Transgression and transcendence in Shoaib Mansoor’s feminist trilogy

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines Shoaib Mansoor’s cult feminist trilogy—Khuda Kay Liye (2007), Bol (2011), Verna (2017)—to demonstrate how his transgressive heroines transgress myths of femininity, for example, those pertaining to Otherness, division, and the eternal feminine. Mansoor features transgressive heroines who transcend the patriarchal boundaries structured to contain them and challenge the voice of male authority. His heroines’ transgressions thus take agency as the driving force for pursuing self-fulfilment in transcendence, undermining the domineering traits of patriarchy embedded in the status quo and herd values. The article adumbrates Pakistani cinema’s transitional odyssey from women as docile bodies to transcendent agents by analyzing heroines’ portrayals in traditional Pakistani cinema. I argue that Mansoor’s feminist trilogy significantly contributes to women’s cinema by addressing the audience as a woman and concerning with women. As Mansoor persuasively features transgressive heroines, watching the feminist trilogy as counter-narrative provides us with the representation of women as social subjects whose transformative actions destabilize discursive formations, accomplish transcendence, and create a space of woman empowerment.