Farzi review: Vijay Sethupathi and Shahid Kapoor deliver on point in this tumultuous, binge-worthy ride
Farzi is a taut thriller centred on believable characters, with convincing performances from an outstanding cast.
Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Vijay Sethupathi, Raashi Khanna, Bhuvan Arora, Zakir Hussain, Regina Cassandra
India is not South Korea. At least, not yet. But, like South Korea, India too faces a debt problem. The endless cycle of loans and bank debts is an integral fact of life in middle-class India—from birth to death. As Farzi’s anti-hero Sunny (Shahid Kapoor) states, the middle class in India is actually the middle-finger class, with all its frustrations and grievances.
Farzi, the latest web series starring an outstanding cast of Shahid Kapoor, Vijay Sethupathi, and others, is a tumultuous, entertaining, and binge-worthy experience centred on believable characters.
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When insurmountable debt compels a talented small-time artist to choose an illegal escape route, his actions set off a domino effect, with a flood of perfectly made fake currency.
Sunny is a brilliant artist who makes perfect copies of masterpieces and sells them at bargain prices. People bargain over the prices of his paintings, yet they want to hang them in their homes because they think art projects wealth. With deft touches like these, the writers of the series express the ironical fact of life—the allure of wealth often rests on projections of success and can be fake.
Sunny’s on-and-off girlfriend, a South Bombay super wealthy girl, contrasts with his middle-class existence. His only family is his grandfather, an idealistic artist turned periodical editor (Amol Palekar), who runs a failing publication called Kranti (Revolution) with like-minded ageing men.
Sunny leans on Firoz (Bhuvan Arora), a lost kid who has grown up with him. Both help out with the grandfather's printing press. Until the moneylender comes to collect the dues one day. They have to either pay up or be prepared to lose their press, their property, and a lot more. This is when Sunny hits upon the idea of printing money and selling counterfeit to career criminals.
Michael Vedanayagam (Vijay Sethupathi) is an imperfect but dedicated police officer who is determined to crack counterfeit currency rackets. He drinks like a fish and features in hilarious drunk dialling episodes. His encounters with the minister (Zakir Hussain) make for the funniest moments in the series, showcasing some artful writing (the series has been co-written by Sita Menon, Suman Kumar, Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK). The writing refreshes the tenets of interactions between politicians and policemen on screen.
For Michael, who has an estranged wife Megha (Regina Cassandra) and a son, getting to the root of counterfeit money will bring him closure. As the season progresses, his controversial acts from the past come to light. A big part of his chase involves catching Mansoor Dalal, a counterfeit criminal king whose network traverses across South Asia.
As Mansoor’s network and Sunny’s artistic counterfeit abilities cross paths, the plot thickens. Michael and his inter-departmental taskforce, including the ace RBI sleuth Megha (Raashi Khanna), have to make an impact by uncovering a massive nationwide counterfeit currency scam. Nabbing the kingpin of this nexus and also catching Mansoor is Michael’s all-consuming goal.
Farzi is a taut thriller that is livened up with signature flourishes from the filmmaking duo of Raj and DK.
The strongest elements of the series are its convincing, naturalistic performances. Shahid Kapoor, as Sunny, has performed with restraint and cynicism, while Vijay Sethupathi is humane and outstanding, reminding one of Mohanlal’s classic cop act in RGV’s Company. Raashi Khanna and Bhuvan Arora deliver fitting supporting performances.
Each character, big or small, is developed within context and made credible. For instance, a trusted employee of the Kranti printing press becomes an accomplice of Sunny and Firoz. Having spent his life in principled poverty, he chooses to join the counterfeit op—first to survive and then because it can make him rich. As the characters evolve organically in the story, Farzi is easy to relate to.
Sunny and Michael slip up and make mistakes, making them as real as one can be. In fact, most of the plot depends on human errors and the immediate choices made by the characters.
At no point does Farzi feel like a stretch of imagination, and this is a victory for the show’s writers.
Farzi is highly recommended for those who enjoy long-format storytelling and have been waiting for a kick-ass, binge-worthy Indian series.
Rating: 4/5
Edited by Swetha Kannan