‘Haq’ movie review: Yami Gautam and Emraan Hashmi shine in this unflinching take on the casual cruelty of tradition
Those who remember the tumultuous eighties would attest that the landmark Shah Bano case reshaped Indian secularism and the fault lines of identity politics for decades. But beyond the courtrooms, objections from clerics and political outrage, a story of faith, human dignity, and a woman’s rights unfolded within the four walls.
Cast within the realm of fiction and point of view, this week director Suparn Varma reimagines the story of a devoted wife abandoned post-remarriage, her husband’s instant triple talaq, a brutal severance of support, and a fierce battle for maintenance that ripples a domestic dispute into a national debate, with deep socio-political ramifications.
Hailing from traditional Muslim families, Abbas Khan (Emraan Hashmi) and Shazia Bano (Yami Gautam) make for a winsome couple. He is a hotshot lawyer while she is a homemaker with an opinion. It’s a relationship with the Almighty that doesn’t require a mediator.
Her god fearing, progressive father (Danish Husain) provides the cover she needs in a society that doesn’t practice what it preaches. One day, Shazia discovers that Abbas doesn’t like to mend things in his life. He prefers to change them. Soon, she finds that the habit is not limited to a sundry pressure cooker; he brings a second wife to the household. After the initial shock and pain, Shazia settles for her fate. He promises her space and dignity, but the fissures surface again, forcing Shazia to leave her abode with children and knock at the doors of justice for maintenance.
Unwilling to pay the monthly maintenance ordered by the court, Abbas divorces her and argues that, as the talaq ended their relationship, he didn’t need to pay her maintenance. When courts say there is no variance between Muslim Personal Law and Section 125 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, Abbas and the clerics turn the domestic dispute into an encroachment on the personal space of minorities, bringing persecution complex and victimhood of a section to the fore.
source:thehindu.com
