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She may be Kolkata Knight Riders’ bowling coach Wasim Akram’s favourite date back home in Pakistan, but actress Humaima Malick is also making headlines for her work in a brave film called Bol. It is a blockbuster hit across the border. The film has been made by Shoaib Mansoor, the same filmmaker who demolished regressive practices carried on in the name of religion in his last film Khuda Ke Liye (acclaimed the world over).
In Bol, Mansoor goes a step further and questions a doddering old Pakistani hakim’s insistence on his wife delivering a string of babies in his eternal quest for a “normal” son. “Normal” because the one time his wife delivers a male child, he turns out to be a soft, artistically-inclined eunuch and the father can’t stand the sight of him. Worse, the literate but financially strapped hakim keeps going back to the Koran to back his chauvinistic double standards in what is a convenient interpretation of his religion.
When his eldest daughter (played by Humaima) stands up to him and debates his warped interpretations, Shoaib Mansoor’s message comes to the fore. In Khuda Ke Liye, he had used Naseeruddin Shah to interpret Islam in a balanced, erudite manner to knock down regressive practices. In Bol, Mansoor gets bolder as he uses a woman as his main protagonist.
One is glad that filmmakers like Shoaib Mansoor are making such films as only a voice from within a community can take it on and question its regressive practices.
By the way, the other Pak celebrity recognised in India, singer Atif Aslam (easy reference: he sang Woh lamhe from Zeher, Tere bin from Bas Ek Pal and Tera hone laga hoon from Ajab Prem Ki Gazab Kahani), also acts in Bol. There is an incorrect report going around that Atif has been cast opposite Humaima. I’ve seen Bol and can tell for sure that he is cast opposite her sister. Humaima herself is pitted mostly opposite her hakim-father in the film and not with Atif or any other obvious hero.
The sensible, disturbing Bol will be an Eid release at the end of this month along with Salman Khan’s completely mainstream Bodyguard. Talk of chalk and cheese competitors.
Moving from the sublime, what Humaima Malick’s feisty, and perhaps controversial, performance in Bol proves is that Wasim Akram likes strong, fiery women. His wife Huma (who passed away two years ago), had also shown spunk and grace with an independent identity of her own when she and Wasim had come on Simi Garewal’s show Rendezvous With Simi a few years ago.
Talking of graceful wives with personalities of their own, Karisma Kapoor has waltzed back into films and is already fetching one big C as her fee. From Madhuri to Aishwarya to Vidya Balan, everybody was tapped for the role opposite Sanjay Dutt in the remake of Satte Pe Satta but it is finally Karisma Kapoor who has been signed and sealed for it. Extremely well maintained and stylish in her dressing, Karisma’s comeback film will, however, be Vikram Bhatt’s Dangerous Ishq since it was he who first belled this light-eyed Kapoor.
Sanjay Dutt, looking beefy and bald as the villain in Karan Johar’s remake of Agneepath, is aiming for six-pack abs by the time he shoots Satte Pe Satta. If the film does not face any more hiccups, SPS will go on the floors this December. Which really gives Sanju only four months to get into shape, not an easy target for a 52-year-old who has led a largely wild lifestyle.
That way you have to give it to Mahesh Bhatt who is 60 plus and fitter than he ever was. Bhatt first gave up liquor two decades ago and never went back to it. A few years ago, he decided to lose weight too and is 20 kilos lighter. “Not only did I knock off weight, I’ve maintained it too,” he preens. Mahesh Bhatt’s simple programme for losing weight: “Walk for 35 minutes every day, religiously. Eat only 25 per cent of what you normally eat and not a morsel more.” It sure has worked for MB.
