Great premise marred by poor delivery, but Kapadia shines

Dimple Kapadia shines in an otherwise ordinary film

Aashif Sheikh and Sonu Walia in Haque (1991)

Harish Bhosle, Rajesh Rathi, Habiba Rehman, and Sanjay Bali in Haque (1991)

Dimple Kapadia

Anupam Kher

Aashif Sheikh

Mahesh Bhatt

Suraj Sanim

Varsha has been brought up in an orthodox Hindu family, and has been taught to treat her husband as her God. When she marries influential politician, Bittu Singh, she decides to be the ideal Hindu wife and becomes his shadow, bowi...

Harish Bhosle

Haque

It&apos;s saddening that such a great story is wasted in such an incompetent film. The idea of a deeply religious Hindu woman, subservient to her domineering husband for years, finally summoning up the courage to stand up to him, is quite inspiring. It of course culminates in a great moment where she awards him with a hot slap in return for his, much to his shock and disbelief. This moment could have become a reference point in the history of Indian cinema had this film not been so poorly handled.

Indeed, the film is ruined by its own quest for commercialization which is evident all through - the high melodramatic stance, turning the heroine into this corny self-sacrificing female figure, the abundance of songs so often in the film, and above all the unnecessary secondary characters. So, Dimple Kapadia plays a very non-glamorous part, and in a poor attempt to make the film appeal to the masses, the makers cast two young actors to dance to some catchy songs as if to alleviate its seriousness. Quite pathetic.

The film is written by Mahesh Bhatt, who wrote some great female characters, but this one doesn&apos;t fall into that category. It&apos;s a challenging role on paper, but the film leaves no room for depth. To Dimple Kapadia&apos;s credit, she does the best of what she&apos;s given - she must have believed this film would have given her enough scope to perform (like Prahaar, Lekin, Drishti - all released around the time), but it turns out too bad to work. Even so, she remains the saving grace of this dull and underwhelming film.

It's saddening that such a great story is wasted in such an incompetent film. The idea of a deeply religious Hindu woman, subservient to her domineering husband for years, finally summoning up the courage to stand up to him, is quite inspiring. It of course culminates in a great moment where she awards him with a hot slap in return for his, much to his shock and disbelief. This moment could have become a reference point in the history of Indian cinema had this film not been so poorly handled.

Indeed, the film is ruined by its own quest for commercialization which is evident all through - the high melodramatic stance, turning the heroine into this corny self-sacrificing female figure, the abundance of songs so often in the film, and above all the unnecessary secondary characters. So, Dimple Kapadia plays a very non-glamorous part, and in a poor attempt to make the film appeal to the masses, the makers cast two young actors to dance to some catchy songs as if to alleviate its seriousness. Quite pathetic.

The film is written by Mahesh Bhatt, who wrote some great female characters, but this one doesn't fall into that category. It's a challenging role on paper, but the film leaves no room for depth. To Dimple Kapadia's credit, she does the best of what she's given - she must have believed this film would have given her enough scope to perform (like Prahaar, Lekin, Drishti - all released around the time), but it turns out too bad to work. Even so, she remains the saving grace of this dull and underwhelming film.

Varsha has been brought up in an orthodox Hindu family, and has been taught to treat her husband as her God. When she marries influential politician, Bittu Singh, she decides to be the ideal Hindu wife and becomes his shadow, bowing down to his every command. When the time for election comes, Bittu prepares himself for an election in which he may become the Chief Minister of the State, while a pregnant Varsha prepares herself for mother-hood. When Bittu asks Varsha to accompany him to one of his speeches, she agrees to do so. On the way there they are attacked, their driver is killed, Bittu and Varsha are assaulted, and as a result loses her child. Bittu wins the elections and becomes the State's new Chief Minister, leaving Varsha in hospital to deal with her loss and mental agony. When Varsha recovers, she returns to Bittu, who now resides in a palatial home, and once she settles down, she demands that he bring their assailants to justice. A man named Shiva is arrested, he confesses, and is sentenced to several years in jail. Then Varsha meets with a young journalist named Sanjay, and it is this meeting that will change her life and her way of thinking forever, as well as bring her face to face with the very people who were responsible for the loss of her child.

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