A heart-wrenching love story which is much needed for today's times

Director Haseeb Hasan's "Dhoop Ki Deewar" is a show which needs to be watched for various reasons. It is not just an intense love story but it also takes a strong anti- war message. The director shows deep sympathy for the jawans of both the families and makes them appear as human beings instead of just Indians or Pakistanis. It is not a surprise that the series was banned in Pakistan given it goes where all filmmakers wouldn't go.

The show begins off with an intense India and Pakistan cricket match. You have two families, one from Amritsar and one from Pakistan cheering for their respective nations. As the first episode goes along we come to know that both these families are army ones. The main leads are Sara Sher Ali played by Sajal Ally and Vishal Malhotra played by Ahad Raza. The fathers are fighting in the Indian- Pakistan border in Jammu & Kashmir. Sara and Vishal are not aware that their lives are going to change forever.

The end of the cricket match comes with the news that the two army men have died fighting for their countries. This is followed by the media of both the nations taking interviews of Sara and Vishal after the funeral.

A social media war erupts when Vishal calls his father more brave and it doesn't go down too well with Sara. Both of them have a heated argument, the media tries to encase on this but the families put their foot down.

Soon the noise dies down as Sara and Vishal get busy with their lives which includes dealing with the unexpected grief in the families. An astonishing thing which happens here is that they chat on Skype sometimes where they discuss the family problems and other things. Initially when Sara's mother ( Samina Ahmed ) gets angry with her daughter for keeping in touch with Vishal but she soon starts bonding well with Vishal's mother on phone. It is not just the mothers even the grandparents start interacting on Skype. A friendship develops between the lead characters and it starts leading to love. However a happy ever after is difficult given that both of them belong to different nations.

"Dhoop Ki Deewar" starts off an high and for most part it sustains as well. However there are couple of episodes where the family drama could have shown in an crisper manner. The show reaches it full peak when friendship starts developing between Sara and Vishal.

There are many things that director Haseeb Hasan gets right with the series and one of them are the consumption of entertainment across the nations. For example Vishal is shown to be a fan of Atif Aslam's songs. The Indian family is shown to be fond of Pakistani dramas while the Pakistani family on the other hand is shown to be fond of Indian dramas. You also have Pakistani girls dancing to the songs Bollywood movies. All these things have been shown in an entertaining way.

While the love story is primary focus Haseeb Hasan never loses track of the other important characters. In fact some of the best moments in the series are the discussions between the mothers and grandmothers of Sara and Vishal.

The love track keeps you guessing regarding where it is going to end. At one point you feel that Sara and Vishal may have a happy ending however that soon changes in the final few episodes. The climax has the potential to move you and there is no way that you wouldn't feel emotional.

There is a theme song 'Judaaiyan Kyun' which keeps playing whenever there is a highly emotional moment between the leads. This song elevates the narrative in a huge way particularly in the final episodes.

Haseeb Hasan also deserves credit for how he shows one half of the story based in an Indian household in Amritsar. It would have been a challenging task since the entire cast is Pakistani but he manages to pull it off.

The performances by the entire cast is super too with Sajal Ally and Ahad Raza leading the pack. Both of them deliver equally and that also helps in making the audiences root for the lead characters. In a nutshell "Dhoop Ki Deewar" is a show which shouldn't be missed.