From acclaimed writer Amna Mufti (Dil Na Umeed To Nahi) comes Ek Jhooti Kahani, a madcap comedy about family, farce, and the fine line between performance and deception.
At the center is Irfan (Mohib Mirza), the only brother of five wildly over-the-top sisters. Each one is more dramatic and demanding than the next. Desperate to escape their suffocating control, Irfan hires a woman to pose as his ideal wife.
Five sisters and one fake wife
Bushra is played with infectious energy by Zara Noor Abbas. She’s a struggling actress who doesn’t quite grasp the boundary between acting and outright fraud.
The five sisters? We know nothing about them. They are reduced to caricatures. They are lazy, loud, and absurdly entitled. What they do all day is anyone’s guess. The script suggests they laze about, drive away house help, and are too indolent to even order food on their phones. They are repeatedly referred to as “churails” and “gundis.”
Is this How to Train Our Dragon
The show draws inevitable comparisons to How to Train Our Dragon (originally titled With Five Sisters, I’m Doomed to Be Single!), a Taiwanese comedy film where five overprotective sisters sabotage their younger brother’s love life. But unlike that film, where the siblings’ interference stems from misguided affection, Ek Jhooti Kahani presents grown women who exploit their brother with casual cruelty. In the film the high school boy also finds a pretend love interest so his sisters back off. Naturally, we can expect this arrangement to bloom into romance in both versions.
A Parade of Side Characters
“No sane woman would ever marry into this family,” says a no-nonsense matchmaker cleverly named Mrs. Khan (played by Zara Khan) a figure many may recognise from morning tv. She is one of the many side characters peppered into the first episode for no real reason. A chef who is unceremoniously fired. A gym-bro who Bushra tries to scam. A buddy who tries to help Irfan find a wife. There’s a lot going on. None of it is character-driven.
The biggest lapse of course is the show’s disservice to house help Habib Sb. He is played by the veteran Mohammad Ahmed, who is utterly wasted in the episode. He is isolated from the rest of the cast to a random park bench. We learn little about him or how he relates to the family.
Audiences are craving comedy
Despite it all I’m rooting for Ek Jhooti Kahaani. Pakistani audiences have long embraced comedy that balances chaos with heart. Most notably in the Baraat series and more recently with Suno Chanda and Fairy Tale. These hits gave us zany characters, but they also offered emotional grounding, believable relationships. They nailed what Ek Jhooti Kahani so far struggles with: creating characters we can laugh with, not just at.
While it’s refreshing to see a mainstream attempt at comedy in a landscape dominated by melodrama, Ek Jhooti Kahani leans too far into caricature. It sacrifices story and relatability. Comedy remains a rarity on our screens, often confined to Ramzan specials or broad slapstick. This series could have been a much-needed break from the monotony. Let’s hope the next few episodes dive deeper.
Still, Zara Noor Abbas emerges as the show’s strongest asset. Her physical comedy is on point, her timing sharp, and her sheer commitment to Bushra’s deluded confidence makes her both ridiculous and oddly endearing. If anything can salvage the show, it might be her. But is that enough?
Ek Jhooti Kahaani airs on HUM TV.
