farzi tamil movie review

Farzi review: Fun with a side order of deja vu

There’s something endearing about Shahid Kapoor indulging himself in a long con. We saw it first in Badmaash Company, where he turned up the charm to con his way through his problems. Since then, through films like Kaminey, Udta Punjab, Kabir Singh, and Jersey, Shahid has proved his credentials as being the go-to man to represent the circle of life. You get aspirations, ambition, anguish, and overwhelming angst. In Raj and DK’s latest Prime Video series, Farzi, we see him embodying the struggler Sunny, who finds a way to monetise his skill of being a master forger of art. We see him deliver a gamut of emotions as he hits the highs and lows expected out of a film about a con artist. 

Vijay Sethupathi’s Michael Devanayagam is the perfect foil to Shahid’s Sunny. In fact, the writers of Farzi do a wonderful job of mirroring the lives of Michael and Sunny. It is a bit disappointing that what could have been a nice hat-tip to Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can isn’t explored enough in Farzi. It would have been fun to see the sentimental and enterprising world of Sunny colliding with the emotional yet sobering world of Michael. 

While the two worlds are fascinating, for sure, there is an overwhelming sense of deja vu. We have seen Michael and his family life going through the same problems that Mr Srikant Tiwari and Suchi faced in Raj and DK’s very own The Family Man series. While there is no doubt that the writers saw this too, and probably used the same beats to reflect the monotony in the lives of these unsung heroes of modern-day India. But, Tiwari’s life is too recent in our memory that Michael’s problems don’t really make us empathise with him.

We have no such problems with Sunny’s descent into the world of counterfeiting as his father and grandfather (a terrific Amol Palekar) issues are well-explored in Farzi. His friendship with Bhuvan Arora’s Firoz is heartwarming, and the makers give Sunny a lot of breathing space. As the hugely original Sunny unravels into becoming someone people around him don’t recognise anymore, his ‘farzi-ness’ feels very real. There is a quaint melancholy amidst all the ruckus in Sunny’s life. Points to the Farzi team for the way they’ve sketched Raashi Khanna’s Megha. Of course, the romance between Sunny and Megha is a template move, but there are enough subversions that keep these scenes ticking. Raashi is such a lovely presence, and her scenes with both Shahid and Vijay Sethupathi are some of the more organic ones in the series. 

The representation of the South is once again vibrant in Farzi with the presence of Vijay Sethupathi and Regina Cassandra who play a Tamil-Telugu couple who are undergoing marital problems. There is a smattering of Tamil and Telugu that feels natural. Even when these characters, especially Vijay Sethupathi, speak in Hindi, it doesn’t feel forced-fit into the narrative. Such decisions should be applauded for normalising the multilingual diversity that our content could aspire to. 

The ensemble is terrific in Farzi, and each actor does justice to the intricately written characters. Right from Shahid, Vijay and Raashi to Bhuvan, Amol, and Zakir Hussain (playing a hilarious minister), there are multiple layers to each of their characters. These layers are also found in the way the narrative unfolds. Shahid is immersive as Sunny, and it is fun to see him enjoy his role. The same can be said of Vijay Sethupathi, who in his demeanour has a lot of Mohanlal from Company.

The matter-of-fact dialogue delivery and his cool composure, and the stoicness of his performance are a delight to watch. For people who know of him, it would feel like he is having a ball, and for those who don’t, it is a good start to the calibre of Vijay Sethupathi. We see dualities of parenting, ambition, bureaucracy, and the greyness between right and wrong being explored through the two men. 

Although the entire counterfeit business is showcased with a rather flimsy beginning, we have soon been engrossed in the world thanks to the flamboyant performance of an ever-reliable Kay Kay Menon. Through expositions, voice-overs, and teacher-student montages, we soon plummet into this world nearly captured by the makers. Probably why the final act feels rushed considering everything is crammed. 

Nevertheless, Farzi feels like a very wholesome first season setting up the right kind of vibes for the second season. But more than anything, what is most exciting about Farzi is how Raj and DK are developing a universe of their own. The random name-dropping of Tiwari, a couple of brilliant cameos, and the tantalising prospects of a Michael-Tiwari meet-up a la Pathaan and a Tiger are enough to be excited about a Season 2. 

Farzi Created by:  Raj and DK Cast:  Shahid Kapoor, Vijay Sethupathi, Raashi Khanna, Zakir Hussain  Streaming On:  Prime Video Rating: 3/5

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Farzi Review: Shahid Kapoor, Vijay Sethupathi Make a Pitch-Perfect Debut with This Raj-DK Crime Thriller

Creators : Raj Nidimoru, Krishna D.K.

Writers : Raj Nidimoru, Krishna D.K., Sita Menon, Suman Kumar, Hussain Dalal (Hindi dialogues)

Cast : Shahid Kapoor, Vijay Sethupathi, Bhuvan Arora, Kay Kay Menon, Raashii Khanna, Regina Cassandra, Amol Palekar, Zakir Hussain

At many points in Farzi , we see Indian news channels being Indian news channels. Anchors pose loud queries about crime and politics and the economy of the nation. This isn’t unusual. Most stories use media theatrics as a source of easy amusement, but also as a reminder of narrative scale. It tells us that the characters we watch often have implications on the world they occupy; that private pockets belong to a broader fabric. The news telecasts are connective tissues between reality and perception. But in Farzi , these bulletins come as a shock to our senses. It almost feels like a prank. That’s because none of the characters ever behave like they’re capable of making the headlines. They don’t sound like the slick criminals, cops or spies we read about. The characters themselves look bemused at the public consequences of their actions. This dysfunctional relationship between the big picture and the small story – between the idea of India and the disarming ordinariness of the individuals who shape this idea – is what a Raj and DK series thrives on. 

Like The Family Man , Farzi is a fine example of high stakes and cultural commentary offset by low-key social language. It’s enormously clear-eyed and entertaining, because all the corruption and violence and cat-and-mouse suspense are ultimately defined by people who are just struggling to be people. Their little idiosyncrasies ensure that the fiction – both literally and figuratively – always hits close to home. At face value, Farzi is a quintessential Bombay tale. Sick of being poor and invisible, a hustler named Sunny ( Shahid Kapoor ) decides to game the system he so despises. He starts off the small and idealistic underdog, before getting sucked into the void of organized crime. His aspiration is displaced by dark ambition. On his trail is a troubled cop, Michael (Vijay Sethupathi), who finds fresh purpose in this hunt. He has no choice but to win, because he has lost everything else in the name of duty. It’s a formula as old as time. 

But the Raj-DK treatment means that the language is not as dramatic as the plot. The deadpan storytelling never hijacks the life of a moment. The action leaves room for sharp little observations and remarks on the tragicomedies of middle-class living. A frantic chase ends with Sunny’s best friend and partner-in-crime, Firoz (a breakout Bhuvan Arora), breathlessly cursing India’s unemployment rates because “mobs chase people without even knowing why”. Another time, Firoz awkwardly eyes a drink that arrives seconds after a meeting at a dive-bar. He has no choice but to chug before exiting, an act that transforms the exchange – one that has supposedly ended – into an everyman blunder. An abduction in a bedroom at night opens with the thugs cursing a defunct light switch. Two cops sarcastically clap while grilling a minister who deflects with patriotic whataboutery. Michael gets annoyed with a shopkeeper who preempts the bargaining process before he asks the price. A policeman agrees to aid a task-force agent under the condition they get Starbucks (“not cutting chai again”) all night. These aren’t the sort of forced quips that deflate the gravity of a scene. The humour is a coping mechanism – composed of desperate but innately human reactions – that just happen to look like ‘comedy’ to a third person. It’s something that Anurag Kashyap had introduced in his Gangs of Wasseypur films; it peaked with Raj and DK’s long-form mastery in The Family Man . 

Even the filler scenes – which normally exist only to convey information and move the script forward – remain busy and interesting. For instance, when Michael is taunting a captive, he quickly corrects himself – clarifying that by “you people” he means “Mansoor’s stooges” – once he remembers that the man is Muslim. When one of the show’s three superbly filmed chases is cut short by a traffic jam, a group of cops get confused about whether to continue on foot or return to their van. Michael himself has a habit of stylishly lighting a cigarette while entering crime scenes – like he’s watched too many Rajinikanth movies – but it’s this very chain-smoking that leaves him gasping during chases. None of this is staged to be funny, which is why it’s funny; the film-making constantly urges us to detect the inherent cinema of life. Raj and DK’s affection for Mumbai also determines the sly marriage of fact and fiction – a plot-point reimagines the mysterious 2011 appearance of ‘ghost ship’ MV Wisdom on Juhu beach.

The characterizations feed this tone wonderfully. Tamil star Vijay Sethupathi plays Michael like the cultural oddity he is. At first, Michael’s stilted Hindi sounds a bit strange, often puncturing the fluidity of his image. His arc, too, is eerily identical to The Family Man ’s Srikant Tiwari, generating direct comparisons with Manoj Bajpayee. But it emerges that Michael’s straight-faced use of language not only reflects his status as a ‘family man’ – a broken alcoholic going through a divorce; an irresponsible father – but also his disdain for the system he works in. Like a child picking up a new language, his vocabulary is limited to its expletives. Some of the show’s best scenes feature Michael gently trolling the finance minister (a hilarious Zakir Hussain) like a naughty student with an exasperated teacher. Yet he uses it to his advantage, even with his Telugu wife ( Regina Cassandra ), knowing that his inability to express himself properly makes him seem innocent and vulnerable. The terrific Kay Kay Menon , as villain Mansoor, uses English for different reasons – to sound rich and powerful – except he isn’t as fluent in its profanities. Mansoor’s trademark is that he randomly employs the F-word as an epilogue to his thoughts, a symptom of someone who imitates a language without actually getting it. The title of the show (Farzi translates to ‘fake’) reiterates these characters, most of whom are steeped in different degrees of dishonesty.

What these little touches do is unlock heavier themes without being oversmart about them. The writing slowly reveals the substance behind the style. The design starts to speak to a more contemporary – and contradictory – country. The tropes invite us into a space where Farzi becomes an expertly veiled indictment of everything from art to the vicious middle-class cycle to demonetization. The details hint at that. Sunny is a broke street artist who specialises in portraiture and replicas of famous paintings. His grandfather runs a Hindi newspaper called Kranti, a dying dissenter in a dead democracy. At first, Sunny sets out to rescue the newspaper by applying his talent to counterfeiting – to ‘produce’ the money his grandfather’s journalism and his art deserves. But Sunny doesn’t stop at that. More than the get-rich-quick scheme, it’s the acclaim he had long craved for – the validation of being a true artist – that gets him addicted to counterfeiting. He is so good that he catches the eye of the high-rolling Mansoor, a financial terrorist who wants to destabilize the Indian economy. 

Farzi holds well as a rags-to-riches-to-crime story. The thrills of small-time forgery and the lofty ways of the counterfeiting industry are neatly folded into the narrative. But the eight-episode series works best as a view of the Striver Story through the lens of an Artist Story. Sunny refuses to be a victim of circumstances – he refuses to let his social situation dictate his choice between the anonymity of greatness and the tangibility of fame. But in avoiding one cliche, he becomes another. In a not-so-parallel universe, Sunny could very well be the disenfranchised film-maker (his codename is “Artist”) who goes from shaping a revolution (‘Kranti’) to selling his soul to the Remake Gods. The selfishness of art ultimately infects the selflessness of patriotism. It’s not long before he drops the pretense of social justice – of doing it for his grandfather – to serve himself. The politics are there for those who seek it. In an age of counterfeit ideologies whose only religion is money, Farzi cuts deeper than its form. It’s no coincidence that tea – a symbol of pro-establishment purism – is a recurring motif in this series. Early on, Sunny even discovers that soaking the fake currency in tea is the key to making money look more ‘legitimate’. Michael and RBI analyst Megha’s (Raashii Khanna) dealings with the Center supply the demonetization swipe; a government plan called “Dhanrakshak” is a cute riff on the term, too. 

Casting Amol Palekar – a progressive artist who traded mainstream fame for alternative greatness – as Sunny’s grandfather is a masterstroke. Palekar’s character is plagued by the onset of memory loss. But he makes this tired trope look poignant by underlining the role of trauma in his condition. His moral fibre pushes the viewer to wonder if the man is perhaps choosing to forget a few bitter truths. His bond with Sunny is not only the soul of the story, it also lends Shahid Kapoor ’s performance a similar reel-real echo. As a result, Kapoor’s digital debut – much like Sethupathi’s – is nearly pitch-perfect. In context of the actor’s career, it always feels like his Sunny is in a battle with a more commercial version of himself. At one point, Sunny loses his temper at a police station, insults a senior officer and gets locked up for this attitude. When an irritated Firoz warns Sunny to tone down the ‘heropanti,’ it seems like he’s asking him to resist the temptation of turning into Bollywood Shahid Kapoor. To his credit, Kapoor reframes this internal war of ego and image as a moral conflict. And Farzi nicely dovetails the two – the cockier Sunny gets, the deeper he sinks. Eventually, he becomes the connective tissue between reality and perception. Between national news and a nation defined by people who are just struggling to be human. Perhaps there’s some poetry to the fact that the not-so-sunny nature of its anti-hero distils Farzi down to two questions: Is ambition the costliest self-portrait of aspiration? More importantly, is rebellion the cheapest replica of revolution?

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Farzi Review: Shahid Kapoor And Vijay Sethupathi's Fake 'Money Heist' Is Worth Bingeing

Curated By : Dishya Sharma

Edited By: Shrishti Negi

Last Updated: February 10, 2023, 10:24 IST

Mumbai, India

• 10 February 2023 | Hindi
• 8 Episodes | Crime Drama
• Starring: Shahid Kapoor, Vijay Sethupathi, Raashii Khanna, Kay Kay Menon, Bhuvan Arora, Regina Cassandra, and Amol Palekar
• Director: Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K.
• Platform: Amazon Prime Video

Farzi Review: Raj and DK's show is a potpourri of impressive performances. Farzi marks Shahid Kapoor's OTT debut and it seems like the actor has fully embraced the medium.

When the stamp of Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK, better known as Raj and DK is printed on a project, you can’t help but set expectations from it. If the format is a series, it makes the hype all the more high, thanks to The Family Man. Farzi does carry the burden of expectations of the hit series but after eight hours of binge-watching, I realised that while The Family Man has its own benchmark, Farzi tries and almost successfully leaves a mark of its own.

Starring Shahid Kapoor and Vijay Sethupathi in the lead, Farzi is about an artist who has found his inspiration in the costliest entity in the world — Money. But his artwork is being followed by many, including Michael Vedanayagam, a cop. No prize for guessing that Shahid plays the role of the artist aka Sunny whereas Vijay plays the cop. Their cat-and-mouse chase tale includes Kay Kay Menon, Raashii Khanna, Amol Palekar, and Bhuvan Arora.

Farzi starts off on a fun note, with Sunny going all out Professor on Money Heist. While the Spanish heist mastermind goes into a bank and prints money, Sunny turns his grandfather’s printing press into an in-house fake RBI printing press, generating counterfeit notes. In his trial and error stage, Sunny and his sidekick Firoz (Bhuvan Arora) go through the juggad phase, the getting caught phase, and whatnot before they manage to get their first counterfeit note into the market successfully. At first, it starts off as Sunny’s last resort to save the printing press but eventually, greed takes over, and Sunny starts enjoying the rain of money.

The transition of Sunny’s character from an underpaid artist to making counterfeit notes as a business is well established in the first four episodes. Raj and DK smartly lay out the character, his backstory, and the future that is ahead of him in stages that help you connect with Sunny. However, in that process, especially during the third and fourth episodes, the writing starts to show signs of trembling hands on deck. With so many characters left to be introduced and the need to branch out Sunny’s role into the bigger state of affairs, it gets a tad confusing to keep track. But once Raj and DK are convinced that it all placed, they take the series to a notch higher starting from the fifth episode.

The series is well-researched and executed in a detailed manner. The first half of the series is heavily focused on getting the concept of counterfeiting right that it begins to feel like a tutorial for those who are unaware of the subject. The scenes involving the printing press and Shahid celebrating with bundles of cash inevitably brought back memories of Money Heist. It almost feels like Sunny is an all-in-one packed character — essaying the role of Professor, Nairobi, and Denver — doing all the planning, plotting, and execution almost single-handedly.

Despite the focus on nuances, Raj and DK returned to a few old tricks of their books. They retained the sidekick who isn’t as street smart as the protagonist, a doubting husband, a cop who is trying very hard to be a ‘family man’ but not coming through, and humorous jibes in the utmost serious discussions feature in Farzi as well, which weigh down the series at times.

The writing is brilliantly supported by the screenplay and dialogues. Every episode is packed with mini-pataas (firecrackers in Tamil) delivered by Firoz, Michael, and even the minister, played by Zakir Hussain, throughout the season which ensures laughs in every episode.

Coming to the performances, Farzi is a potpourri of impressive performances. Farzi marks Shahid’s OTT debut and it seems like the actor has fully embraced the medium. Raj and DK offer him a platform to portray his multiple shades. There were scenes in which I couldn’t help but drool over his chocolatey good looks and then there were also scenes in which I was applauding for Shahid. He should experiment with a lot more gray and dark characters, they suit him well.

It comes as no surprise that Vijay Sethupathi is effortless in the series. He not only makes his OTT debut with the series but also his Hindi cinema debut. I absolutely love Raj and DK for retaining Vijay’s voice for the role and even showing his struggle with the language in a humourous style. However, I wish his character was explored a little more. Understandably that the show is called Farzi and revolves around Sunny, Vijay’s Michael felt a little short in terms of character graph. His on-screen wife Regina Cassandra also felt wasted in the series, serving no bigger purpose in the overall series.

As someone who was expecting a full-blown showdown between Shahid and Vijay, I was a little disappointed with the lack of their scenes.

Meanwhile, Kay Kay Menon feels smooth like butter on screen. Having seen him and Shahid share the screen in Haider in 2014, Farzi gives him and their on-screen bond a makeover that you end up rooting for. Raashii Khanna as Megha compliments and even hold attention while Vijay and Shahid own the screen well, making her performance memorable. Bhuvan Arora leaves a mark as Firoz. His comic timing and dialogue delivery, much like Shahid, is impressive.

Another factor that plays in Farzi’s favour is its cinematography and music. There were a number of scenes shot by Pankaj Kumar that stand out, one of which includes him using the washing machine to show transition. Sachin–Jigar also offers catchy tunes after every episode that are going to be a part of my playlist.

Bottom line: While Farzi might not be as great as The Family Man, it serves as an entertaining binge-worthy series to watch over the weekend. Don’t burden it with The Family Man’s baggage and you’ll enjoy it.

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Farzi review: Vijay Sethupathi, Shahid anchor a gripping but politically messy thriller

Starring Shahid Kapoor and Vijay Sethupathi in his Hindi debut, Farzi tracks a down-on-his-luck artist turned currency counterfeiter and a police officer with a chequered past. Shahid plays Sunny, who makes a little money selling his artwork and spends most of his time helping run his adoptive grandfather’s (Amol Palekar) flailing political magazine. Vijay Sethupathi (or VJS as he’s often referred to) is Michael Vedanayagam, hell-bent on bringing an end to the counterfeit note racket in the country. Overall, Farzi is an engaging thriller with messy politics, except when the emotional and romantic tracks bring the pacing to a soulless drag. 

Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK, more commonly known as Raj & DK, are returning with Farzi nearly two years after the release of season 2 of The Family Man web series. The series’ vilifying portrayal of Eelam Tamils and the brown-facing of their lead actor Samantha in the role of a Tamil woman, drew widespread criticism. So some viewers, this reviewer included, was keen to see the role written for Vijay Sethupathi in Farzi . 

The show does good work setting up how and why a small-time artist gets involved in counterfeiting money. It also successfully spins a bigger story around the dizzying nexus of criminals, corrupt politicians, and bureaucratic machinery that blur into each other, enabling such endeavours. The show at least starts off trying to make this a battle between loners, each convinced they are undermining the ‘system’. It even offers an interesting minor antagonist in the form of a performatively patriotic politician, constantly chasing headlines that can help him clinch elections, than caring about national welfare. However, the series quickly seems to lose track of this message in its eagerness to come up with a system that only places even more surveilling power in the hands of the state. 

Then there’s the question why Farzi had to offer a take on demonetisation at all, if it had nothing valuable to add to the conversation. If the financial and mental toll demonetisation took on millions of us wasn’t something showmakers Raj and DK were convinced merited talking about, they could have just left it out of the story. It instead, laughably, waxes poetic about all the “security” features in the new notes, as if that wasn’t one of the few bleak comedies we had at the time while we lined up outside ATMs at one in the morning. Who can forget that viral video of news anchor Swetha Singh claiming, falsely, that the (speedily retired) 2,000-rupee notes have inbuilt nanochip trackers? One can understand that the showmakers didn’t want to imply that counterfeiting is an easy hack, nor one to be attempted at all. But the sequence verges on absurd fawning. 

The series offers a host of characters who keep you immersed. Sunny is at his best in the show when we’re not being almost relentlessly subjected to his tedious mind voice. It does little to help us empathise with him. His daredevilry in starting off his counterfeit currency scam, on the other hand, is entertaining. He takes to it with a certain panache and swagger that makes you root for him. 

Shahid owns the role, except when he’s boring us with his inner thoughts. It’s easy to see a young man, disillusioned with the hand dealt to him. There’s a simmering angst to Sunny, which the actor delivers flawlessly. Sunny’s best friend and collaborator in his new criminal venture is an amusing Firoz (Bhuvan Arora), who keeps up a steady stream of irreverent comedy that lightens the mood. 

And it is stunning to watch VJS deliver his lines in Hindi and look superbly comfortable doing so. The actor reportedly insisted on doing his own dubbing, apparently following the flak his Telugu debut Uppena received for going with a dubbing artist. VJS’s distinctly recognisable voice is hard to replace, particularly for an actor who is used to doing characters with depth rather than flimsy mass-roles. As Michael Vedanayagam, the actor’s easy witticisms translate effortlessly into Hindi. Michael swings between languid taunts of powerful men and a bullish tendency to pursue his case, regardless of the threats. Heading a special task force, he becomes an interesting foil to Sunny. It’s also a relief to watch a well-written Tamil character in a Hindi production, even though that bar is quite low for Bollywood, particularly considering the depiction of Indian and Eelam Tamils in The Family Man . 

Raashi Khanna as Megha, an RBI employee also obsessively intent on ending counterfeiting, is a rare female character written with depth. In addition to her ambitions to stop the racket, Farzi also focuses on the trials of being a single, working-woman in a big city, having to dodge parental shaming for being unmarried, struggling to rent out a flat and just be herself. 

The humour and interesting characters save the show, whether it is Michael, Sunny, Firoz, or the corrupt politician Pawan Gahlot (Zakir Hussain). The cat-and-mouse chase is compelling for the most part. Farzi also offers Michael, a Christian character, in the lead and Firoz, a Muslim character, in an important supporting role, without using the stereotypes multiple cinema industries including Bollywood and Kollywood frequently dole out. Bhuvan Arora’s performance is funny, endearing, and done with such nuance that you come away feeling like Firoz could almost be a person you had recently become acquainted with. 

But the series’ politics still manages to be all over the place. Michael’s backstory about being an “encounter specialist” and the journalist who exposed him reflects the tendency of Indian cinema to felicitate such measures as heroism. The stark reality of who falls prey to police encounters and the overlap with caste and class locations is something filmmakers seem determined to overlook or dismiss. Ultimately, Farzi ’s messaging is warped. That cost of ambition and ‘duty’ is essentially an overreach of power via the many armed apparatuses of the state, and makes a mockery of human rights violations. 

The emotional tug-of-war between Sunny and his grandfather drags down the pacing of the show in an unconvincing attempt to add heart to the story. But Farzi hits its dullest point when it insists on sermonising to the audience, again through Sunny’s omnipresent mind voice, about the follies of greed and counterfeiting money. Yes, we know. It’s wrong and illegal. The ethical conundrums of criminal activity is something the story and the characters should convey to us, without the lazy way out of being preached at throughout a slickly made thriller. At least if Sunny’s mind voice didn’t bore us out of our mind, we could have put up with it. 

So, I recreate here, minus some colourful language, how I described Sunny’s endless voice over to a friend: it’s the tedious inner working of a man-child’s brain unfortunately convinced of its own blazing intellect. For the rest of us, it sounds like a dramatised reading of an unfiltered, poorly written blog. 

Farzi is streaming now on Amazon Prime. 

Watch the trailer here: 

Disclaimer: This review was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the film. Neither TNM nor any of its reviewers have any sort of business relationship with the film’s producers or any other members of its cast and crew.

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‘Farzi’ season one review: Shahid Kapoor, Vijay Sethupathi are splendid, but sell us a sham beneath the shine

The brooding intensity and impish charm of shahid kapoor and vijay sethupathi provide plenty of goosebumps moments and a lot to chuckle about, but eventually the series leaves one with the feeling of being sold a dummy. .

February 10, 2023 12:52 pm | Updated 04:18 pm IST

Raj and DK’s ‘Farzi’ feels more like the work of a magician who repeats his trick on the market’s demand

What happens when an artist crosses the lines of law? What happens when he starts seeing a humble currency note as a challenging work of art? Writer-director duo Raj and D.K. have an uncanny knack for creating charismatic characters grappling with the socio-political realities of our times. Their canvas gets larger than life, but they negotiate it with the detailing of master craftsmen keen on making sense of the zardozi of emotions and ideas with a thread spiked with sharp humour. With  Farzi , they expand the everyman secret agent universe that they created with  The Family Man . The possibilities are delicious... but after eight episodes that provide plenty of goosebumps moments and a lot to chuckle about, the series leaves one with the feeling of being sold a dummy.   

Shahid Kapoor in ‘Farzi’

Over the years, Shahid Kapoor excels in roles where the character’s self-esteem is under attack. Here, as the anti-hero Sunny, he remarkably blends brooding intensity with an impish smile in a role that has shades of his real life. Abandoned by his father in childhood, Sunny grows up under the shadow of his righteous maternal grandfather (Amol Palekar) who brings out a newspaper called Kranti Patrika  and paints  The Thinker  with trembling hands. However, the young artist sees the world around him and pays more for the fakes than the original work. As he observes the tree gradually wilt under a loan and rampant corruption; revolution becomes a retired thought for Sunny. But to save Nanu and his crumbling ideas, the artist crosses over and sells his craft to the highest bidder. As his ego and ambition get the better of him, Sunny gets sucked into a black hole as we get an insight into how a man gets consumed by circumstances. 

The narrative is dotted with moral dilemmas that are not easy to negotiate. The emotional track where Sunny fears that his Nanu — whose memory is fading by the day — would discover that he has violated his trust creates an uneasy feeling. The scene where Sunny embraces his Nanu from behind makes the eyes moist. It is the pristine presence of Palekar, who chooses his project with care, that makes us believe in the integrity of the ideological slugfest even when the writers lose track.  

On one hand, there is Michael (Vijay Sethupathi), an unlikely efficient officer fighting personal battles, who is committed to curing the country of the scourge of counterfeit currency, and on the other, there is Mansoor (Kay Kay Menon chews up the scenery with his trademark flourish), a reptilian figure who gives wings to Sunny’s imagination and ambition for his purpose. Sethupathi is suitably understated and charming at the same time; there is a certain endearment in the way he delivers his dialogues in Hindi that even the expletives sound endearing. It creates an interesting contrast between his physical and vocal tonality, and reminds one of Mohanlal who also played a committed law enforcer in  Company . His family story is not even half as riveting as that of Shrikant Tiwari, but Sethupathi ensures that it remains palatable till Michael shares notes with Tiwari in the next season.   

Vijay Sethupathi in ‘Farzi’

With Shahid, it is the other way round. He comes across as an adorable rascal whose circumstances push him into a cesspool. It is a pity that we don’t get to see a face-off between the two in the first season as the streaming platforms plot to keep the pot burning for a second season, even if it means compromising on storytelling and stagnating the interest.  

In between, there is a staple but well-written track where Sunny infiltrates into the crack team through Megha (Rashii Khanna), an expert on counterfeit currency, who could see through the sham, but fumbles when it comes to matters of the heart. The portion is written in a way that one doesn’t mind suspending disbelief for a while; Rashii is also impressive as a girl who doesn’t get too distracted from her goal by the magic of Sunny. 

Rashii Khanna in a still from the series

As always, the action Raj and D.K. universe is interspersed with current affairs and an electric background score. Minister Gahlot’s (Zakir Hussain) urge to link everything with electoral politics is relatable, and the way Michael sells him the idea of a big photo in the newspaper every time the minister drags his feet on issues of national security is risibly realistic. 

However, for all the character-building and competent performances, the unpretentious perspective and immersive experience of  The Family Man  is missing here as the makers seem keen on underling that we are watching something intelligent and well-researched with a bleeding pen.  

Farzi  feels more like the work of a magician who repeats his trick on the market’s demand. The socio-political commentary that was seamless in  The Family Man  gets repetitive and even jarring at times here. The screenplay feels like that eye-catching coat with a lining that has not been properly stitched, and gives way during the rough and tumble of eight episodes. There are portions when it seems the writers’ research notes on counterfeit currency have slipped into the script and that we are watching an instruction manual on how to make fake bills unfold on-screen. Curiously, the writers have spent hours in explaining the business of counterfeit currency, but have left the nuts and bolts of the story loose. Some of the twists are too convenient to mass muster, the back stories are not compelling, and an important character is dispensed with without due diligence. This incongruous approach makes  Farzi  feel like Sunny’s super note; a sham beneath the shine.  

Farzi is currently streaming on Amazon Prime 

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Hindi cinema / reviews / Indian cinema

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Farzi Review: Vijay Sethupathi Sets The Bar High, Shahid Kapoor's Performance Is Remarkable In Its Restraint

Farzi review: the anti-hero of the eight-episode show created, produced, directed and co-written by raj & dk, represents that segment of the indian population that is crushed under the weight of loans and repayments..

Vijay Sethupathi and Shahid Kapoor in Farzi . (courtesy: shahidkapoor )

Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Vijay Sethupathi, Kay Kay Menon, Raashii Khanna, Amol Palekar, Kubbra Sait, Regina Cassandra, Bhuvan Arora, Chittranjan Giri, Zakir Hussain and Jaswant Singh Dalal

Director: Raj and DK

Rating: Three and a half stars (out of 5)

Money makes the world go round. In Farzi , set in post-demonetisation India, it sets off a spiral that pits the protagonist, an exceptionally skilled but struggling artist, against the law and an underworld kingpin. He prints his own cash, cocking a snook at a system at the mercy of the wealthy and the powerful. The battle of attrition that ensues forms the spine of a solidly crafted, superbly acted series.

The anti-hero of the eight-episode show created, produced, directed and co-written by Raj & DK represents that segment of the Indian population that is crushed under the weight of loans and repayments. He resorts to crime as an act of rebellion.

Scripted by the directing duo with Sita R. Menon and Suman Kumar, every episode hovers around the one-hour mark. However, thanks to a gripping storyline, the uniformly-paced series sustains its momentum within the individual chapters and across all its eight parts.

Farzi , streaming on Amazon Prime Video, isn't the sort of show that strings together action sequences and shootouts simply for mere visceral effect. It factors into the narrative an examination of the nature of need and the dynamics of greed and places it on a canvas of constantly shifting emotions and relationships.

A bromance involving two orphans who have grown up together, a grandfather-grandson relationship drama, a tale of a disintegrating marriage, a story of a cop seeking redemption, and a portrayal of a committed young professional finding her way in a set-up that doesn't sit up and take instant notice of her worth - Farzi blends several real, believable strands in a narrative that delivers thrills and poses questions.

Shahid Kapoor, in his streaming debut, is cast as Sunny, a gifted street artist who produces knockoffs of the likes of Van Gogh and rustles up five-minute portraits for a pittance. He believes he deserves better.

He also works on the staff of his grandfather's anti-establishment magazine, Kranti. The older man, interpreted wonderfully well by Amol Palekar, has had run-ins with the rulers of the land on account of his outspoken views. The seasoned rebel stands in sharp contrast to the mutinous grandson. The latter has no qualms. His dissension is both illegal and amoral.

Sunny's impatience and defiance puts him in the crosshairs of an anti-counterfeiting unit led by a tough but troubled cop, a criminal network run by a ruthless gangster who smuggles fake Indian currency into the country and a bright young security printing expert determined to contribute her mite to the nation's war on financial terrorism.

It is need that pushes Sunny into a life of crime. The publishing business has run up huge debts and is on the verge of folding up. The hero figures out that waiting for money to come his way is not an option. So, with the help of his childhood buddy Firoz (Bhuvan Arora), he generates his own counterfeit cash and bails out the magazine.

That one daring crime - it is a revolt against a system that helps the rich become richer and pushes the poor further and further into poverty - whets Sunny's appetite. He enlists the help of his grandpa's manager, the avuncular Yasir (Chittaranjan Giri), as his counterfeiting business grows.

What starts out as a plan to salvage a printing press soon turns into full-fledged operation driven by avarice and adventure. A small-time operative is sucked into a cross-border fake currency smuggling racket run from the safety of an unnamed country in the Middle-East. As the stakes rise and Sunny and Firoz begin to roll in money, the risks multiply.

A covert government operation in Kathmandu to nab counterfeiter Mansoor Dalal (Kay Kay Menon) goes awry and the target escapes. The police officer leading the charge, Michael Vednayagam (Vijay Sethupathi, in his Hindi debut and his first foray into the streaming space) is determined to live down the setback. His inner demons threaten to get in the way but he keeps going.

Michael arm-twists a cynical and corrupt minister (Zakir Hussain) to set up a new anti-counterfeiting task force under his supervision. He reassembles his Kathmandu team, which is soon joined by Megha Vyas (Raashii Khanna), A Reserve Bank of India recruit who has devised a cash-counting machine chip that can detect fake currency bills.

Mansoor Dalal's world of organised crime and Sunny's homegrown racket intersect. It takes the face-off between the law-breakers and the sleuths to another level. Somebody likens Mansoor to a poisonous snake. He is equally an aggressive mongoose. Sunny now has his hands full.

He makes a foolproof "supernote", impossible to detect. But Sunny isn't a super-criminal nor is Michael a supercop. The two are palpably flawed men grappling with emotional challenges. The criminal and the cop struggle to hold on to the people closest to them.

Childhood pal Firoz, a grandfather he looks up to and senior co-worker Yasir are key people in Sunny's life. A mother who died when he was a boy resurfaces when he and his grandpa cast their minds back to the heavenly varan bhaat that she would cook. The void in Sunny's life.

The hard-drinking, tough-as-nails Michael makes awkward efforts to regain lost ground with his estranged wife (Regina Cassandra) and his seven-year-old son. Michael wants to be a regular family man, but he is no Srikant Tiwari. His back story, which is revealed only about halfway through the series, has hard-to-erase scars.

Farzi is studded with impressive performances. The presence of Vijay Sethupathi lends the series a great deal of heft and sets the bar very high. The other actors match the naturalistic effortlessness that Sethupathi brings to the table. The only one who is allowed to be a tad flashy is Kay Kay Menon, who comes up with an act that is balanced and impactful.

Shahid Kapoor digs his teeth deep into the meaty central role and delivers a performance that is remarkable for its sustained restraint. Besides Amol Palekar, who is splendid as an embodiment of a moral compass that the protagonist must contend with as he breaks the law, Raashii Khanna, Chittaranjan Giri and Bhuvan Arora etch out characters that we would certainly love to see more of.

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The difference between a masterpiece and a mess is a single wrong stroke, Sunny's grandpa tells him. Farzi tests the aphorism on itself and lives to tell the tale with most of its bearings firmly in place - not a mean feat at all.

Farzi is a thriller packed with everything that the genre demands and then some. It is a tangled tale of transgressions that is never ever in danger of veering off course. Binge-worthy all the way.

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Farzi review: Shahid Kapoor, Vijay Sethupathi shine in this dragged narrative by Raj and DK

Updated Feb 11, 2023, 18:51 IST

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An artist who gets pulled into the murky high stakes of a con job and a fiery task force officer on the mission to rid the country of his menaces in a fast-paced, edgy one-of-a-kind thriller... Read all An artist who gets pulled into the murky high stakes of a con job and a fiery task force officer on the mission to rid the country of his menaces in a fast-paced, edgy one-of-a-kind thriller. An artist who gets pulled into the murky high stakes of a con job and a fiery task force officer on the mission to rid the country of his menaces in a fast-paced, edgy one-of-a-kind thriller.

• Shahid Kapoor
• Vijay Sethupathi
• 294 User reviews
• 19 Critic reviews
• 9 wins & 39 nominations

• Michael Vedanayagam

• Shekhar Ahlawat

• Mansoor Dalal

• Yasir Chacha

• Pawan Gahlot

• Elderly Employee @Kranti Press

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

The 50 Most Popular Indian Web Series of All Time

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• Trivia When the project was first planned it was meant to be a feature film starring Shahid Kapoor and Nawazuddin Siddique. Later on when the project became a web series Vijay Sethupathi stepped into Nawazuddin's role.

User reviews 294

• Feb 11, 2023
• How many seasons does Farzi have? Powered by Alexa
• February 10, 2023 (United States)
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

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Farzi Review: விஜய்சேதுபதியும் ஷாகித் கபூர்ம் செம மிரட்டல்.. ஃபார்ஸி வெப்சீரிஸ் எப்படி இருக்கு?

சென்னை: தி ஃபேமிலி மேன் 1 மற்றும் 2 வெப்சீரிஸை இயக்கிய இரட்டை இயக்குனர்களான ராஜ் மற்றும் டிகே இணைந்து இயக்கி உள்ள புதிய வெப்சீரிஸ் ஃபார்ஸி இன்று அமேசான் பிரைம் ஓடிடி தளத்தில் வெளியாகி உள்ளது.

மனோஜ் பாஜ்பாயி, பிரியாமணி நடித்த முதல் பாகமே ரசிகர்கள் மத்தியில் ராஜ் மற்றும் டிகேவுக்கு மிகப்பெரிய அங்கீகாரத்தை கொடுத்த நிலையில், சமந்தா நடித்த இரண்டாம் பாகம் வேறலெவல் ஹிட் அடித்தது.

இந்நிலையில், ஷாகித் கபூர், விஜய்சேதுபதி, கேகே மேனன் மற்றும் ராஷி கன்னா நடிப்பில் வெளியாகி உள்ள இந்த புதிய வெப்சீரிஸை பார்த்த ரசிகர்கள் ட்விட்டரில் பதிவிட்டுள்ள விமர்சனத்தை இங்கே பார்ப்போம்..

ஃபார்ஸி வெப்சீரிஸ் கதை

யாருமே கண்டே பிடிக்க முடியாத அளவுக்கு கள்ளத்தனமாக நோட்டுக்களை அச்சு பிசகாமல் அச்சடிக்கும் ஷாகித் கபூரை போலீஸ் அதிகாரி விஜய்சேதுபதி மற்றும் ஆர்பிஐ வங்கி அதிகாரி ராஷி கன்னா இருவரும் இணைந்து பிடித்தார்களா? இல்லையா? என்பது தான் இந்த ஃபார்ஸி வெப்சீரிஸின் கதை.

கேகே மேனன் சர்ப்ரைஸ்

ஷாகித் கபூர் மற்றும் விஜய்சேதுபதியின் நடிப்பை பார்க்க ஆசையாக வந்த ரசிகர்களுக்கு கூடுதல் சர்ப்ரைஸாக நடிகர் கேகே மேனனின் அசத்தல் பர்ஃபார்மன்ஸ் ரசிகர்களை ஆச்சர்யத்தில் ஆழ்த்தி உள்ளது. அவரோட கதாபாத்திரமும் நடிப்பும் எக்ஸ்ட்ராடினரி என ரசிகர்கள் பாராட்டி வருகின்றனர்.

விஜய்சேதுபதிக்கு விசில்

மைக்கேல் எனும் போலீஸ் அதிகாரி கதாபாத்திரத்தில் கள்ளநோட்டு அச்சடிக்கும் நாயகன் ஷாகித் கபூரை கண்டுபிடிக்கும் வேலையை பக்காவாக செய்து ஸ்கோர் செய்துள்ளார் விஜய்சேதுபதி. அவரது இந்தி டப்பிங் கச்சிதமாக பொருந்தியுள்ளது என பாலிவுட் ரசிகர்களே விஜய்சேதுபதிக்கு விசில் அடித்து வருகின்றனர். ஃபர்ஸி வெப்சீரிஸ் அமேசான் பிரைம் ஓடிடி தளத்தில் தமிழ் உள்ளிட்ட இந்திய மொழிகளில் உள்ளது குறிப்பிடத்தக்கது.

ஃபார்ஸி வெப்சீரிஸ் ரசிகர்களுக்கு பிடிக்கும் அளவுக்கு செம ஸ்பீடான த்ரில்லர் வெப் சீரிஸாகவே நகர்கிறது. நடிகர்களின் நடிப்பு, மேக்கிங், ஒளிபதிவு, ஸ்க்ரீன்பிளே அனைத்தும் பாசிட்டிவாக உள்ளது. அதே சமயம் நெகட்டிவ் என்று பார்த்தால் சில எபிசோடுகள் லேக் அடிக்கிறது. 3 மணி நேரத்தில் முடிக்க வேண்டிய கதையை 8 எபிசோடுகளுக்கு நீட்டி முழக்கி உள்ளனர் என இந்த நெட்டிசன் விமர்சித்துள்ளார்.

மாஸ்டர்பீஸ்

இப்போதான் ஃபார்ஸி வெப்சீரிஸ் பார்த்து முடிச்சேன். என்னவொரு மாஸ்டர் பீஸ். ஒரு செகண்ட் கூட போர் அடிக்கல.. ஷாகித் கபூர், விஜய்சேதுபதி, ராஷி கன்னா மற்றும் கேகே மேனன் என அனைவரும் அசத்திட்டாங்க. மறுபடியும் இயக்குநர்கள் ராஜ் மற்றும் டிகே வெப்சீரிஸ் கிங் என நிரூபிச்சிட்டாங்க என இந்த நெட்டிசன் பாராட்டி உள்ளார்.

பிரேக்கிங் பேட் காப்பி

ஃபார்ஸி வெப்சீரிஸுக்கு பாசிட்டிவ் விமர்சனங்கள் கிடைத்து வரும் நிலையில், இந்த வெப்சீரிஸ் நெட்பிளிக்ஸின் பிரபலமான பிரேக்கிங் பேட் உடையை சீப் காப்பி என இந்த நெட்டிசன் கடுமையாக விமர்சித்துள்ளார். ஃபார்ஸி வெப்சீரிஸின் நீளத்தை குறைத்திருந்தால் நல்லா இருந்திருக்கும் என்பதே பல ரசிகர்களின் கருத்தாக உள்ளது. அதே சமயம் நடிகர்களின் நடிப்பை ஏகப்பட்ட பேர் பாராட்டி வருகின்றனர்.

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Amala paul: கொஞ்சம் கூட மனிதாபமே இல்ல.. அமலாபால் மீது மேக்கப் கலைஞர் குற்றச்சாட்டு!

அடேங்கப்பா.. 500 கோடி வசூலை கடந்த கல்கி.. 4 நாளில் பாக்ஸ் ஆபிஸை நாக் அவுட் செய்த பிரபாஸ்!

ஜெயிலர் பாணியை கையில் எடுத்திருக்கும் நெல்சன் திலீப்குமார்?.. கவினுக்கு ஒர்க் அவுட் ஆகுமா?

சர்வதேச யோகா தினம்.. மனைவியையும் பாப்பாவையும் தூக்கி வச்சு யோகா பண்ணும் துணிவு வில்லன்!

காஜல் அகர்வால் மகன் எப்படி வளர்ந்துட்டாருன்னு பாருங்க.. குடும்பத்துடன் பிறந்தநாள் கொண்டாட்டம்!

கவின் படம் முதல் கண்ணப்பா வரை.. தென்னிந்தியாவை கலக்கும் யங் ஹீரோயின்.. யாரு இந்த ப்ரீத்தி முகுந்தன்?

பிக் பாஸ் டைட்டில் வின்னர் பிந்து மாதவிக்கு இத்தனை வயசு ஆகுதா?.. ட்விட்டர் டிரெண்டிங் தெறிக்குது!

மணப்பெண் தோழியாக மாறிய கீர்த்தி சுரேஷ்.. உங்களுக்கு எப்போ கல்யாணம் என கேட்கும் ஃபேன்ஸ்!

ஐஸ்வர்யா அர்ஜுன் திருமண போட்டோக்கள் வந்துடுச்சு.. மணமக்கள் எப்படி இருக்காங்க பாருங்க!

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Farzi review: No Family Man, but slow-paced thriller keeps you hooked

The Family Man directors Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK’s second major outing on OTT, Farzi (meaning fake), which is an immersive dive into the murky world of counterfeit money, keeps you hooked despite the flaws.

This thriller series, streaming on Amazon Prime Video from Friday (February 10), is a slow burner, as the pace takes time to pick up. What’s interesting, however, is that after you are dunked into this giddy whirlpool of fake currency, you can emerge at the end of the ride doubting the authenticity of the ₹500 note sitting snugly in your wallet.

That’s because the creators of the show go into a lot of detail explaining the intricate process of how fake bills are crafted (from the special kind of paper used to make a fake ₹500 note to copying the Gandhi portrait, the design and watermarks of which require an artist’s touch) to how the bills are printed in foreign countries in big presses, smuggled into India and stealthily distributed in the market with none the wiser.

As one critical character in Farzi says at the outset: “It is a faceless crime and that’s why nobody takes it seriously”. Well, if Raj and DK had released this series before demonetisation, the Narendra Modi government may have just embraced the series and given their blessing.

Besides this telling expose on the operations of the counterfeit money network in India, the eight-episode series (each episode is nearly 50 minutes to one hour long) also takes its time to become an edgy thriller because it tends to laboriously draw up the environment inhabited by the key characters – Sunny (Shahid Kapoor), a talented roadside artist, and his close buddy, Firoz (Bhuvan Arora). Through flashbacks, we learn life has dealt a cruel hand to Sunny from his childhood. He nurses a wound that refuses to heal, while his close buddy Firoz, who he had befriended in a railway station as a child, allows himself to be led down any torturous path that Sunny chooses.

There’s a grandfather (Amol Palekar) who Sunny loves and he will do anything to prevent his old man’s printing press from closing down. The press prints the ‘Kranti’ magazine, which aims to revolutionise the country, but which in reality has no buyers. Sunny has a rich girlfriend who shies away from being seen with him in public. Well, because he is poor. All this pent-up frustration is enough to push him to manufacturing counterfeit cash.

Also read: ‘Magic of cinema happens without planning’: ‘Pathaan’ writer Sridhar Raghavan

Farzi is set in the aftermath of the demonetisation of November 2016, when the Mahatma Gandhi bill series was launched with brand new security features. Even as Firoz and Sunny are busy successfully designing their fake bills down to the minutiae micro lettering in Gandhiji’s collar, there’s super cop Michael Vedanayagam (Vijay Sethupathi), in hot pursuit of big-time counterfeiter Mansoor Dalal (Kay Kay Menon). Michael’s operation to nab Mansoor in Nepal fails, but that just spurs him to start a special unit to stop counterfeit money.

Michael manages to convince the minister (played by Zakir Hussain) to allow him to set up his own special task force. And, how he does this comes across as cringey and over-the-top. But, each time, he twists the minister’s arms to get what he wants for the special task force. Unfortunately, their interactions are not funny, if it is meant to be. As Sunny gets sucked into making counterfeit money for different clients, coming to be known in this parallel dubious world as ‘The Artist’, he gets hired by Kingpin Mansoor.

Meanwhile, there’s Megha Vyas (Rashii Khanna), working in the RBI, who has a morbid fascination for fake currency. She convinces Michael to take her into his team and the enterprising woman storms into printing presses, after by accident she gets hold of one counterfeit note created by Sunny. She’s convinced it’s a matter of time before counterfeiters are nabbed because they cannot resist showing off and end up putting their personal signature on fake bills.

There’s a personal angle which plays out in The Family Man that is so much in sync with the tumultuous life of intelligence officer, Srikant Tiwari (Manoj Bajpayee), as he races around to save the country from terrorists. That is so intrinsic to the success of The Family Man , as much as the droll humour.

That’s frankly missing here. We do have Michael in Farzi grappling with a drinking problem (because of some past failure in his job) and trying to save his marriage and steal time with his little son. But, somehow, one is not invested enough in his personal life, as we were with Tiwari’s. Maybe, we don’t know enough of his dynamics with his wife Rekha (Regina Cassandra). She just wades in and out in the series, anxiously asking for a divorce, prompting Michael to ask, ‘why are you so keen on the divorce?’ We want to know too.

Also read: ‘Thankam’ review: A peep into Kerala’s shimmering gold trade

The series has been written by Raj and DK, along with their longtime writing associate, a former journalist, Sita Menon, and Suman Kumar. Sometimes, the dialogues fall flat, sample this: “After prostitution, counterfeiting is the second oldest profession, so why the shame?” Or, this one, “If you have a secretary who can answer the phone in English, no one will question your money source” (Tell that to the ED!). Sunny’s backstory of his childhood also fails to evoke any sympathy and even appears jarring at some level.

On the acting front, Shahid Kapoor in his OTT debut keeps it effortless and on an even keel. It is not his fault if his character leaves you cold, and you don’t feel for this guy (although no one is the good guy here, as Michael too acts shady at times). Bhuvan Arora is brilliant as the perfect foil to Sunny and seems like another Vicky Kaushal in the making. A stellar actor like Vijay Sethupathi manages to hold his own and covers up his awkwardness with Hindi by slipping into Tamil during intense emotional scenes with his wife and son. That’s the best part of this series that DK and Raj manage to carry off with aplomb – the multi-regional flavour.

The cinematography by Pankaj Kumar is stunning, especially the top shot of tons of money streaming from the trunk of a fast-moving vehicle being chased by the police. The background score is effective, the number ‘Sab Farzi’ especially is peppy.

Kay Kay Menon as the antagonist fumbles along and seems reduced to a caricature. It does not help that Kubra Sait walks in, threatening him about the mysterious ‘high command’s’ displeasure with the way he is handling the multi-crore counterfeit business. Rashii Khanna plays her role with the right amount of conviction. Also, do watch out for characters from The Family Man – here comes the DKR universe now!

The final episode is the best as Sunny is now pitted against Michael and the chase gets edgy (if only there were more scenes of them together, they hardly share screen space). Some needless violence in the end (they did that too in The Family Man 2 ) and the series ends in a way that teases a Farzi 2 .

Farzi is the big Bollywood release on OTT this weekend, with the carrot at the end of the stick, being the face-off between Shahid Kapoor and Vijay Sethupathi. But, that does not happen in a big way and the series is let down by the lack of a strong plot but to give them their due, the most sought after director/writer duo, DK and Raj manage to get the momentum of the series going whenever it starts to sag. Maybe, with a romance thrown in.

Farzi does not create the same magic that The Family Man did. But, did you know that Wesley Weber, Art Williams and Stephen Jory were world-renowned counterfeiters, who convincingly made copies of their country’s currencies? They all got caught, as the Rashii Khanna character in Farzi tell us. Also, Bollywood has been making movies based on the theme of counterfeit money since the 60s. The movie is the Dev Anand-Madhubala starrer, Jaali Note (Fake note) based on a zealous cop on the trail of counterfeiters!

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Farzi Review: Why’s this not a movie?

Updated on: 13 February,2023 10:57 PM IST  |  mumbai Mayank Shekhar | [email protected]

• Text  

Farzi is Shahid’s debut on an OTT platform, with a caper, that’s so dramatically different from, say, his Badmaash Company (2010)

On: Amazon Prime Video

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Director: Raj & DK

Actors: shahid kapoor, vijay sethupathi, rating: 3/5.

I don’t know where the term ‘chocolate boy’ for a romantic hero comes from. Given that all desi boys, like girls, are born various shades of chocolate.  That said, with age, the ideal aim for the male-lead in mainstream Bollywood is to shed that look/image, and go full-macho, if you may. For, how long can you be the lover-boy anyway? 

As you can tell with Shah Rukh Khan on the big screen (Pathaan). Likewise, Shahid Kapoor , the star most inspired by SRK. Farzi is Shahid’s debut on an OTT platform, with a caper, that’s so dramatically different from, say, his Badmaash Company (2010). He’s the brooding, muscled, quiet swindler, with a Midas touch, when it comes to reproducing paintings. Where can this talent be put to best use? Apparently, in counterfeiting currency notes. 

Also, what is it about such an artist that makes them separate from others? As we learn—the fact that they must attain the opposite of success; absolute anonymity, instead of fame! 

Perhaps because of how Shahid’s role is written, or how he’s generally on screen—while he’s doing all the wrong things, we root for him all through. His character, surprisingly, feels less and less guilt, while wading deeper and deeper into the life of international crime: “Laalach shauq ko zaroorat mein badal deti hai (greed turns luxuries into necessities.”

Who’s this fellow, though? There’s a strange upbringing involved—maybe a reason he goes from suave city-slicker in one scene, swiftly into a ‘sadak chhaap’ in another. An orphan, really, he was kinda raised by his grandfather, who’s a fiery krantikari (revolutionary), for a newspaper publisher-editor, by night.  I don’t see a newsroom anywhere, only a printing press. During the day, the old man is an artist. Amol Palekar, the great Indian middleclass hero from the ’70s, plays this part. 

In life, the gentle Palekar is a full-time painter. Which makes this casting choice as inspired as the one for Tamil superstar Vijay Sethupathi, as super-cop Michael, looking so worn out, overworked.

Can’t recall the last time an actor worked such charm and swag with a ‘dad-bod’—a cool term for paunch, coined by dads, who else? It’s all the more cool to watch South-North cross-pollinations: Regina Cassandra (playing Sethupathi’s wife), like Priyamani, or Samantha Prabhu, for that matter, in The Family Man.  The only obvious actor in the principal cast is Kay Kay, softly killing it, as the main villain, Mansoor. What else sets master-directors Raj & DK apart, usually? Besides thoughtful casting moves? Lots of R&D (research and development). 

It shows in Farzi, as the camera moves between locations, cities, settings, timelines, tapping into men and women, with multiple motivations. The opening shot of the lead, literally caught in the dark, loops in with the fourth episode, when we learn the where, and the how.  By this point, the thought on my mind was: Why is this a series? And not a film, for crying out loud? It’s got three top-class leads in place, representing the full spectrum of shades—white (Vijay), grey (Shahid), black (Kay Kay): “Nobody is indispensable. Our needs change; or people do!” Possibly stuck between is the female protagonist ( Raashii Khanna.)

The main plot is tight as hell. The dialogues (Hussain Dalal), as quoted above, are sharp. Yet, we proceed further, with everything progressively feeling looser and looser. As if eight episodes, of almost an hour each, was a goal to reach—even if it meant over-explanations, and long, lingering scenes, to fill up the emptiness within. 

Addictive cliffhangers don’t deliver you from an episode to another. Farzi is not exactly your Friday-night mad binge. I’ve a feeling, junkies, who’re comfortable consuming content at faster speeds, might simply press an x2, x1.5. I just can’t. 

Before pressing on this show, the first thing I wished to check out instead is if this Amazon Prime Video series is, in fact, inspired by A Man of Action, a Netflix original (film)

Well, there’s the sorta backdrop of how the rich have devised a system of lending to the poor, and living off interest, forever—and that the only way to break that system is through kranti (revolution); anarchism?

Equally the anti-hero’s journey, with a clinical process, patiently surveyed, over split screens and smart jargon, to make the intricacies of his fraud, interesting—so Breaking Bad, no? 

Yes, and no. Because that’s like saying, Raj & DK’s The Family Man was so True Lies! No. This is not a farzi (fake/copycat) show. If anything, it is in more The Family Man itself, going by Sethupathi’s Michael, and that he’s actually friends with Srikant Tiwari (Manoj Bajpayee), even the top-informer Chellam Sir. 

Between the two spy thriller universes, crossing over, and moving ahead, you’d think Raj & DK have twin retirement plans in place, already. Of course, I’m kidding. This is a lotta work. It shows, and for the most part, the show’s well-worth it too. 

Also Read: Exclusive! Farzi creators Raj & DK: ‘A lot of research went into printing fake currency notes’

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Farzi: First Look of Vijay Sethupathi, Shahid Kapoor

Published date : 29/apr/2022.

Farzi is an upcoming OTT series on Amazon Prime Video which marks the digital debut of Bollywood actor Shahid Kapoor. Vijay Sethupathi who made his OTT debut with Netflix anthology Navarasa in 2021, plays a fiery task force officer in this thriller and the first look of these actors were unveiled recently by the streaming platform.

Directed by Raj and DK who already have one of Amazon Prime Video's most popular series The Family Man to their credit, Farzi will see Shahid play an artist who gets pulled into the murky high stakes of a con job. It also stars Raashi Khanna, Regina Cassandra, Kay Kay Menon, Zakir Hussain, Bhuvan Arora, Amol Palekar and Kubbra Sait among others.

The series is written by Raj and DK, Suman Kumar, Sita R Menon and is produced by D2 R Films. Hussain Dalal and Raghav Dutt have penned the dialogues for Farzi .

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Farzi [Season 1]

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Which Tamil actor can pull off Shahid's role in Farzi webseries?

Basically the title. I finished watching farzi recently, which is 8 hrs worth of content but time flew by really quick. It's that good despite some plot armour which didn't bother my overall experience that much. This is my first time watching Shahid and he played his role amazingly for the most part.

So since VJS played a role as a Tamil cop, I was wondering which Tamil actor could've pulled off Shahid's role had this been made in Tamil?

Ungal thernthedupugal enna?

Vijay Sethupathi Talks ‘Maharaja’ Magic, Fatherhood and Cross-Industry Leap: ‘Life Is a Beautiful Script’ (EXCLUSIVE)

By Naman Ramachandran

Naman Ramachandran

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From accountant to acting powerhouse, Indian actor Vijay Sethupathi ‘s 50-film journey has been anything but ordinary.

The actor’s 50th film, the Tamil-language “ Maharaja ,” written and directed by Nithilan Saminathan (“Kurangu Bommai”), is an action-packed saga that blends thriller elements with family drama and has a father-daughter relationship at its core. It has emerged as one of the biggest Tamil hits of the year.

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Beginning his professional life as an accountant, Sethupathi yearned to be an actor and initially joined a theater company where the only vacancy was for – an accountant. “I thought if I join as an accountant, I can watch the actors every day. I can be with them. I can talk to them. I can understand what acting is,” Sethupathi explained. “Everything was my lessons. Even lunchtime was a class for me. Being with actors was always a class.”

Since then, Sethupathi’s journey to this milestone film has been marked by a string of critically acclaimed performances in Tamil cinema. His breakout role in 2012 title “Pizza” established him as a talent to watch, while films like “Vikram Vedha” (2017), “96” (2018), and “Super Deluxe” (2019) cemented his reputation as one of the most versatile actors in the industry. Known for his ability to disappear into diverse characters, Sethupathi has become a mainstay in both commercial and arthouse cinema.

“Maharaja” has been selected as the closing night feature at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles ( IFFLA ), one of the oldest Indian-themed film festivals in the world. For Sethupathi, it’s another full-circle moment – he previously visited L.A. for the prosthetics makeup work done for 2018 film “Seethakaathi.” “That was my 25th film. Now I am going again to LA for my 50th film, at a festival,” Sethupathi said. “Life is a beautiful script, my life has so many connections.”

Another connection was filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, who plays the antagonist in “Maharaja.” Their connection began in 2016 when they were set to work on a project that didn’t materialize. In 2018, Kashyap played the antagonist in “Imaikkaa Nodigal” in which Sethupathi had an extended cameo, but they didn’t have any scenes together. Years later, Kashyap asked Sethupathi to watch his directing effort “Kennedy” and provide feedback. “I saw the film and told him whatever I felt, my opinions about the film, and he liked it,” Sethupathi recalled. “Then he put a ‘Special Thanks’ for me in the film when it was screened at Cannes. That was surprising.”

With recent forays into Hindi cinema with films like “Jawan” and “Merry Christmas,” plus the hit Prime Video series “Farzi,” Sethupathi has now become a pan-Indian phenomenon. “I have to read the dialogues 100-200 times to get the flow,” he said of working in Hindi. He has since incorporated that methodology into his Tamil work as well. He’s open to more Hindi projects, and his approach to selecting projects remains consistent across industries: “It depends on the script. I’ve been listening to stories from Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada. I’m just waiting for good scripts.”

Next up for Sethupathi are Vetrimaaran’s “Viduthalai Part 2,” a Disney+ Hotstar series where he reunites with his “Aandavan Kattalai” and “Kadaisi Vivasayi” director M. Manikandan, and Mysskin’s “Train.”

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