My sincere apologies in advance for this long post.
Today Doli Armaano Ki airs it's final episode thus bringing curtains down after a 2 year successful run. My feelings at this juncture are pretty much mixed.
Never having watched it before the leap Kunal's entry into the show is what compelled me to give it a shot. With a highly intriguing character like Shaurya Urmi Sinha it was difficult not to be hooked and continuously guess at what his character might reveal. Added to this was a bold firebrand heroine like Diya Tiwari, a virtual rarity in today's television landscape and played amazingly by Neha Sargam along with a great cast and there was so much to look forward to in this post leap story. Even the sudden change in theme to address something as horrendous as rape was appreciated only for its realistic and sensitive treatment of it. It was during Diya's fight for justice track that I had to leave on vacation which honestly I was begrudging because it meant losing track of the story. Anyways news of new entrants notably Gaurav Chopra just made me hopeful for better things on getting back. In those many weeks I was far removed from anything happening in the show when on the rare occasion I came online the first thing I see is news of the show going off-air which I dismissed as a rumour. I mean, how could the show get over when there was so much still left to be told?
But alas. I get back to see that indeed the news was confirmed and the show was to be wrapped within a fortnight! Anyways I set about on a marathon catching up with a month's worth of episodes and given that I used to post daily reviews on the episodes before I left here's my very succinct take on those episodes I missed:
When I left the court case was at its peak with Urmi, Shaurya and Diya getting CCTV footage of the vehicle from that night. So far so good. But then there was a notable increase in speed with the way things progressed with Jamdaar's involvement revealed, Karan's about-turn in court, Shaya's challenge to Jamdaar and Diya appealing to the public and then miraculously her family doctor having test reports from that night (which frankly I'm quite dubious about but let's forget that now). It was a totally unexpected turn of events but anyways I understand they wanted to end with this track somehow.
Anyways rape track done I'd expected them to now focus on Shaurya and his past and ShaYa's future but there the show took a different path of Diya's marriage conspiracy. I understand they needed a reason to get ShaYa married but was it so necessary to take this route of a forced marriage? This track also marked a sea-change in Damini's characterization where overnight the scheming disapproving Badi ma is turned into an OTT murderous witch plotting deaths now. As a character Damini was always grey so this sudden change to coal black was hard to digest. Even the fierce Diya who up till then stood strong and unflappable in the face of any storm was suddenly reduced to a silent sacrificial lead. The only good development from this track was that we got to see a love-struck Shaurya and Kunal was a delight to watch as usual.
And in all this where was Shaurya and his story? They could have taken the story in another direction after the rape focusing instead on Shaurya's past and all those hints the various characters have been dropping in the dialogues. Also coupled with Diya's journey forward in society and also the challenges faced by victims when it comes to love, trust and intimacy. That would have been a good track for ShaYa in terms of performance and story where both deal with their own demons while gradually progressing towards love. Sooo much could have been explored. But even there we had no such luck. Instead even more characters and side-tracks got introduced like Akash Kumar's family life which now in hindsight didn't serve any purpose to the story. I honestly feel bad that an actor like Gaurav Chopra was wasted in such a role which now is just left hanging in the air along with other tracks like Nupur and her real identity being revealed which seems to be long forgotten. This also seems to be the case with Shaurya and his past.
And now within this one week we have had multiple murder attempts, one hospitalization and an arrest and now it's going to end with Urmi supposedly killing Damini. Was it necessary to culminate in such an overly dramatic fashion? Given the title of the show the least they could have done was focus more on ShaYa and their married life but even that was quickly done with in an episode.
So yes, my feelings at this point are definitely mixed. Nonetheless despite the haphazard tracks I find myself already missing the show solely for it's fantastic cast who despite the script requirements never failed to give excellent performances. All the more since there's minimal chance of getting this ensemble together again. So among the good things I take away from this show this Toli of Doli will definitely be foremost. As for the rest, I can only think of what could have been.
