Review: Farzi (Web Series)

Indian web series aren't new to us. Recently, multi-starrer web series, that too combination of performers from North-South film industries is on the raise. Farzi falls into the same category, with Makkal Selvan Vijay Sethupathi foraying into web series along with Bollywood's heartthrob Shahid Kapoor.

Farzi (meaning Fake), is an Indian crime thriller web series, from the creators of Family Man series - Raj and DK. It is released in Amazon Prime on 10th Feb 2023, in multiple Indian languages (Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada). Raj and DK have directed and cowritten this series with Sita Menon and Suman Kumar. Apart from Vijay Sethupathi and Shahid Kapoor, the star cast includes Bhuvan Arora, Kay Kay Menon, Raashii Khanna, Zakir Hussain, Amol Palekar, Regina Cassandra etc.

Michael Vedanayagam (Vijay Sethupathi) is a fierce task force officer, on a mission to eradicate counterfeit currency mafia in India. He is on look for the Indian counterfeit network head Mansoor Dalal (Kay Kay Menon), operating out of Jordan. Michael forms a Counterfeiting and Currency Fraud Analysis and Research Team as part of his mission. Megha (Raashii Khanna), a sincere RBI officer, who has designed a software Dhanrakshak to recognize fake currency, joins Michael team. 

Sunny (Shahid Kapoor) is a highly talented small time artist, who creates and sells fakes of world famous paintings, along with his original paintings, for living. He and his friend Firoz (Bhuvan Arora) land up creating a perfect replica of 500 rupee note. They start printing and marketing counterfeit notes in small size in his grand father's printing press. Eventually, they end up collaborating with Mansoor Dalal for printing 2000 rupee notes as part of an unimaginably huge deal. That's when Michael knows about Sunny and the real cat and mouse race begins!!  

Did Sunny succeed in his illegal business? Or Did Michael achieve his mission? Watch the series to know what happened. 

I know, by now you will be wondering there is nothing new in the story line. In fact, we could guess the story from the trailer itself. Generally, the end of every episode in a web series is designed to generate an urge in the audience to watch the next episode. But surprisingly, this isn't the case with Farzi and most of the time we could guess what happens next, except for an unexpected love story. 

Raj and DK have turned an usual story interesting, with powerful characters, performances, locations,  and many sub plots - Sunny's childhood, his aged grandfather unable to recover his printing press from debts and battling health issues, Sunny's love story with an ultra modern rich girl and his struggles to make it big in life, Megha's personal life, Michael's strained married life where his wife Rekha Rao (Regina Cassandra) files for divorce, Michael's professional background and how he ended up in task force and as an alcohol addict, etc. make up for the whole story. These many sub plots, also made the series too lengthy and dragging at times. 

Apart from the story and script, the characterization and performances by everyone is remarkable. Raj and DK have taken every measure to ensure each character has its importance and stands out well, whether it is Sunny's girl friend or right hand of Mansoor Dalal or Yasir chacha supporting Sunny and Firoz in need & advising them against their illegal activity when they go overboard or the person from whom Sunny buys the ship for smuggling counterfeit notes, everyone had a prominent role to play.    

Shahid has put up a terrific show with his acting skills. We have seen him evolve from his chocolate boy image to a powerful performer, who can deliver roles with gray shades too with similar ease. But for me Vijay Sethupathi is the show stealer with his spectacular acting, comedy timing and his dialogue delivery. I began watching the series in Tamil, but within 5 minutes I switched over to the Hindi version, as I couldn't quite connect with the Tamil dubbing of Shahid (as I am used to his voice). Glad I made that decision. It was a pleasure watching and listening to Vijay Sethupathi talk in Hindi in his own voice. He was so effortless and sounded very familiar. 

On the whole, Farzi is Old Wine in a New Bottle, with brand new labelling and packaging. You should watch it, not for its plot, but for its characterizations and performances.

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