Pehli Si Mohabbat Episode 36: Aslam and Rakshi’s Tortured Love Story Moves Towards The Light

“Pehli Si Mohabbat” is finally moving towards its culmination point with the finale airing next week. Starring Sheheryar Munawar, Maya Ali, Hassan Shehryar Yasin, Nausheen Shah and many others, the story has been written by Faiza Iftikhar and directed by Anjum Shahzad. While “Pehli Si Mohabbat’ has told an intense love story with some root-worthy characters, the show simply dragged on unnecessarily and laid on the misery rather thick. There hasn’t really been anything about the show that has been unlikable per se, but the problem has simply been that there hasn’t been any hope or happiness for the majority of the show. How much misery can the audience tune in to?

In episode 36, Bushra (Hina Afridi) takes Aslam (Sheheryar Munawar) to visit Rakshi (Maya Ali). This makes for an awkward encounter and neither Aslam nor Rakshi know how to handle it. However, word gets back to Akram (Hassan Shehryar Yasin) and Ishrat (Nausheen Shah). Akram is now a changed man, a man who fears his past actions and does not want to repeat them. His sole goal now is to keep his family happy and make up for his past impositions. This means that Akram will now support Aslam in whatever he wants, but as Ishrat rightly points out, this is a different form of selfishness. Now he simply wants to see his brother happy, throwing aside the fact that Bushra will be left heartbroken. Hassan Shehryar is doing a great job as Akram and his is a role that has been a complicated one, but HSY has really put his effort into making Akram likable despite it all. Ishrat, on her end, has a conversation with Rakshi that is well-intentioned, but the audience cannot help crying for Rakshi. Rakshi has been through a lot – from being motherless to losing the love of her life and then later losing her father and even her husband, Rakshi has suffered consistently. The pain on her face when she’s asked to sacrifice yet again squeezes the heart. Maya Ali hasn’t been the best performer as Rakshi, but in this episode, she wins the audience over.

Bushra, on the other end, has decided that Aslam has been through enough. Bushra is an angel, a woman who has truly depicted what it means to be in love. She has only wanted the best for Aslam and despite being married with a child, she recognizes that Aslam will never be “hers.” There’s a third person in their marriage and that third person is Rakshi. While it’s kind of Bushra to sacrifice her own happiness for Rakshi and Aslam, one also wants to hit Aslam for not appreciating this woman for all she has done for him.

This story is one that is so complicated and full of complex emotions. There isn’t any one character who is more “correct” than the other. Everyone has their reasons for their actions and reactions. While my sympathy personally lies completely with Bushra, it’s difficult to not want Rakshi and Aslam together. Both these characters have endured so much in their past. If one takes a moment to think back to all Rakshi and Aslam have been through in the past 36 episodes, don’t they deserve happiness? The finale, which airs next week, will have a lot left to tackle – but will it be able to do so in a satisfactory way?