Premise
Ashraf (Ali Khalid), a womaniser from a middle-class family, is smitten with a poster girl, Shan (Hawwa Zahira), and accepts his best friend Ibrey's (Ahmed Shimau) bet that he will start a romantic relationship with her. On the night of her final stage performance, Ashraf approaches her and a brief spark ignites between them, despite the fact that she is already engaged to an overprotective boyfriend, Iqbal (Ibrahim Waheed). They slowly bond and spend a month together, until Shan refuses to be intimate with him. Strong-willed, Ashraf is sure that Shan will soon return to him. Things go according to his plan as Shan comes begging for his love and submits to him, though he decides to break up with her once his desires are fulfilled. Convinced by Ibrey and his mother, Dhon Kabulo (Arifa Ibrahim), Ashraf continues his relationship with Shan. Their affair is brought to the attention of Shan's parents, where her father, Solih (Koyya Hassan Manik), dismisses it as a false accusation until he witnesses them intimate together. Furious, he forbids her to leave and tries to bribe Ashraf to stay away from his family. Hesitantly, Solih agrees to the marriage, though he remains determined to disown Shan after the wedding.Cast
*Ali Khalid as Ashraf *Hawwa Zahira as Shan *Development
On announcing the film with a fresh face as a leading actor, the audience and the media was skeptical if director Mohamed Niyaz could deliver the required emotion and acting from the cast. Recalling his memory as a debutant in the film, Khalid called his character to a "challenging role" in which he initially had double thoughts for accepting a role of a negative character to make his first impression. During the filming, Khalid underwent minor injuries as a car accident stunt went wrong which led to the non-restrained car hitting him in real.Soundtrack
Reception
Upon release, the film received positive reviews from critics where it was considered a "path-breaking" film for mainstream cinema. Praising the film and its production in 2015, Ahmed Nadheem from ''Avas'' wrote: "Under the helm of Tedry, in his directorial debut with newcomers as the main cast, ''Dheriyaa'' is a masterpiece and can still be considered relevant even after decades after its release". According to Nadheem, with this film, Niyaz has established him as the most accomplished director of the industry even though he is one film old. The film was a box office success where it was recorded to be the first Maldivian film to cross MVR 200,000. Having screened a total of thirty two houseful shows at Olympus Cinema, the lifetime collection of the film was recorded at MVR 900,000 and held the record of highest grossing Maldivian film till the release ofAccolades
Sequel
In March 2021, Muhaimin announced that he intended to develop a sequel of ''Dheriyaa''.References
External links
* {{IMDb title, tt2032431 1994 films Maldivian romantic drama films 1994 romantic drama films Dhivehi-language films