Reality Check

Documentary Film Screening 

An NCPA Presentation in collaboration with Cinema Collective

The Reality check film series promotes and encourages documentary filmmakers in India, whose work reflects life and culture in the country today in a provocative blend of creativity and integrity.

Holy Rights
Urdu Film with English Subtitles (53 mins)

Safia, a deeply religious Muslim woman from Bhopal in central India, driven by her belief that because of the patriarchal mind-set of the interpreters of Sharia, Muslim women are being denied equality and justice in the community. She joins a programme that trains women as Qazis (Muslim clerics who interpret and administer the personal law) which is traditionally a male preserve. The film documents her struggles and negotiates through hitherto uncharted territory, exploring the tensions that arise when women try to change the status quo and take control of narratives that so deeply affect their lives. Through Safia ‘Apa’ or elder sister as she is called, several other women join the programme; through their lived experiences the film comments on the arbitrariness of the instant ‘triple talaq’ practice (instant divorce by saying talaq thrice). These other landmark moments, political and legal find reference in the film as does the changing socio-political scenario that impacts their lives.

In its forty-year journey, the film also documents the movement against triple talaq, Muslim women’s struggles to break free from the patronising voices within the community as well as resist forces outside from appropriating their movement to suit their own political agenda.

Director:Farha Khatun
Producer: Priyanka More

The film screening will be followed by a discussion.

Admission on a first-come-first-served basis.  NCPA Members will get preferential seating till 6.20 pm.