Sandeep and Firoz have been blood brothers since as long as they can remember. “Farzi” writers Raj, DK, Suman Kumar, and Sita Menon portray a story of middle-class men trying to achieve something with their hard work and sheer brains without resorting to strength. Sunny and Firoz are examples of men who were cornered until they could break. They broke and how. The story speaks of men like Sunny and Firoz who are struggling to earn enough money to meet their basic needs, which are food, clothes, and shelter; Sunny and Firoz have come from harsh backgrounds since their childhood. The writers leave no stone unturned in making the viewers realize that both have certain aspirations in life. Sunny aims to be a world-famous painter but is stuck being a sketch artist, bargaining with people who want to buy his work. Firoz, on the other hand, follows Sunny everywhere he goes. He does not work but does have a special talent for making the printing press run to perfection. Both are very alike and, at the same time, different at times. Their lives have been a struggle, and they crave to get away from it all.
Sunny was abandoned by his father on a train at a young age. He struggles, survives by painting on the railway platform, and earns money from it. Firoz became his friend during Sunny’s time at the station, and they have not looked back since. Firoz was the go-getter growing up, and Sunny was the talented one. Sunny was raised by his grandfather, Nanaji, who eventually picked him up from the railway station; Sunny made sure Firoz came along with him, and his Nanaji obliged. Sunny and Firoz helped Nanaji run his daily newspaper, Kranti Patrika. Since Nanaji was a freedom fighter, he wanted to spread the message of revolution. The irony of this thought process remains that Sunny picked up designing and printing counterfeit notes and revolutionized the fake money industry in such a manner that it was hard for the machine designed by Megha and her team to detect the fake currency notes. Sunny and Firoz’s need to make more money than their current jobs are providing stems from the fact that Sunny believes his art is not being appreciated, at least in this life. He knows one must be supremely talented and rich to be recognized for their gift. Sunny doesn’t have the latter, so he is waiting for his destiny to change but knows that his middle-class existence is the bane of his life so far. Even though his grandfather has not lost hope in the press and the newspapers, Sunny knows their lives are sinking, and they can barely make ends meet.
Sunny is triggered to do something dramatically different for himself, Nanaji, and Firoz. He is also egged on by the fact that his girlfriend never took him seriously because he is not financially loaded. He is angry at himself and the circumstances he is in. It can be called a male chauvinistic thing, but Sunny makes it a point to change his life from here on. Sunny describes wanting to have a proper meal while growing up, but Nanaji’s dwindling press and newspaper business made sure they stuck to eating buns for a long time. This memory stayed with Sunny, and coupled with plenty of personal experience as a sketch artist, he took the bold step. The debt befalling Nanaji will not go away on its own, and Sunny and Firoz take up the mantle to clear the debt once and for all.
His idea of designing the INR currency notes, and Firoz printing the notes, serves the purpose temporarily. They don’t need to spend much on machinery, and all they must do is gather the right material to make the currency notes. On finding the right paper, their first plan goes awry, but their second attempt becomes successful. Sunny’s hunger to design and print fake currency notes increases when he makes his first sale and earns enough to pay off the debt. The hunger in him and Firoz does not die, which makes them realize they are good at this work and they can build something from it without worrying about the consequences of their actions. The motivation behind continuing to print fake currency notes is to let the cash flow come to their benefit. The sale is bringing them plenty of money, which Sunny and Firoz have never seen before. They revamp the press and get the assistance of their uncle, who is working at the press with Nanaji. Sunny and Firoz are carefree and gleeful and understand the worth of their talent.
Sunny and Firoz admit to taking a step back from printing the fake currency notes when Nanaji finds out they are using the press to create these fake items. Sunny and Firoz are offered to work with money launderers and Mafia kingpin Mansoor Dalal when he is impressed with the kind of currency note Sunny and Firoz produce. Sunny does not hesitate to take up the offer because, as he reveals, he has never felt guilty before about creating and selling fake currency notes. Firoz is startled, but he sees the point in Sunny’s words. His artistic skill was put to use, and he gained plenty of recognition in the form of business from people wanting to purchase fake currency notes. The recognition Sunny and Firoz receive from this work is far more than what he expected and anticipated.
