Bol - A movie that asked me to speak up

Today I watched Bol, a movie which has been praised over and over again, by the so called "critics". It is a movie with a social message so maybe these maniacs are going over board with their accolades. Before I tell my opinion about this movie, I just wanna think aloud. What is a movie's fundamental duty, whether it is a no-brainer or an offbeat one?

It has to keep the audience awake. Yes that's right!

So what if the movie is packed with so great a message that it can blow your mind out, for that to happen, you should be remotely interested in what the characters are ambling about.

I may be village bumpkin where international cinema is concerned, but I have seen a few foreign films on that channel World movies and even though most of the times I couldn't understand a word they were saying, the movies were so engaging. Whereas today,the familiarity of language didn't save me from the mind numbing boredom.

The central theme of the movie's simple. If killing someone is a crime, so is giving birth to someone who you cannot take care of. Okay, we get it. There are two ways to say it. Either say it subtly and make the viewer think about it long after the movie is over, or poison him in such high quantities that it gives him nightmares when he even tries to think of it the next time. The director sadly chooses the latter option, it feels as if he is deliberately punishing us with the same boredom that encapsulates the jobless daughters in the movie.

I read rave reviews about the Pakistani actress Hummaima malik's acting, but I prefer to call it over-acting. Watching her in the scene where she is dragged by the jailers, it felt like Meena Kumari has had a posthumous comeback. I just wanna tell Hummaima, "Woman! it is 2011, not 1950! Even Rakhi Sawant emotes better than you",  and as for Atif, its best if he stuck to his singing career, before that also goes kaput.

Movies like these are supposed to move you emotionally, not out of the theatre. Anyway, if Bollywood churns social-msg laden gems like Aarakshan etc, what can one expect from lollywood?

The movie's first dialogue's delivered by the stone faced Atif where he says bad things happen because we don't speak up.

So here I'm speaking up.

Stop making dabba boring movies in the name of activism. We are wasting our money here!