Drama Intro
Ek Jhooti Kahani is a lighthearted tale where one lie leads to unexpected twists, tangled emotions, and a not-so-ordinary bond, featuring Zara Noor Abbas & Mohib Mirza
Writer: Amna Mufti
Director: Shehrazade Sheikh
Producer: Momina Duraid Productions
[Source: Hum TV YouTube Channel]
Recap, Review, Rant All Rolled Into One
Irfan lives in Hashmat Villa with five borderline psycho sisters who don’t understand the difference between Shararat and Badtameezi. Argue, prank eat and sleep; this is their life, and in that order strictly. Irfan not only looks after their furniture business but also does the dishes, bring in food deliveries and act as the mediator when the sisters do phadda amongst themselves. The only thing these sisters do on their own is create a mess.
Habib Saab is the one-man army who cleans the room, cooks, and in general runs the house.
I binged the first few episodes without taking notes, but have some thoughts. Then, I started per-episode notes, and then got bored of it. So this review is going to be a mix bag. Don’t mind.
Episode 1-11
The summary you already read. Let me list the things I noted, good and bad, in the first 11 episodes.
- Irfan telling Bushra off: yeh interesting interesting over ho raha hai. Aur behoshi wali acting bhondi thhi.
- How Mohib took the handsome compliment from Bushra.
- Habib is the only person without any agenda. Everyone else is pretending, some have positive motives some don’t but they all are pretending.
- Everyone has their iwn motive as well. I have my doubts aboutFareed. That guy is so friendly and concerned on surface for Irfan and then he does the opposite when talking to Bindiya.
- I strongly felt that this drama is missing on something crucial: redemption. We should have small redemption moments for Bushra. So far, there’s been only one, which is far too less compared to what sisters gang have done. And there are multiple mini gangs (2-2 sisters ki jodi) as well. Bushra is suffering through much more than she probably signed up for.
- This bunch is toxic, NOT funny. I mean, NOW they’re yateem. What were the parents doing when raising these monsters? Do paise ki tameez nahin hai ek ko bhi.
- When Fareed accompoanied Nasera to the office, it seemed like he likes Nasera? Confused.
Episode 12
Now, the two families are in the same house. Meerub suddenly announces that Hooriya and her would represent groom’s side. Everyones making up stories specially samose wala Basheer. Things spiral, as expected.
Irfan and Bushra are developing feelings for each other. On the other hand, married couple Safiya and Habib are fighting. Safiya is suspicious, and Habib is sick of the suspicions. His line is gold:
خدا کی قسم اس قدر ناقابل اشاعت باتیں دماغ میں آ رہی ہیں
Girls are fighting with each other. Meerub has new pranks planned, this time for Nasera.
Best moment:Hooriya telling Nasera about Meerub’s upcoming prank and her head-talk. Hilarious!
Episode 13
Irfan and Bushra talk to Basheer and Fakhra. Irfan reminds Bushra of the original act: fixing the girls.
Fakhra talks to Bushra about Sherry etc while Habib overhears the conversation. Overhearing and evesdropping are two plot devices used so frequently, that I’m now bored of it.
In this episode, there was one scene where Bushra told Basheer and Fakhra the backstory about all the girls. How she knows that is beyond me. Irfan never talked about Samiya being interested in cooking etc. I distinctly remember Samiya refused to do any work, any cooking in the first episode. Abhi suddenly she’s aspiring chef? Apparently, she has a book full of her mother’s recipes.
Safiya teams up with Nasera and Samiya. She is against Basheer and Fakhra, classist she is. Weird huh?
Nasera demands breakfast from dulhan ki family.
Basheer talks about Samosa making with Samiya reigniting her interest in cooking (because she’s interested in cooking, rememeber?
Oh, Sherry and his chela are looking for Bushra phiring dar ba dar.
Chela to Sherry: Pehle jaisi baatein kiya karo. Falsafa bahot manhoos batate ho.
Haha.
Meerub and Fakhra’s prank as groom’s sisters was good, bur didn’t go well with anyone, especislly Nasera.
Safiya suggests bringing in more househelp. Basheer also suggests the same to Bushra, bringing in his daughters and son Rizwan.
Episode 15
A lot of romantic moments…
Babra and Sabra are now hired as househelp pretensing to be deaf and dumb.
Samiya is after the samosa recipe. Basheer is ordered to stay away from the girls. So he takes Samiya out. Their shopping with Basheer’s storytelling was nice. Normal.
Sherry and chela have earned enough money with body paint but now sherry says he wont buy chela ticket back home. Chela also earns money somehow.
Nasera areates a scene with Bushra but no other sisters side with her. On the other hand, Rizwan is hired as a tutor.
Habib is suspicious of Babra and Sabra: how they look and behave, and they didn’t argue about the amount of work or their salary.
Fareed is applying for visa apparently and is in touch with Nasera. I don’t understand their dynamic honestly.
Nasera’s next plan: plant something in basheer’s bag.
Episode 16
Irfan taes a stand with his sister for once. Nasera is so mean, I mean they all are but Hooriya and Samiya are okay, Bindiya Nasera and Meerub are just pure evil.
While packing leftover food for Babra and Sabra, Safiya unknowingly packs kali potli that Nasera gave her. This kali potli has jewellery stolen from Bushra to frame Bushra’s family for the theft. Someone explain the logic to me?
Sweet moment between Safiya and Habib. Habib has a nice plan for jewellery: make imitation, nobody would notice. Waise bhi jewellery was Bushra’s.
Irfan bonding with Bushra, telling her stories about his parents. Apparently his parents were killed. It wasn’t an accident but the investigation led nowhere. Somehow, I instantly thought: Fareed. Dubious he looks.
Rizwan games Meerub and Hooriya into studying. Very smart, and his instant connection with Samiya was sweet.
Episode 17 – 22
In episode 19, Zeba’s verse about “Chachoondar ka tel” was so funny
In episode 20, Bindiya tells Samiya about her and Fareed liking each other because she’s suspicious of Fareed. I tell you, these sisters have no sisterly bond at all. They talk and share secrets when they have selfish motives. This episode had some more romance so at least it was balanced.
Chef Shakeel is back and Zeba has decided to straighten up the girls.
Zeba: They’ll eat at home, together, and eat what I decide.
Good idea on paper, didn’t work out. Samiya started weeping as usual, and it was Zeba who suggest that they go out. Inna koi unpredictable bhi na ho. Honestly, at this point, I expected some semblance of normalcy in this family.
Zara ne itni overacting ki hai Samiya ke sath wale scene mein. Her arguments (about why she wants Samiya to train Sef Shakeel) made no sense at all. But Irfan was shown to be moved by that conversation somehow. Yeh baat kuch hazam nahin huyi.
Now that we’re heading towards the finale, Nasera has dropped all pretence and blames Bushra and family for stealing jewellery.
چوروں کا خاندان ہے
Nasera is the worst indeed.
What followed was so confusing. There are two sets of jewellery. The one that Zeba dropped on the road was also mysteriously there. There was so much confusion. Even though several characters recounted the incident and tried to explain it, I didn’t understand. It was a mess.
Review
In the initial episodes, the damaing pranks threw me off and I wanted to call quits but it also had some rib-tickling scenes. I’ve learned to skip through the pranks now, and it doesn’t make me hyperventillate anymore.
Everyone has acted well but my praises are for Mohib. His expressions are just right. Zara hams through some scenes; she’s known for it, and it was addressed in her intro shot as well when Mohammad Ali says:
overacting karne ki zaoorat nahin hai.
Overall, these 22 episodes in two nights wasn’t that bad.
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Shabana Mukhtar