New Delhi, Nov. 8 -- There's a scene in Dhoom Dhaam (2025) where Yami Gautam's character goes off on a rant about patriarchy. It felt to me a moment written for the express purpose of being able to share on social media as a 'mic-drop monologue'-which is exactly what Netflix did a few days after the release. I was reminded of this by a scene in Haq, where Gautam's Shazia Bano, accosted in the marketplace, exhorts onlooking women to really read the Quran and not submit meekly to their husbands. Another mic-drop, I guess, but one complicated by the subject, the times, and the actor.

Shazia is based on Shah Bano, a divorcee whose long legal battle for the right to receive alimony reached the Supreme Court in 1985. The court ruled in her fav...