Dil Dhoondta Hai Phir Wohi, starring Zahid Ahmed and Zara Noor Abbas, began airing on Express Entertainment on 1st October. The drama highlights the tussle of emotions with the challenges of dealing with dementia in a marriage. Written by Rida Bilal, this drama focuses on a life of a husband and wife together when the husband is afflicted with memory issues and the wife must go on to carry the love for both of them.
This domain is novel to have been explored in a PTV drama. One digital viewer on Youtube commented that it looks like a ‘Netflix production’ that’s saying something about the direction done by Adnan Sarwar.
Zahid Ahmed and Zara Noor Abbas have been aptly casted for the role to handle such a difficult and sensitive topic with their brilliant past acting record. They certainly “bring grace and grit” to a narrative that “dares to confront something deeper — the unraveling of memory and resilience it takes to hold on.”
Viewers of the show are praising the spectacular storyline and acting:
Currently, we’re 2 episodes in and the drama is already being hailed as under-rated hinting at it becoming a hit soon. Audiences are dismayed at the fact that it wasn’t promoted as much as it should have been.
The loneliness is really showing through Zara Noor Abbas’s acting as the other ones memory slowly betrays them.
The writer Rida Bilal in a recent interview about her story, revealed her motivation behind it. She said:
“I wrote it after brainstorming with the content head … and felt that dementia is a topic so rarely shown, yet so deeply affecting lives”.
Her aim is not only to move hearts but also start a conversation on empathy, the toll it takes on the people involved while dealing with memory loss without slipping into melodrama.
Zahid Ahmed playing the husband in the drama spoke up about the challenge of his role while talking to Dawn:
“For the first time on Pakistani TV, we are touching upon the topic of frontotemporal dementia [FTD], a rare form of dementia which may occur amongst people in their 40s … I agreed to play the character even before I had read the entire script.”
He added:
“How do you play someone who is rapidly forgetting everything, and doesn’t even know that he is forgetting? … The disease’s progression is shown very scarily, heartbreakingly.”
Interestingly, Zahid also reached out to real-life caregivers and families showing dementia to study the disease. Extensive research has been done by team to handle emotional arcs carefully, avoiding exagerration while also staying relevant and being able to convey the pain accurately.
Even the OST sung by Zeeshan Ali is giving us goosebumps, so fit for this drama:
Dil Dhoondta Hai Phir Wohi promises to be anything but a conventional love drama. Capturing the challenges of a ‘normal’ marriage is complicated enough that we had to put dementia in the mix. The promo for the 3rd episode is out too and its not coming slow:
As the drama airs every Wednesday and Thursday at 8pm on Expess Entertainment, viewers will watch not just the suffering of a fading mind, but the strength with which a person holds ontoanother when even the memory leaves you!
