We Don't Need a Shining Star

Nobody feels the need to ask Muslim women whether they want to be rescued or saved

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SOMETIMES love is not enough. You need your self-respect to stay alive.

As Yami Gautam Dhar mouthed the dialogue in Haq while addressing her ex-husband’s new wife, I looked around for reactions from the seven people sitting in the dark theatre. There were two Muslim couples. The young couple seated in the back row had clearly bought tickets to enjoy the darkness. There were two other women, who probably wandered into the theatre while shopping in the mall. One of them left during the interval and the second one was asleep when the credits rolled.

The “crowd” seemed unimpressed with the courtroom drama. The moment begged speculation about the target audience. I wondered why PVR would take the trouble to screen the movie just for me. I could have watched it on OTT a couple of weeks later, but obviously there are things about the movie business that a laywoman cannot understand.

Haq, starring Emran Hashmi and Dhar, released on November 7 and is struggling to stay afloat. It is a legal drama based on the life of Shah Bano, a Muslim woman who dragged her estranged husband to court demanding maintenance, over and above what many believed is promised by Muslim Personal Law.

The Shah Bano judgement is amongst the most controversial judgements passed by the Supreme Court. The court ruled in favour of the aggrieved woman, but most Muslim organisations believed that the judgement stood in conflict with Islamic Law.

Opposition against the 1985 judgement within the Muslim community was so severe that the Rajiv Gandhi government enacted a law in 1986 to nullify it. Before we examine the intricacies of the 40-year-old judgement, subsequent political interventions and their fallout, there is a more pressing question that needs to be addressed.

Was the release of Haq timed with the Bihar Assembly elections or was it simply a happy coincidence, like the release of Article 370 and