Farzi Review: Why’s this not a movie?

FarziOn Amazon Prime VideoDirector Raj amp DKActors Shahid Kapoor Vijay SethupathiRating 35I donrsquot know where the term lsquochocolate boyrsquo for a romantic hero comes from Given that all desi boys like girls are born various shades of chocolateThat said with age the ideal aim for the malelead in mainstream Bollywood is to shed that lookimage and go fullmacho if you may For how long can you be the loverboy anywayAs you can tell with Shah Rukh Khan on the big screen Pathaan Likewise Shahid Kapoor the star most inspired by SRK Farzi is Shahidrsquos debut on an OTT platform with a caper thatrsquos so dramatically different from say his Badmaash Company 2010Hersquos 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 notesAlso what is it about such an artist that makes them separate from others As we learnmdashthe fact that they must attain the opposite of success absolute anonymity instead of famePerhaps because of how Shahidrsquos role is written or how hersquos generally on screenmdashwhile hersquos 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 ldquoLaalach shauq ko zaroorat mein badal deti hai greed turns luxuries into necessitiesrdquoWhorsquos this fellow though Therersquos a strange upbringing involvedmdashmaybe a reason he goes from suave cityslicker in one scene swiftly into a lsquosadak chhaaprsquo in another An orphan really he was kinda raised by his grandfather whorsquos a fiery krantikari revolutionary for a newspaper publishereditor by nightI donrsquot 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 rsquo70s plays this partIn life the gentle Palekar is a fulltime painter Which makes this casting choice as inspired as the one for Tamil superstar Vijay Sethupathi as supercop Michael looking so worn out overworkedCanrsquot recall the last time an actor worked such charm and swag with a lsquodadbodrsquomdasha cool term for paunch coined by dads who else Itrsquos all the more cool to watch SouthNorth crosspollinations Regina Cassandra playing Sethupathirsquos wife like Priyamani or Samantha Prabhu for that matter in The Family ManThe only obvious actor in the principal cast is Kay Kay softly killing it as the main villain Mansoor What else sets masterdirectors Raj amp DK apart usually Besides thoughtful casting moves Lots of RampD research and developmentIt 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 howBy this point the thought on my mind was Why is this a series And not a film for crying out loud Itrsquos got three topclass leads in place representing the full spectrum of shadesmdashwhite Vijay grey Shahid black Kay Kay ldquoNobody is indispensable Our needs change or people dordquo Possibly stuck between is the female protagonist Raashii KhannaThe 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 reachmdasheven if it meant overexplanations and long lingering scenes to fill up the emptiness withinAddictive cliffhangers donrsquot deliver you from an episode to another Farzi is not exactly your Fridaynight mad binge Irsquove a feeling junkies whorsquore comfortable consuming content at faster speeds might simply press an x2 x15 I just canrsquotBefore 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 filmWell therersquos the sorta backdrop of how the rich have devised a system of lending to the poor and living off interest forevermdashand that the only way to break that system is through kranti revolution anarchismEqually the antiherorsquos journey with a clinical process patiently surveyed over split screens and smart jargon to make the intricacies of his fraud interestingmdashso Breaking Bad noYes and no Because thatrsquos like saying Raj amp DKrsquos The Family Man was so True Lies No This is not a farzi fakecopycat show If anything it is in more The Family Man itself going by Sethupathirsquos Michael and that hersquos actually friends with Srikant Tiwari Manoj Bajpayee even the topinformer Chellam SirBetween the two spy thriller universes crossing over and moving ahead yoursquod think Raj amp DK have twin retirement plans in place already Of course Irsquom kidding This is a lotta work It shows and for the most part the showrsquos wellworth it tooAlso ReadExclusive Farzi creators Raj amp DK lsquoA lot of research went into printing fake currency notesrsquo