The director duo Raj & Dk have directed some good films in Bollywood like Shor in the City, Go Goa Gone, 99 and A Gentleman. They have directed 2 Seasons of The Family Man for Amazon Prime and it received immense praise from audience and critics. After watching Farzi, I am a little bit disappointed. After watching The Family Man I had high expectations from Farzi, and was expecting Classic level stuff but Farzi turned out to be a decent affair. Raj & Dk have already directed films in the crime genre and this is the genre which they love and really know very well. The main problem about the web series is that you have to watch the same topic continuously for 8 hours and whereas a film is only 2-3 hours long. When I can watch 3-4 films in 8 hours, then why should I waste my time watching a web series which only offers me a single thing whereas 3-4 films offers me 3 to 4 different contents. I would have loved if Farzi would have been a feature film with a fast paced narrative.
Farzi is about Sunny (Shahid Kapoor), an artist disillusioned by the income inequality in India after failing to keep his grandfather’s revolutionary printing press in business. He decides to team with his best friend Firoz (Bhuvan Arora) to make counterfeit money. They face challenges from a gangster named Mansoor (Kay Kay Menon) and a cop named Michael (Vijay Sethupathi).
The biggest drawback about Farzi is that it’s too slow and predictable, but the earnest performances from Shahid Kapoor & Vijay Sethupathi steal the show. Some of the dialogues are hard-hitting and the middle class will relate to it. Like Shahid Kapoor says, ‘Hum Middle Class nahi Middle Finger Class hai.’ The Family Man had left the audience on toes and had enough thrills for the audience despite being a long series, this thing is definitely missing in Farzi. In the first place, Farzi didn’t deserve to be a series as a thriller should have interesting scenes, sharp writing, fast paced moments, but Farzi lacks them all. The writing and screenplay did wonders for both the seasons of The Family Man and here in Farzi the story didn’t have scope for an 8 hour long show.
Audiences have seen many web series in the last 5 years and now many things seem to be damn repetitive. And after knowing that Raj & Dk are the directors, our expectations already rise and this isn’t the fault of the directors.
The best thing about Farzi is Shahid Kapoor and Vijay Sethupathi. We would have loved to see the face-off of Shahid and Vijay Sethupathi and expected that both of them share screen-space for a longer time, but here in Farzi these two appear together on the screen for hardly 3 mins (obviously the script demanded so). It feels sad to see 2 Fabulous Actors involved in a project getting no screen-space.
We have seen Shahid Kapoor playing a con man in Badmaash Company and in Farzi he has definitely done better. He has emerged better as an actor. The way he talks, the way he dresses everything is amazing. He is gonna steal your heart by his performance. The Hindi accent doesn’t suit Vijay Sethupathi well, but who cares when getting a glimpse of Makkal Selvan is more than enough. Vijay Sethupathi is an emerging Legend and whatever he does is pure class and Farzi is no different. Watching Kay Kay Menon on-screen is always a treat to your eyes. Whatever characters Kay Kay Menon performs he nails it with so much ease that you can’t take your eyes off him. The way he delivers those dialogues is really praiseworthy. You will really love the funky look of Kay Kay Menon. Raashi Khanna has also done a fabulous job as Megha and I hope we get to see more of her after Farzi. Bhuvan Arora is the surprise package of Farzi, his portrayal as Shahid’s friend Firoz is going to be remembered. What The Family Man did for Sharib Hashmi (JK), Farzi does for Bhuvan Arora. Zakir Hussain as a minister is just amazing. It was a tailor made role for him. Watching Amol Palekar on-screen after years feels amazing. He nails his role as a grandfather. Have loved Chhitaranjan Giri in the Marathi film Lathe Joshi and here he plays the role of Shahid’s uncle and excels in his part. Regina Cassandra plays Vijay Sethupathi’s wife and has done a good job but would have wished to see more of her as I loved her in Telugu film Evaru. Rest of the cast is fine.
We all know that Money is not God, But it’s no less than God either – Farzi again proves this. Farzi is the same old story about a middle class guy dreaming of becoming rich by indulging into illegal means. I loved the detailing part of the notes in Farzi. Farzi would have been slightly better if there would have been a trimming of 10-15 minutes in each and every episode. Each episode of Farzi is 1 hour long (except 1 episode), and idle time for an episode is 45 mins. A slight trimming would have made this series more crisp. Nowadays, using abusive words in web series is very common. I don’t get the point in using cuss words unnecessarily just for the sake to please the audience. We have seen Shahid abusing in Udta Punjab and Kabir Singh and even here you won’t feel something new. We have seen Kay Kay Menon and Zakir Hussain abusing on-screen many times and Farzi is another addition in the list. Watch out for Vijay Sethupathi when he uses slang.
The best thing about Farzi is Performances by all the artists. Watch Farzi for Shahid Kapoor and Vijay Sethupathi and all the fantastic artists out there who have acted in this series. Farzi is a decent one time watch if you love to watch con dramas. There’s also a surprise for the fans of The Family Man. And we would love to see Michael (Vijay Sethupathi) and Srikant Tiwari (Manoj Bajpayee) on a mission together. We would love to see Raj & DK creating an universe of their own. The story doesn’t end here in Season 1 and let’s see what does Raj & DK have in store for us in the next season.
Rating – 3/5*
