Dil Na Umeed Toh Nahi, Nakaam Hi Toh Hai, Lambi Hai Gham Ki Sham, Magar Sham Hi Toh Hai.
When celebrated poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz wrote these words, little did he know the hope he was able to provide to those after him. The narrative of Dil Na Umeed Toh Nahi pays homage to the many lives lost and troubled through our failures – nakaamian, yet the many lives who made it through the bleak times, to be able to feel the light – our umeed.
Don’t ever lose heart and hope! That is the message writer Amna Mufti and the makers of Dil Na Umeed Toh Nahi conveyed to an audience starving for Umeed. Because isn’t that what makes the world go round? We can’t stop praising the dialogues that spoke to many women, and hopefully many more men.
Dialogues like -“Behaayee mere jism mein nahi, unki aankhon mein hai” and “jab aapne apne ghar ki khawateen par tashaddud kiya, toh ghareloo maamla nahi raha”
The End To A Complex, Yet Epic Tale
We don’t know where to begin. From Sumbul & Jimmy to Sawera & Zulfi, from Aunty to Baba Ranjha, from Naseem Zehra to Sherwani Saahab, and all the characters in between – please take a bow!
They say, no matter how good a storyteller you are, the actors breathe life into your characters. And this is why we are finding it very hard to mention performances because each one delivered gold! Yumna Zaidi, Wahaj Ali, Naveed Shahzad, Yasra Rizvi, Omair Rana, Noor Ul Hassan, Fajjer Khan, Samiya Mumtaz, Baba Ranjha, Sherwani Saahab, Ikram, Jimmy & Rakhi & Naseem Zehra child actors, the cricket coach & principal, police officers, all deserve special mention. If dramas lead by example, this one was epic storytelling supported by sharply developed characters & mind-blowing performances!
Finally, it was refreshing to see narratives move away from the clichéd romantic meetups and still end on a high note. Dil Na Umeed Toh Nahi resisted pandering to popular audience expectations and fall into the love story trap – Jimmy & Sumbul shared a bond deeper than romantic attachment and oh, how blissful was it to witness that on screen. A flawless ending to a carefully tailored tale – and one that touched many hearts!
TV One and The Kashf Foundation deserve a shoutout for giving us a drama that has raised the bar for whatever hits our screens in 2021. Moreover, the team of Amna Mufti & Kashif Nisar gifted us a crime thriller with far-reaching social messages, grey characters that defy judgement and negative characters that elude toxicity and the clichéd display of physical violence to deliver a masterpiece that will stay with us forever. Can it get any better than that?!
