An individual’s right to dignity being sacrosanct forms the bedrock of Haq. This is especially resonant in the setup in which the film operates — a time and space where religion, laws, societal norms and gender bias are heavily stacked against its protagonist, but one who refuses to go down without fighting the good fight.
That is the battle — both in court and outside it — that Shazia Bano (Yami Gautam Dhar) wages for more than a decade against her husband Abbas Khan (Emraan Hashmi). Her demand? That Abbas pay maintenance towards their three children even after he claims to have divorced her through the highly contentious ‘triple talaq’ route after marrying a second time.
Abbas, a successful lawyer himself, can easily pay the paltry amount of ₹400 per month that Shazia fights for, but his ego makes him see this as an attack on Shariat or Muslim personal law. Shazia loses almost everything that she is left with in the process, but decides to see this through, relying on Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) that orders for maintenance. Their face-off takes them from the sessions court to the high court and finally to the Supreme Court.
Haq is well researched and even better acted. Director Suparn S. Varma, the man who gave us the engaging courtroom drama Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai two years ago, crafts a film that refuses to tip-toe around what could have been a potentially disputable theme. Varma, partnered by writer Reshu Nath, talks about Muslim law vs secular law, marriage and divorce in Islam, the treacherous relationship between siasat and Shariat, and ultimately, what truly defines the Muslim identity. That calls for a delicate balancing act that Haq, though not subtle on many counts, achieves.
Inspired by the real-life case of Shah Bano, whose long and arduous fight for dignity, justice and what was undoubtedly her right, became a legal benchmark, Haq is based on Jigna Vora’s book Bano: Bharat Ki Beti. But it also draws its material from the lives of the countless women in this country, both then and now, who have to wage a battle on an everyday basis to even exist in a society that hardly favours them. Not all of them can go to court.
Haq is Yami’s film. The actor, who over the last few years has proven her ability to pick roles of repute and relevance, slips totally into the skin of Shazia Bano. In the roughly two decades that Haq plays out, Shazia goes from a sprightly young woman in love to a dutiful wife and caring mother, until she is relegated to becoming the first wife (or rather, the second) and then the former wife. Yami imbues all of these shades and stages of her character with both power and vulnerability. Society shuns Bano, but she refuses to give in, those eyes both blazing with fire and busting into tears.
One of Haq’s biggest achievements, especially in the black-and-white times we live in, is its refusal to demonise its characters. That includes both Emraan’s Abbas — based on Shah Bano’s husband Mohd. Ahmed Khan — and his second wife Saira, played with confident ease by newcomer Vartika Singh.
Like Yami, Emraan delivers a solid act, humanising Abbas in many ways. The vastly underrated actor is a pleasure to watch, especially in the final stretches of the film, crowned with a monologue in court that packs a powerful punch. Every actor in Haq — Danish Husain as Shazia’s father, Sheeba Chaddha as her lawyer — is well cast.
Haq focuses on how a single woman’s fight for the rights of her children became one that changed the destiny of many lives thereafter. Today, triple talaq is a criminal offense, with The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019, making this act a non-bailable offense with up to three years of imprisonment. One small step for Shah Bano, a giant step for women, irrespective of the boundaries of caste and religion. A film like Haq reinforces that.
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