India, April 1 -- For Arastu Zakia, 36, the debutant writer-director of Riha, the Bollywood romances of the 1990s was an effective antidote to his oppressive childhood in Ahmedabad where he lived with his activist parents. His father would lock him up so he would complete memorising 10 pages of his textbooks every day during his summer vacation.

Violence was routine during his early childhood. Riha is about him and his mother, Zakia Soman, founder of the NGO Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, who led the movement to ban triple talaq. On 22 August 2017, the Supreme Court of India banned the practice of Triple Talaq (oral instant divorce). Zakia Soman was an intervenor on that matter.

Some of the inspiration for Riha, a story he has been wo...