One of the landmark legal battles in India, the Shah Bano case (Mohd Ahmed Khan v. Shah Bano Begum) was a litmus test for women’s rights. Now, having just released his film Haq, a dramatised version of those events of the 1970s and 1980s, filmmaker Suparn S Varma says “the unfortunate truth is that the largest ‘backward class’ in the world is still women”.
Varma has released his film nearly five decades after Shah Bano went to court to override the injustice done to her by Mohammed Ahmed Khan — he divorced her after 43 years of marriage, initially paid a paltry maintenance, but soon stopped paying even that, citing provisions of the Muslim Personal Law. Actress Yami Gautam plays the protagonist in the film; Emraan Hashmi co-stars.
Exploring the film’s subject in a conversation with PTI, the filmmaker says that though society frequently discusses issues faced by various marginalised groups, the largest “backward class” continues to be women, as gender discrimination cuts across class, religion, and geography.
Varma, known for his work on popular OTT series such as The Trial and Rana Naidu, says that Haq is fundamentally about a woman’s fight for dignity, self-respect and basic human rights in a system that is structurally biased against her.
“She is fighting a system that is already preordained, while trying to claim her existence and place in society as a woman. We talk about many marginalised groups, but the unfortunate truth is that the largest ‘backward class’ in the world is still women,” he says.
Haq dramatises the events depicted in Jigna Vora’s book Bano: Bharat Ki Beti.
The legal battle started in 1978 when Shah Bano was divorced by her lawyer husband and reached the Supreme Court in 1985. It ended with a judgment by a five-judge Constitution bench of the apex court that ruled that Muslim women were also entitled to maintenance under the law.
The film features Yami as Shazia Bano and Emraan as her husband, lawyer Abbas Khan, fictionalised versions of Shah Bano and Ahmed Khan.
Varma says even though the story is set in the 1970s and 80s, its themes remain relevant: “There is a saying that ‘the more things change, the more they remain the same’. The situation is still the same. The same thing is happening with women (today). They are fighting with the same glass ceiling. They are fighting with the same biases, [and for] the same ‘haq’, the basic human rights.”
The filmmaker asserts, “The difference between a man and a woman is still the same. These are issues that pervade the whole world and this is the story of Shazia Bano.”
Praising the film’s lead Yami for her dedication, Varma says that she has given her career’s best performance in Haq.
“You have seen many of her films; she has a style of walking and speaking. She reinvented everything about herself to create the character of Shazia Bano. She became Bano on set. For the 32 days we were on set, we didn’t see Yami; we only saw Shazia Bano,” says Varma.
“I think it’s her career-best performance so far. From here, she will go higher and higher. It is very special, what she has created,” he said.
The film’s climax features powerful monologues from each of its lead characters, and Varma feels fortunate to have Yami and Emraan delivering those moments.
He says, “It took me six months to write [the lines] with my writer. We were writing till the last minute. Thankfully, I am blessed to have Yami and Emraan… We have shot both monologues in one take. When it was over, everyone was applauding.
“It was their tension and we had to capture it. The preparation took months for them and the essence of the film comes in the Supreme Court (sequence). If you fail there, you have failed the final test. The job they have done is amazing.”
Haq, produced by Junglee Pictures, in association with Insomnia Films and Baweja Studios, also stars Vartika Singh, Sheeba Chaddha, and Danish Husain.
