‘’Beyond the idea of right and wrong, there’s a field. I’ll meet you there”, nothing could describe Aina and Amaan better as I watched the last few minutes of Yeh Dil Mera.

Yeh Dil Mera, ending after 33 episodes, had a formidable team behind it – a Momina Duraid production, penned by the wonderful Farhat Ishtiaq, with Ahsen Talish of Suno Chanda fame in the director’s seat. The show makers had promised us something different and that is something they succeeded in delivering.

Yeh Dil Mera is the story of Amaan and Aina coming face to face with their childhood traumas. Their stories start together but a series of incidents dramatically change the rest of their lives.

Ahad and Sajal’s chemistry in Yeh Dil Mera is undeniable and for me personally, one of the highlights of the show. I feel like if I had to pick a word to describe their onscreen chemistry, it would be ‘comfort’. There is an ease with which these two can act out even the most intense scenes. I must admit, I was a little weary initially, when the project was announced, given that it seemed a little similar to Yakeen Ka Safar with a similarly idyllic setting and all but, but I was pleasantly surprised. There couldn’t have been another casting for the show that could would have done the storyline justice.

Both actors were pitch perfect when it came to effortlessly portraying the different shades of their character. Whether it was Amaan switching between his emotions as he oscillated between vulnerability and anger when confronted by Bua ji, or Aina breaking down as her entire life fell to pieces around her as she realised that it was her beloved father who was the cause of all her pain, Ahad and Sajal did not miss a beat. With Yeh Dil Mera, Ahad and Sajal have firmly cemented their place as some of the finest actors we have.

The incredibly talented Adnan Siddiqui was a delight to watch. I love that he is experimenting with the roles he has been picking and constantly reinventing himself. I am hoping that he can continue to pick these interesting roles.

Towards the end of Yeh Dil Mera, though, I feel like his character did not really get an arc it deserved. The ending for Mir Farooq was far too convenient and rushed. Which brings me to a question I have often asked myself when it comes to Pakistani dramas – why do we shy away from giving our antagonists a proper ending? Killing them off, or making them lose their senses does not do justice to the character at all. After all he had done to destroy the lives around him, Mir Farooq died with his reputation and legacy still intact and that too at the hands of his trusted aide Ali Buksh. How does he get to choose such a convenient death without actually facing up to what he had done?

Even Bua ji got away rather easily. If Amaan had betrayed Aina’s trust, what about Bua ji? How did Aina not question her? As a viewer it is sometimes frustrating to find these holes in the storyline. Were theses scenes edited out? I guess we won’t really know the answers.

I know a lot of people (including me initially) are upset about the way things ended with Amaan and Aina. The ending, although painful, was the only one that made sense. Both Aina and Amaan were so damaged by the end of it that they needed time to heal, before they could come back together. They were both still hurting too much for them to be able to give each other any comfort. I would have liked some more scenes between Amaan and Aina though – to provide some kind of closure to their characters and to us as the audience. It would have taken the edge off of seeing Amaan ending up alone again, a bit.

This lack of closure is also part of the reason why I didn’t entirely agree with the last monologue where the narrator is hinting at how Amaan couldn’t find peace because he couldn’t forgive and move on. Forgiveness is not always possible and certainly not easy especially in a situation like this where Mir Farooq literally wiped out his entire family. The trauma and loneliness that Amaan had to grow up with was his lived reality. He did not really have any figure in his life who could have helped him heal and move on.

On a separate note, how beautiful does Shogran look as the backdrop to this story. The visual, uff the visuals! Especially the last few minutes of the show. Kudos to the cinematographer for capturing those views. Not so good for our travel-starved minds though!

Kudos to the writer Farhat Ishtiaq for trying something new. This was a brave move on her part which is why it was all the more painful to see her story being let down in some parts by weak directing, choppy editing and a lack of continuity. Production teams must also realise that the audiences have gotten much sharper over the years. You cannot just change clothes and hair during a scene because now it’s as easy as rewinding to 30 seconds ago to see if something is amiss.

The show would also have been better off without some of the repetitive flashbacks and of course those endless Farhana Khala and Bua ji scenes that just did not add much value to the storyline.

Despite the inconsistencies though, Yeh Dil Mera has been a successful endeavour on MD Productions’ part. In a world where TV channels globally are struggling against OTT platforms, Yeh Dil Mera garnered and consistently held on to its audiences, even breaking viewership records in the overseas market that has traditionally been dominated by Indian content. It even reached out to non-drama watchers who were attracted to it due to the off-beat genre and the performances.

This is great opportunity for our production houses, who can no longer hide behind ‘ratings’ as an excuse to not take chances and to not veer off the done to death ‘saas-bahu’ and ‘doosri biwi’ tropes. Here’s to more such dramas coming to our screens soon.