Iqra Aziz has yet again graced the silver screen with drama serial Jhooti which revolves around her character Nirma, a compulsive liar, who clearly knows when and whom to manipulate to get her way.Â
Nirma is a young girl who belongs to a middle-class family but aims for a lavish lifestyle by marrying a rich bachelor. However, when her family pressurizes her into marrying a local store owner Nasir (played by Ahmad Ali Butt), she resorts to exploiting the gullible man, and his family into giving her everything they own, in order to achieve her end goal of a lavish life.
In the latest episode, the show begins with Iqra shamelessly interrupting her nikkah proceedings upon hearing that the amount of the Mehr was not the amount she agreed upon with Nasir. She only continues with the Nikkah when the amount on the contract is changed. Throughout all this, she keeps her father on her side posing as the young and naïve daughter. Alongside Nirma, her brother gets married on the same day to a seemingly well-mannered and innocent girl, Saman.
As the show goes on, it is clear that Nirma’s focus is on getting as much money from her husband as possible. As per her usual ways, Nirma wreaks havoc on the family, while hiding under sheep’s clothing. Mysteriously, things go missing and breaking around the house as did in her parent’s home. Nirma gives these things to her friend Sameera till she decides what to do with the stolen items.
Towards the end, Nirma shatters more things in the kitchen and upon inquiry by her mother-in-law, suggests that it must’ve been a cat or perhaps the bad luck that she carries with herself according to her parents. The episode ends with Nirma showing up to her parent’s house and crying into her father’s arms and conveying that she has left her husband’s home because they think she carries bad luck.Â
The show depicts an unnecessarily foolish tale of people being so naïve, that not just one but two families fall prey to someone’s obvious lies. Nirma’s own family, especially her father, cannot see the deceit she wraps them in so delicately. It’s astonishing that Nasir, a man who owns his own business, has yet to notice that every conversation he has had with Nirma has been related to money.Â
Along with this, the show tries to put focus on how bad influence (in this case Nirma’s friend Sameera) can at times be so impactful. However, no one is gullible enough to concoct elaborate schemes on mere suggestions by friends. It cannot be this easy for a young girl to fraud so many people so easily. For now, the show seems like a more extreme version of Meray Paas Tum Ho, showing a relationship between a seemingly ‘bad’ woman and a gullible husband.
Video: Ahmad Ali Butt reveals how his character in Jhooti is similar to Danish in MPTH
Currently, the story seems predictable, with Yasir Hussain making an entry later as Ali, the con artist Nirma finds her match in. Nirma is predictably going to either be defrauded by her friend or Ali and will then realise how ungrateful she’d been. Let’s hope there is better development for the show than this.Â
Watch episode 3 here:
