practices in such areas. They all exist because the right to freely marry and choose one’s own spouse has still not been accepted in such cultures and thus anyone who dares to go against the rule is punished. The rule here is that no marriage decision shall be taken by any individual and instead such matters will be handled by their families or tribal heads who will decide for them.

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. 

Billboard Clutter

Every day when we step out we see hundreds of billboards everywhere we look with the same format but only different products and designs. Yes a change has been seen in the recent billboards in Pakistan where 3D advertisements were put up but they too nonetheless were displayed on the same billboards that previously some other campaign used for its products.

What I mean to say here is that if we consider ourselves and actually think about it there comes a point when we say at the back of the mind because there are so many billboards dressed the same way which one to look and which one should be left out. Certainly we cannot see all of them as after a time they all seem to grow unanimous. The fault here is not with the billboards themselves but the way advertisers have taken them while advertising.

Whenever a product is launched it is a necessity to flood the city with billboards along with other advertising elements. This is when I realized that billboards and pole signs are becoming a problem because there is too much of it out there. I feel that so many advertisements on the typical sizes of billboards makes them look like one, and not making every campaign stand out from another. I do not, however, say that outdoor advertising does not have its magic. Though TVCs are more cluttered yet they do not loose their appeal because they are living pictures with jingles, delivering messages personally while a person sits back and relaxes at home with all the time in the world, which is not the case of billboards as those we view on our way.

I believe that there can be numerous solutions to this problem that at least I feel exists. For instance the recent introduction of mobile vans has gotten a lot of attention as it was something different and totally new that did catch many people’s attention. I myself can recall Omore, Dalda Olive oil, Javed Sheikh’s film, Wi tribe and lots more. However when it comes to me recalling the exact billboards I cannot maybe with a few exceptions of the Cadbury ad that was put up at Boat basin and only because it looked as if it had real men standing on it! Mobile vans do come with a solution in the way as they managed to divert and also capture the attention of the people by giving them something new and exciting to look at.

Iqbal Hussain

In Pakistan, not men but a woman needs to posses qualities of a modest person in order to be acceptable in the society. The term ‘prostitute’ and ‘pleasure’ are known to be associated with women who lack the characteristics of an acceptable modest women. Few days back when I was sitting on a couch with a cup of tea I was thinking about the norms and values of our society. My thinking led me to the point where I thought about the prostitutes who go against the cultural and Islamic values taught in our country. Numerous questions came in my mind of why would one pop their bubble and step into a completely different world of dirt and disrespect. I questioned myself that when every individual has the right to live their life according to their will then why were they always pointed fingers at even if they chose it as their profession? Were they ever seen with respect or did anyone ever try to understand them before accusing them to be a curse to the nation?

With these uncountable questions flipping through of my mind I tried to find out about the famous ‘Diamond Market’ (Heera Mandi), which is the infamous ‘Red light district’ in the city Lahore, Pakistan. This is the place where women are seen dressed up seductively; they are nothing else but objects for men. These women give signals to the men by their gestures in exchange of notes after which pleasure is promised on the entrance of the curtain. A kind of Pakistani belly-dance called the ‘Mujra’ is performed by these women followed by satisfying the filthy clients. My point of the research was to see if someone ever tried to know what these women felt while going through this turmoil.

This was a pretty controversial topic to be talked upon in a Muslim based country as the people of this country want to avoid topics which are intolerable. However, one bold famous artist of Pakistan, Iqbal Hussain, son of a prostitute himself, was the one who took up the challenge. Most of his paintings depicted women of the red light area where he lived with these prostitutes and felt their sorrows buried deep inside their souls. Through his paintings he decided to give recognition to the real life of these women and portray it in front of the selfish self centered society who failed to believe in realism. His paintings reflect his thoughts of the models that he used for the portraits.

When I read about the background of the artist in search of the history of his paintings of women, I found out some very interesting facts. He, since his childhood faced situations which a normal child wouldn’t go through. I was inclined to know why he had such sympathy with the women of this socially unacceptable community. I couldn’t find any other solid reason except for his family background and environment. He grew up seeing his sister and mother dance and sing which was the mean for their earning. Due to his background he faced problems in school and in his normal life because nobody wanted to be friends with him. He spent a lot of his time wandering in the streets and sleeping on the road at nights. He knew exactly the reasons for his difficulties in life but he felt helpless when he thought of changing the mind sets of the hypocrites of the society who disrespected him and his family. He therefore thought of painting his heart out instead of trying to change the fixed thoughts of the society.

Psychological responses could be the reason for Iqbal to be termed as a controversial artist because the women he painted did not depict the perceived image of the audience. The society and audience doesn’t want to be seen or known to have such a class existing in our country. Iqbal Hussain was a victim to many attacks because of his controversial art but he managed to stand beside the women of the red light district as a protector to the women of that area. He tried to serve them as much as he could because he could relate to that community.  

The Godfather

One of the best films ever made in history, The Godfather is the finest work of Francis Ford Coppola. It has been ranked as the second greatest film in American cinematic history- behind Citizen Kane- by the American Film Institute.  Previous gangster movies had looked at the gangs from the perspective of an infuriated outsider. In disparity, The Godfather presents the gangster's perception of the Mafia as a retort to corrupt society. Although the Corleone family is presented as incalculably rich and powerful, there is no hint of where its money comes from, no scenes depicting prostitution, gambling, loan sharking or other forms of racketeering. The setting of a criminal counterculture allows for unapologetic gender stereotyping, considered an important part of the film's allure.

Although many films about gangsters had been made before The Godfather, Coppola’s compassionate treatment of the Corleone family and their associates, and his interpretation of mobsters as characters of substantial psychological profundity and intricacy was hardly usual in the genre. The Godfather had a strong impact on the public at large.

The film starts with the wedding reception of Don Vito Corleone's daughter Connie and Carlo Rizzi. Vito, the head of the Corleone Mafia family who is known to friends and associates as "Godfather" and Tom Hagen, the Corleone family lawyer and consigliore, are investigating requests for favors because "no Sicilian can refuse a request on his daughter's wedding day". Meanwhile, the Don's youngest son Michael, an adorned Marine war hero returning from World War II service, tells his girlfriend Kay Adams anecdotes about his family, attempting to enlighten her about his father's criminal life; he reassures her that he is different from his family. Among depicting the marriage of Connie and Carlo, the wedding scene also serves as a significant elucidation scene for the remainder of the film, as Michael metaphorically introduces the main characters to Kay.

The Godfather is a drama/ gangster film which is based on the 1969 novel of the same name by Mario Puzo. The scene in which a delivery is made of a pair of pants and bullet proof vest wrapped around a fish is explained to be an old Sicilian message, "Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes". This expression has made it into widespread American dialect.

12 Angry Men

Sidney Lumet’s feature debut is a splendidly written, radically effective courtroom thriller that rightfully stands as a modern classic. 12 Angry Men is a spellbinding, incisive and engrossing assessment of a miscellaneous group of twelve male jurors who are unnervingly brought together after hearing the facts in an outwardly open-and-shut murder trial case. The film is a powerful denunciation, denigration and expose of the trial by jury system.

The undeniable, confrontational film examines the twelve men's deep-seated personal prejudices, perceptual biases and weaknesses, apathy, anger, personalities, defective judgments, cultural differences, unawareness and fears, that threaten to contaminate their decision-making abilities, cause them to disregard the real issues in the case, and potentially lead them to a miscarriage of justice.

The film has no flashbacks, narration, or subtitles. The camera is basically locked in the enclosed room with the deliberating jurors for 90 of the film's 95 minutes, and the film is fundamentally shot in real-time in an authentic jury room. The film opens with the camera looking up at the magnificent pillars of justice outside Manhattan's Court of General Sessions on a summer afternoon. The subjective camera strolls about inside the marbled interior rotunda and hallways, and on the second floor chaotically makes its way into a double-doored room marked 228. There, a bored-sounding, evasive judge jadedly instructs the twelve-man jury to begin their deliberations after listening to six days of a long and complex case of murder in the first degree.

The tense script presents each juror vibrantly using detailed soliloquies, all which are skillfully performed by the film's unblemished cast. Still, it's Lumet's claustrophobic direction, all perspiring close-ups and confined compositions within a one-room setting that really transforms this artificial story into an explosive and convincing nail-biter.

Genre-film

             A French word meaning ‘kind’, genre is a category for classifying films in terms of common patterns of form and content. It’s related to another word, genus, which is used in the biological sciences to classify groups of plants and animals. When we speak of film genre, we are indicating certain types of movies. The science-fiction film, the action picture, the drama film, the comedy, the romance, the musical, the Western- these are some genres of fictional storytelling cinema.

Filmmakers, industry decision makers, critics and viewers all contribute to the formation of a shared sense that certain films seem to resemble one another in momentous ways. Genres also change over time, as filmmakers invent new twists on old formulas. Thus defining the accurate boundary between genres can be complicated.

            For the immense exposure system that exists around filmmaking, genres are a simple way to exemplify film. In fact, reviewers are often central in gathering and crystallizing notions about genres. In television coverage of entertainment, reporters refer to genres, because they know that most members of the public will easily clutch what they mean.

For viewers, genre often provides a way of finding a film they want to see. Some filmgoers are fans of a specific genre and may seek out and exchange information via magazines, internet sites and conventions. At all levels of the filmmaking and film-viewing processes, then, genres help assure that most members of a society share at least some wide-ranging notions about the types of films that compete for our attention.

Because filmmakers habitually play with conventions and iconography, genres seldom remain unchanged for very long. The broader, blanket genres such as thrillers, romances and comedies may stay popular for decades, but a comedy from the 1920’s is likely to be very different from one in the 1960’s. Genres change over history. Their conventions get recast, and by mixing conventions from different genres, filmmakers create new possibilities every now and then.

Films are most commonly grouped into genres by virtue of similar plot patterns, similar thematic implications, characteristic filmic techniques, and recognizable iconography. Dramatic films are one of the largest genres in films because they include a broad spectrum of films and they are divided into sub-genres which include crime, thriller, gangster, romance, melodramas, epics, biopics.