19.01.2026
My great grandfather left my great grandmother and her children. He did not support them financially. He just started a new family. My grandfather, who was one of these abandoned children later went blind due to malnutrition in his youth. So did some of his brothers. The mother? She had to do hard manual labour in the fields to feed her children. She was from the poor, the Dalits, the Oppressed. It was unthinkable for her to divorce her husband and ask for maintenance. It would bring shame upon the family. It was not what women did.
Haqq is a film about women like my great grandmother. A man takes a second wife. He abandons his first wife Shazia Bano and their children. Then, he does not send the maintenance for the children that he promised. But Shazia, who is not educated, a woman like my illiterate great grandmother, she has an educated father that fights with her. Shazia Bano has to fight in the courts for her rights for her children and her dignity. Against her husband, her community and a system that protects rich men. It is an Indian story of heroism. It is a story based on real events.
Haqq is a story written for those that believe in The Mother Goddess. Shazia becomes Durga, the Mother Queen, the invincible warrior goddess. Kali who fights all with her bloodlust. Because they tried to dishonour The Mother. Because they tried to take away the rights of The Mother’s children.
The theme is dignity. The Mother’s dignity. And Shazia spells out the duty of the Indians. Love is not enough, she says. She loved the rich man, the rich lawyer she was married to. However, he did not give her the dignity that she was due as The Mother. He tried to dishonour her. This is a story about the honour society in which I have been raised. And I? I also chose the dignity of my Mother over love.
The cast of villains stand against The Mother with their misogyny and their arrogance. They try to kill her and her children. But The Mother wins. Because she is a reader. The film supports education for women and freedom – to interpret the scripture by themselves. Revolution. To have an independent mind. To follow the philosophy of India – to become the freedom fighter. And the education of The Mother? Non-western. Non-legal. About Indian justice and not the corruption of the legal culture elsewhere.
Ultimately, only The Mother can win. Only dignity can win. In the end, the rich man, who loses the case, takes out a red rose and leaves it on a sill. Why? Because he does not deserve the love of the poor Indian Mother. Because he is separated from the flower that gives life. Because he is not worthy of beauty.
What is beautiful is The Mother Goddess who fights with her last breath against this world of corruption for her children. She is the one for her lover and her son. She is the one, the poor Indian Mother that rules our hearts. We are Indian. We are the children of The Mother.
diary of a lone man 