Yeh Dil Mera kept me awake last night. I was sleeping (not so) peacefully and suddenly a question popped in my head: Are Amaan and Aina legally married? I know you’re thinking I’m a loser with no life of my own; hence, I was obsessing over fictional characters, that too in the middle of the night. Feel free to think so, because that’s true. Coming back to the point, in order for a nikkah to take place, a qaazi sahab has to very audibly ask for bride and groom’s permission to enter the sacred contract. And in every nikkah that I’ve ever witnessed – well, I have only witnessed a grand total of two nikkahs but since we believe in quality over quantity we trust my observation – the bride and groom’s names are taken ALONG with their fathers’ names. It’s extremely patriarchal, but that’s how it is.
This is how a nikkah goes like:
“ABC wald XYZ kya aap ko EFG wald LMNOPQ apne nikkah mein qubool hai?”
[I know I’ve skipped the haq meher bit but let’s roll with, rather without, it]
I’m assuming Amaan and Aina’s speedy nikkah also had similar pronouncement, so when the qaazi sahab was saying, “Amanullah wald Obaidullah” what exactly did Mir Farooq think?
Here’s a peak into the inner monologue of Mir Farooq as he sat cramped in a sofa with the qaazi sahab who had uttered the dreaded name:
“Hey, that name sounds familiar to the guy I killed years ago, and come to think of it, even Amanullah’s surname is similar to that Obaidullah dude’s, but I’m sure it’s all a coincidence so I’ll let it pass. I might love my daughter more than a gambler loves gambling, but my son in-law, whom I know NOTHING about other than what he has told me, seems like a nice guy. Even though he does a look a bit pissed off right now. Wait, why are his expressions more appropriate for a funeral than a wedding? Oh fudge, they just said the third “qubool hai”. I might as well stay mum for the rest of my life because divorce is an unheard concept.”
I hate to be the party pooper, but what other explanation do we have? If Obaidullah’s name wasn’t used in the nikkah, then is this nikkah even legit? We need an opinion on this from a mufti. If a mufti’s reading this, which I highly doubt, please elaborate on the situation?
I already had reservations about Mir Farooq not recognizing Amanullah. It was a task to satisfy myself with, “Okay, he was on a killing spree that day and was too nervous to count heads and that’s why didn’t notice that a little boy’s head was missing from the family he wished to demolish. As far as his name is concerned, Amanullah was probably called Mani by everyone and being a tyical desi uncle, he never bothered finding out his real name.”
But dear makers, you can’t always blind us with Sajal Ali and Ahad Raza Mir’s beauty and good performance?
I know it’s just a show and creative liberties exist, but how often have we seen good productions pass mistakes as “creative liberty”?
I hope the writer will justify this scene in the coming episodes. Until then, I’m going to take this opportunity to point out the glaring mistakes in Yeh Dil Mera. Why? Because I’m passionate about it. I want other people to like it too. The makers can’t mess up the experience for us like they did the teasers.
Yeh Dil Mera Is Anything BUT What the Teasers Suggest!
Many questions are looming conspicuously above our bamboozled heads as we speed into the 13th episode of Yeh Dil Mera. While that’s a great thing for a show which calls itself a romantic thriller, the thrill element dampens when the questions are not all about how the mystery will unfold, but more an effort to understand the plot and character arcs.
Let’s take the latest episode as an example; They finally revealed what happened to Amaan after the staged accident by Mir Farooq. The backstory was revealed when an old annoying friend of Amaan, Chaudhry Sajid, pops up Baazigar style and asks intrusive questions.
The flashback sequences left the audience confused as to whether he had shared his entire story with his friend or merely revisited his past?
Chaudhry Sajid’s first question, after drooling over Amaan’s suit and his waddi gaddi, is, “Yaar teray chacha ka kya hua?”
This was the cue for the makers to take us to Amaan’s chacha’s residence in London where he ended up after his parent’s death. But no, here we are witnessing his fall, consequent rescue by the family servant, and clarification that Mir Farooq thinks he has killed the entire Obaidullah clan.
Got it, but your friend asked you about your chacha! And turns out, Amaan isn’t even narrating this story to the annoying Pindi boy; he’s standing there having a moment of his own. The friend, being his intrusive self, again asks about the chacha.
Again, we see a young Amaan sitting somewhere in Pakistan with his rescuers who are trying to contact his chacha and somehow manage to transport him to his grudging chacha in London.
And finally, after multiple “Tu apne chacha ke baaray mein bata raha tha”, we find out that Amaan ran away from him when he was 17, went back to him after three years when chacha was diagnosed with cancer and apparently killed him (that’s my prediction) and inherited all his oil refineries.
So friend doesn’t know that Mir Farooq killed Amaan’s parents, but friend knows Amaan has an issue with Mir because when they were living together as young Pindi boys in Pindi, Amaan used to wake up at night screaming, “I will kill Mir Farooq.”
Amaan couldn’t get more straightforward than that.
My question is: Who will accept the mistake of messing up this entire sequence – the screenplay writer, the director, or the editor?
From what I know, the editor follows the screenplay, so if the screenplay says “insert shots of little Amaan falling down the hill”, he’ll do that. The director then watches the final episode and notices that what sounds sane on paper looks insane on screen and reworks the scenes.
In case of Yeh Dil Mera, it seems like that final review of the episode is not happening.
More mistakes!
Then there are little mistakes like the Mir family having a 15-minute long discussion on where Aina’s khala will go after Aina’s rukhsati, because she will leave for Islamabad and Mir Farooq will leave for Switzerland (or some other fancy place). They forget that they are sitting in Islamabad. Mir and Amaan live in the same city or so we were made to believe. So what is all this talk about Aina leaving for Islamabad?
Also, Aina’s role, till now, is that of a spectator. She has witnessed Amaan’s abnormal behavior, but she refuses to do something about it. Okay, we understand. Here’s a pampered little child in love with a man and she wants that man in her life at all costs. But at least think about your future. Be a bit wary about it.
All we need is, a letter by Aina to her dead mum explaining her inner battle. I hope they’ve inserted something of that sort in the upcoming episode on her mehndi night, because the writer, Farhat Ishtiaq did confirm on Twitter that she had written the said scenes but the director, Ahsan Talish, chose not to shoot them.
This, again, is in bad taste. You are a team. Don’t express displeasure with each other on social media.
Before ending the review, I’d like to clarify that despite a lot of production issues Yeh Dil Mera is one drama serial that has the impact to hook the audience. You can read the previous review to know why:
Yeh Dil Mera and Why you should Watch!
So here’s to hoping that Yeh Dil Mera’s makers polish this into a diamond that it deserves to be. Waiting on Episode 13!