Haq Movie Review: Watching Hindi films in the current times has become an exercise in caution. My antennae are up, especially if the poster bears the picture of a head-covered Muslim woman. Tell me traveller, what new propaganda you might be? Thankfully, the film’s title had no subtitle. No Haq: “The Shah Bano Story” or Haq: “The Truth Files.” That was a relief. Starring Emraan Hashmi and Yami Gautam Dhar, Haq is actually based on journalist Jigna Vora’s book Bano: Bharat Ki Beti. Maybe to avoid any legal troubles, the makers have not explicitly stated that the film is based on the heavily-debated Shah Bano case which pitted Muslim personal laws against the country’s secular systems. The poster also bears a harmless, neutral line: “Inspired by a landmark Supreme Court Judgement.”
Director: Suparn S Varma
Writter: Reshu Nath
Starring: Emraan Hashmi, Yami Gautam Dhar, Sheeba Chadha and Danish Hussain
The film has been directed by Suparn Varma, who was also part of the team behind another courtroom drama Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai (2023). Haq, however, plays more like a marriage story than a legal thriller. Advocate Abbas Khan (Emraan) and Shazia Bano (Yami) fall in love and soon get hitched. He treats her like a queen and fondly calls her ‘begum’. One day, however, Shazia notices that her husband is very quick to replace faulty kitchen appliances. This lazy metaphor soon materializes when Abbas brings in a new, younger wife. In the beginning, Shazia tries to adjust but ultimately walks off with her three children when Abbas’s affections are shifted towards the new begum. When he even stops sending her a meagre monthly allowance he promised, she moves court. Shazia’s case is taken up by a resolute lawyer Bela Jain (a dependable Sheeba Chadha). A long legal battle ensues when Abbas, in a shrewd, petty move gives Triple Talaq to Shazia, in order to devoid her of the protections under Section 125 of the CrPc, which mandates a husband to provide for his wife.
In the recent cinema landscape, inundated with the likes of The Taj Story (2025) and The Sabarmati Report (2024), courtroom thrillers have become shouting matches either trying to peddle an agenda or villainise an entire community. Haq, however, operates from a place of introspection and restraint. Islam, as a religion, is not looked at from a reductionist lens. Thankfully, no male reformist turns up to be Shazia’s savior. The reform comes from Bano herself as she quotes the Quran and teaches a thing or two about Shariat to conservative maulvis. Yami Gautam, who is often part of shrill, polarizing films, here plays Bano with a quiet resistance. She gives the performance a necessary vulnerability and strength. The underrated Emraan Hashmi, on the other hand, plays Abbas with a delicious complexity. He doesn’t go down the road of caricaturish evilness. His Abbas is not a conservative whose malevolence comes from the religion he practices but merely from the ego of being a man. He is a red flag, camouflaged in an educated lawyer’s black robes.
Many times, Haq, for me, brought back memories of watching a calming Pakistani daily soap in the golden days of Zindagi channel. The film’s visuals are warm and a bit antique, as if you are inside a misty bookshop in Old Delhi. Writer Reshu Nath has intricately and informedly used the Urdu language, going beyond the parroted ‘adaabs’, ‘inkaars’ and ‘iqraars’. I have added the word ‘sawaab’ (reward for a good deed) to my vocabulary.
The film’s politics is insightful and not incendiary. Haq is sensible and not sensational. But still, in trying to impart its message to the masses the film can’t help but become simplistic. I expected the proceedings to be more geeky. A little less than most Hindi legal dramas but here too courtrooms become a playground for sermonizing. The film also tries to steer clear of any political or narrative complexities. The passing of the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986, a knee jerk reaction by the Rajiv Gandhi led Congress government to appease the minority vote-bank in the aftermath of the Shah Bano judgment, gets a passing mention in a pre-credit note. The current regime also gets lauded for abolishing the practice of Triple Talaq. It feels like a desperate balancing act. But then, movies can’t be exhaustive history lessons. An Urdu word is often repeated by Shazia in the film: ‘Iqra’, the first word of the Quran. It means “read”. Nothing beats that.