Farzi Review: Oscillates Between Thrills And Lulls, But Vijay Sethupathi Is The Real MVP!
Vijay Sethupathi's Michael is hilarious!
One of my favourite things about the worlds that Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK create is just how grounded they are in the realities of their middle-class audience. The reality that stares back at us when we look in the mirror. With a well-timed jab here or an unsuspecting gesture by a character there that makes them relatable, the duo make it all feel organic. For a series called Farzi, which is about the lofty white-collar crime world of forging currency, keeping it real and rooted in that relatable middle-class Family Man flavour throughout is a job that’s almost well done. What’s more, Farzi expertly shoulders the responsibility of giving memorable OTT debuts to both Shahid Kapoor and Vijay Sethupathi. And yet…
Releasing on Prime Video, Farzi is created and directed by Raj & DK, who are also writers along with Sita Menon, Suman Kumar, and additional dialogue by Raghav Dutt. It stars Shahid Kapoor, Vijay Sethupathi, Bhuvan Arora, Raashii Khanna, Kay Kay Menon, Chittaranjan Giri, Zakir Hussain, Regina Cassandra, and Amol Palekar.
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Set in Mumbai, Farzi centres around Sunny, a struggling artist who is frustrated with being poor. His grandfather, a freedom fighter and editor of Kranti Patrika, hopes to bring about revolution and awakening with his periodical. When his Nanaji’s ambition is threatened by loan sharks, Sunny and his brother-like best friend Firoz decide to use their skill and the press to forge and print fake notes, under the pseudonym ‘Artist’. It lands them into trouble but also gets them on the radar of government agencies and Mansoor Dalal, the man running the biggest counterfeiting operation in India.
Meanwhile, Michael is a cop, once disgraced, who uses his connections with a minister to get himself a task force that can squash counterfeit currency and nab Mansoor, his singular goal. He has a drinking problem and is going through a not-so-mutual divorce and a potential custody battle. And finally, there’s Megha, a brilliant RBI employee who wants to get in on the Bond-like action of catching counterfeiters in the field. Plagued by her employer’s laid-back attitude towards the potential calamity for the economy, and her mother’s constant nagging to get her married, Megha joins Michael’s team and begins investigating the Artist.
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The first few episodes feel slow and there’s a chance of your attention wavering. Shahid’s Sunny is not a likeable hero; if anything, he’s an anti-hero with a heartbreaking origin story we’ve seen countless times before. It takes time to warm up to him. But after roles in Kaminey, Kabir Singh, Shahid has a way with such characters. He wears Sunny’s arrogance so well with his body language, just the right amount of restraint and subdued performance that does justice to the ‘artist’ personality type.
What kept me holding on in the first half then is Sunny’s heartwarming relationship with his Nanaji; some of my favourite Shahid Kapoor scenes are the ones between him and Amol Palekar (an inspired and perfect casting choice!). Then, there’s the captivating screen presence of Bhuvan Arora’s Firoz. The friendship and banter between Sunny and Firoz have some on-point writing. And Bhuvan Arora lands every line so well. But even when it’s mere actions and expressions—like the way he drinks muft ki chai or poses for a Titanic selfie—his Firoz is the heart of Farzi for me. I wanted to protect him at all costs!
Farzi does inheri the Family Man trait of speaking the harsh truths about the middle-class life in a nonchalant, straight-faced way. It’s a very middle-class trait to use humour to cope with your tough luck because what else are you going to do, buddy? Vijay Sethupathi, Bhuvan Arora, and Kay Kay Menon are the key wielders of this weapon. In fact, I think it isn’t until Menon arrives on the scene and infuses some much-needed stakes in the story that I am sitting up and actually engrossed. His Mansoor has these oily mannerisms, speaks broken English like a Gujarati who wants to show off, and we slowly see his cool exteriors come undone to reveal what’s on the inside. His arc is symbolism for how we all are under the thumb of someone higher up, no matter how higher up and invincible we think we are.
But my favourite character has to be Sethupathi’s Michael, hands down! Even when he is drinking, being an utter nuisance, or breaking rules, he seems like this adorable teddy bear you want to go and give a tight hug to. He has the stereotypical South Indian accent and manner of speaking, complete with broken Hindi. And normally that would feel like a cliché but Sethupathi sells it; if anything it adds to his appeal and makes you care about him. I love the scenes between him and the minister, played by a gold-as-ever Zakir Hussain. There’s palpable chemistry there, a bromance if you will, which Michael doesn’t even share with his own team. I would pay for a show that’s all about an ethically dubious cop navigating red tape with a minister as his reluctant buddy in the high places!
Michael is The Family Man thread in Farzi. He huffs and puffs during chases. He cons his employer, the government because it’s not reimbursing his expenses incurred on the filed. He does not care about right or wrong or politics, he cares about doing the work. His miserable attempts at being a good father to his son Vyom, his endearing relationship with his in-laws, and his attempts to remind his estranged wife Rekha of their love are sad yet just so organically funny! One of my favourite Michael scenes is when Rekha comes to see him, hands him a dabba of murruku, and he tells her, “Still you love me.” Michael—held back by the system and also playing it, unable to be a family man, and always treading the ethics line—feels like a real representation of us.
I could also relate to Raashii Khanna’s Megha on several levels, particularly her struggles to break free of the limitations her superiors place on her, and even her gender. However, she’s still playing on the sidelines and there’s too many other characters grabbing our attention that I barely gave a thought to her.
For me, Farzi was a slow burn and felt a tad too dry at times. NGL, three episodes in, I wasn’t invested in it as much as I would’ve wanted to be. There were lulls, frequent ones where I felt disengaged. Unlike Raj & DK’s Family Man, which instantly reeled you in with Srikant Tiwari’s charm and his personal and professional life problems, Farzi grows on you slowly. Moreover, it is the characters that you seem to care about more than the story. For the most part, I could predict where things were going in the end.
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Verdict
Farzi has everything going for it. The cast, the performances, and the writing that is a layered commentary on the country’s class struggle with the backdrop of events like demonetisation, and the constant battle that India’s middle class has to fight about choosing between doing what is right and what is easy. It’s a battle for survival, and you end up empathising with every character’s motive, irrespective of their means.
And yet, despite it all coming together so well, it does lack a certain engaging charm that would make it a cut above the rest. You could be invested one minute and the other, find your thoughts wandering.
Nevertheless, Farzi is a decent watch and definitely a great debut for Shahid and Sethupathi. As for the sly promises it makes to us about a Raj & DK universe, I would bet big money on it. All real notes of course!
Farzi is currently streaming on Prime Video.
