Haq Movie Review: Audacious, blistering, seething and sensitive. Haq is all of that and so much more. It raises some pertinent questions on identity – cultural, religious, moral, individual. What should a Muslim woman do when her husband decides to divorce her on a whim? Should she let the Muslim Shariat law dictate her life hereon? Is there a difference between a Muslim woman and an Indian Muslim woman in a court of law? Does fighting for her rights as a woman, a mother and an ex-wife make her selfish? What about shame?
Does standing up for oneself mean inflicting embarrassment on her family? Is alimony all that there is a woman can claim after her husband leaves her? And what about respect? Director Suparn S Varma takes the courageous stories and struggles of Shah Bano, Bai Tahira and Fuzlunbi, and creates Haq like a reduced, rich sauce. The film opens in Uttar Pradesh’s Sankhni where we’re introduced to Shazia Bano. She gets married to a lawyer, Abbas Khan. Life looks like a bed of roses for these love birds. Abbas appears to be an epitome of the perfect husband.
He loves her, defends her against nosey, curmudgeon neighbours. But there’s a catch. We learn that Abbas isn’t someone who believes in fixing household items. If a cooker starts malfunctioning, he immediately buys another. So, their kitchen has three of these vessels now. All goes well until Shazia becomes pregnant for the third time. She realises that Abbas isn’t the same partner, who used to dote on her. He suddenly appears distant and lets work take up almost all of his time.
One day, he takes a work trip to Murree in Pakistan. And that changes Shazia’s life forever. When he returns home after three months, he brings Saira as his new wife. As Shazia is taken aback, demanding an answer from Abbas, her mother-in-law defends his act, stating, ‘Isne nikaah karke sabaab ka kaam kiya.’ Needless to say, Abbas treats his wives and cookers in the same way. His growing closeness to Saira naturally ticks Shazia off. And one day, she decides to take her kids and go back to her parents’ home in Sankhni.
