Farzi
Where to watch: Prime Video
Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Vijay Sethupathi, KK Menon, Rashi Khanna, Bhuvan Arora, Amol Palekar
Ratings: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Synopsis
An artist lands into the world of counterfeiting when he creates the perfect fake currency note, while Michael, a fiery task force officer wants to rid the country of the counterfeiting menace. What follows is a cat-and-mouse race in the edgy crime thriller.
Review
Raj and DK are popular names when it comes to OTT. They have given two amazing seasons of ‘Family Man’ and it is also possible that the third season of the popular series may come back with a bang soon. It is said that the duo had offered Shahid Kapoor a crime drama film some nine years ago, but things couldn’t turn into reality then, and ultimately reached the stage where it was stretched to the point of making it into a web series. Now available on Prime Video in the form of ‘Farzi’, the series consists of eight episodes of about an hour each.
‘Farzi’ sees an expansion of the universe of patriots created by Raj and DK. It seems like the series is made for Shahid Kapoor, and right from the beginning, he is playing this character keeping in mind that he is Shahid Kapoor. Barring one or two emotional scenes, Kapoor’s swag gives his character Sunny a lot of leeway to flaunt in this series.
Shahid Kapoor regained his charisma on the big screen with the film ‘Kabir Singh’. Then three years later, he lost it in the film ‘Jersey’. The creators of ‘Farzi’, Raj and DK, have tried to cash in on Shahid’s charisma from ‘Kabir Singh’ in the newly released web series.
However, after finishing the series, it feels that Raj and DK have repeated themselves by crafting a cocktail of the story of the counterfeit currency business in contemporary politics. And, because of this, ‘Farzi’ is neither able to serve anything different through Shahid Kapoor’s performance nor does it expand the aura of Raj and DK as creators. The series feels ineffective at the level of story, screenplay, and dialogue, and all the focus is on Shahid Kapoor, expecting him to take everything on his shoulders.
Interestingly, it is Vijay Sethupathi who shines here. His Hindi spoken with a South Indian accent is amazing. Although the series does not show a direct confrontation between Shahid and Vijay, but Raj and DK have tried to surprise the audience.
Among the actors who have done excellent work in the web series, Kay Kay Menon is at the top. Presenting human nature through his facial expressions has been included in his charisma since the beginning. He is getting a lot of opportunities to show his acting range on OTT and he is making the best out of it. The presence of Amol Palekar is there to enhance the story expansion and he also gives his full contribution to it. Rashi Khanna’s character is well crafted. With the web series ‘Rudra’ she has moved a step ahead here. The kind of curiosity Rashi Khanna creates through her character is worth noting. There is a different kind of natural charm in her acting, and it is this charm that makes her one of the best actors in OTT. And, the one actor who has impressed everyone with his performance in ‘Farzi’ is Bhuvan Arora. Whenever he is away from the story, the audience starts missing him and that is the biggest victory of an actor.
The dialogues of ‘Farzi’ can be researched separately in the name of the screenplay. The creative team of Prime Video should also explore if all these are equally important in a series made in Hindi. When there was so much knowledge to be imparted on the business of counterfeit notes, then could only releasing it with an adult badge increase the number of views?
Verdict
Raj and DK experimented a lot on the big screen with films like ‘Go Goa Gone’, ‘Happy Ending’, and ‘A Gentleman’ but things didn’t work there because they got overconfident. Even in the web series ‘Farzi’, both are seen repeating the same mistake again. Here, they show the story less and tell it more. Cinema is a medium of presentation. It is the biggest responsibility of the director to save it from becoming a radio drama. The problem here is that there is nothing real in the web series ‘Farzi’ (no pun intended) which only tries to shine on Shahid Kapoor and Vijay Sethupathi’s names. Everything is what the audience has already seen in Shahid Kapoor’s movies and Raj, DK’s series.