General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Haq Se

Haq Se is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language drama web series streamed on ALTBalaji, adapted from Louisa May Alcott's novel Little Women and set in Kashmir. It follows the four Mirza sisters, Meher, Jannat, Bano, and Amal, whose father's medicine factory is burnt in a riot and whose dreams are shaped, and pressured, by the military, political, and religious tension of the region.¹^•² The series was produced with Manor Rama Pictures, directed by Ken Ghosh, and ran for one season of 20 episodes from February 2 to April 6, 2018.³^•⁴

Key fact	Detail
Platform and run	ALTBalaji (ALTT), February 2 to April 6, 2018; one season of 20 episodes, about 20 minutes each³^•⁵
Source material	An adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, transposed to a modern-day Kashmiri family²
Lead cast	Rajeev Khandelwal as Dr. Naushad Rizvi, Surveen Chawla as Meher Mirza, Parul Gulati as Jannat, Aanchal Sharma as Bano, Nikkesha as Amal, Rukhsar Rehman as Rabiyah Mirza, Pavail Gulati as Tabish Azad⁶
Crew	Director Ken Ghosh; story and screenplay by Devika Bhagat, dialogue by Renuka Kunzru; created by Viraj Kapur and Karan Raj Kohli⁷^•⁶
Filming	Set in Kashmir but mostly shot in the hilly terrains of Himachal Pradesh, including Manali, because of unrest in the valley⁸
Ratings	IMDb 8.1/10; age rating A; IANS review gave it three stars⁹^•¹⁰
Availability	Currently streaming free with ads in India on JioHotstar, Amazon MX Player, and Amazon Prime Video Free with Ads⁹

Spoilers

Story and characters

The series centers on the Mirza family of Kashmir, a household of four sisters and their mother, Rabiyah Mirza (Rukhsar Rehman). Rabiyah is described in one review as an embodiment of the "half-wife-half-widow" phenomenon in Kashmir, forced to become the man of the house after her husband disappears, with his whereabouts unknown.¹¹ TVmaze's synopsis gives the inciting event: life changes for the sisters when their father's medicine factory is burnt in a riot, and they fight to keep their passions alive as military, political, and religious tension mounts.¹

Each sister pursues a distinct ambition. Meher, the eldest (Surveen Chawla), is a pediatrician who followed her father into medicine and interns with Dr. Naushad Rizvi.¹² Jannat (Parul Gulati) is a journalist with anger at differences of sex and class, who writes provocative blogs.¹³ Bano (Aanchal Sharma) is a quiet musician and singer whose band is called Jashn, and Amal (Nikkesha) is a younger, headstrong sister.¹³^•¹⁴ Rajeev Khandelwal plays Dr. Naushad Rizvi, a bitter doctor and single parent whose wife eloped with someone else, and whose first encounters with Meher are hostile before a love story develops.¹³

A thread of the plot involves a woman's right to voice her opinion in a society where politics overshadows the townsfolk's ideologies: the Mirza house is ransacked over Jannat's blog, and a fatwa threatens Bano over her music.¹⁵^•¹⁴ The first episode, "The Mirza Girls," aired February 2, 2018, and the finale, "End of the Beginning," aired April 6, 2018.³^•¹

The Little Women adaptation and Kashmir setting

Director Ken Ghosh joined the project after scripting and most of the casting were done, and he explained the choice of Kashmir by reference to the source novel. Little Women is set in a cold place where a family huddles for warmth, and it is set against the American Civil War, a context of constant tension; Kashmir offered both.⁷ Ghosh described the series as more the story of four sisters than a political commentary: "the politics of Kashmir is only the backdrop of the show."¹⁶ Rajeev Khandelwal similarly said the series aims to make viewers think about Kashmir "without taking sides."¹⁷

Surveen Chawla credited the writers with transporting the story convincingly to Kashmir, including a title chosen with the setting in mind.¹⁸ The production took nearly two years from scripting to locations, and the makers, Manor Rama Pictures, aimed for a film-like treatment, shooting for a month in real-life northern locations and sourcing props and costumes locally from Kashmir or designing them from scratch.⁴^•¹⁹

Shooting amid unrest. Unrest in the Kashmir Valley prevented the unit from filming the whole series there. Khandelwal said the team had to "cheat shoot" in hilly terrains closer to Kashmir; he specified that after beginning in Kashmir, the rest of the parts were shot in Himachal Pradesh, and the Indian Express trailer report lists Manali among the shooting locations.¹⁷^•⁸^•¹⁵

Reception and criticism

Reviews at release were generally positive. The Quint praised the series' "deft interweaving of the despair and darkness that has clouded the landscapes of Kashmir" with the vibrancy of pashminas and shikaras, and singled out Rajeev Khandelwal's layered Dr. Naushad Rizvi, noting the makers resisted making him the story's hero.¹¹ An IANS review rated it three stars, calling it a fine example of using the digital platform, with performances "evenly compelling" and dialogue in a convincing mix of Hindi, Urdu, and English.¹⁰ The show holds an IMDb rating of 8.1.⁹

Kashmiri commentary was more critical. A 2020 Kashmir Observer opinion piece argued that the series is "nowhere close to the reality of Kashmir," that it was shot in Manali, that its setting and idiom resembled North Indian or Pakistani culture rather than Kashmiri, and that Kashmir was used mainly as a scenic backdrop for parallel love stories and family drama. It also faulted the series for linking ISIS to the radicalization of youth, a group it said has hardly any presence in Jammu and Kashmir.²⁰

Aftermath

The series is one of the longer Indian web series of its time, at 20 episodes in a single season, at a point when the makers positioned it as one of the longest web series in India.⁵^•¹³ The first season remains available in India free with ads on JioHotstar, Amazon MX Player, and Amazon Prime Video Free with Ads.⁹

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Unscripted, reality, and web-native series › Web-native and streaming-original series › Indian and South Asian web series › Premiered 2003 to 2020

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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