Ah Di MAMA...!

It was few minutes past 9PM on a weekday. Browsing through the channels to get rid of boredom, I landed up on channel 8 teasing my wife to watch Chinese dramas which are good even if we had no understanding of the language to which she resisted initially. But just a few minutes into this one where 2 kids are seen fighting with each other like any small boy and girl would, our attention was drawn instantly. But what followed next was a series of tragedies and I said we are not watching this drama anymore. Next day, it was my wife who was stuck at 9 PM sharp when Ah Di, who’s the protagonist, is met with an accident and how her adopted kids cry for her calling ‘Ah Di Mama’. We almost had tears in our eyes.

So this drama had become part of our lives and many times in a day we would call each other ‘Ah Di Mama’. It meant ‘Devotion’ in English. The devotion Ah Di (played brilliantly and stunningly by Zoe Tay) has to her life. Ah Di is someone who loves her problems like no one else, who can take up any difficulty onto herself even for those who might hate her to the core. It’s kind of a too good to be true character. But I read Zoe Tay’s interview somewhere when she said that she believed such people existed in the real world and that’s how she was able to play the character with ease. And, what a performance she’s put up!

Even the other young ones who play her adopted children show a class act and make the drama believable, though the story itself was quite hard for me to relate to. A couple of love triangles in the house, a deception and few villainous characters make up for the story. But what wins is the direction. It’s paced well, the story is told in 25 episodes with good mixture of suspense and emotions.

Ah Di’s first daughter played her role so well and deserves applause. A girl who plays ‘shanshan’, (originally from Taiwan) is extremely gorgeous and pretty. The casting was just apt and made up for an intriguing watch.

Just as we knew it was the last episode yesterday, there was some curiosity on how it would end. And I must say, they had a perfect ending. Ah Di can literally forgive anything. Forgiveness, that turns evil into good. And the drama concluded leaving a good feeling behind, prompting you to ask few questions to yourself.

Can you be so forgiving? Can you be courageous enough to consider others’ wrong doings as your own responsibility? People might laugh at you calling you a foolish person for being so good, but if you can hold on to your goodness, no matter how bad the enemy is, one day or the other he’ll start worshipping you. And, that’s devotion!

Thanks for a wonderful lesson… We miss you, ‘Ah Di Mama’! And like you say,

Here n there, when Ah Di mama is near, there’s no fear!