Raj and DK have set a benchmark when it comes to telling stories about government intelligence agencies with clever humor and adding a bit of satire and black comedy, making the audience chuckle over the irony of the situation. “Farzi,” an Indian Amazon Prime Video Original released on February 10, 2023, is about Sunny and Firoz, who are struggling to make ends meet with Sunny’s grandfather running a daily newspaper that is bleeding money. Sunny and Firoz have to find a solution to it, but will they be able to sustain it, or will that also lead to them losing money frequently?
Spoilers Ahead
Michael’s Hunt For Mansoor
Michael Vedanayagam runs a task force hell-bent on bringing an end to Mansoor Dalal, the money laundering kingpin who is responsible for circulating fake notes in India. Michael and his team are now very close to catching Mansoor in Nepal, and he has a whole team assigned, along with the local Nepalese police to assist them. Michael wants to capture Mansoor because he has been building a case against him for years, and after all this, he’s finally got the opportunity to do that.
Michael nabs Mansoor right in the middle of his dealing when he and his men are attacked by Mansoor’s men, and in that commotion, Michael loses his man, rendering the operation a failure. Michael is always on both good and bad terms with Home Minister Gahlot, who hates the fact that he has to do all the damage control to clear up the mess that happens after every operation involving Michael. But at the end of the day, Michael has Gahlot’s backing. Michael and his team on the task force are a bunch of diligent officers who want to do the right thing. They joined the force motivated by the right intention, which was to serve the country.
Sunny And Firoz’s Life So Far
Sandeep, aka Sunny, and his best friend Firoz help Sunny’s grandfather, whom they fondly call Nanaji, run his newspaper Kranti Patrika, even though the daily is running low on circulation. Sunny and Firoz have been helping with the circulation of the newspaper since their childhood. Nanaji runs a press to make sure their daily articles go out every day. Even though they are hemorrhaging money, the aging Nanaji has not lost hope that someday the Patrika’s circulation will pick up, and they will finally be able to send the message of revolution to everyone out there. Sunny and Firoz have a more realistic outlook. Sunny earns his money by being a sketch artist at a resort, where he sells his originals, self-portraits of the customers, and duplicates of many classic paintings. Sunny and Firoz are aware of the money they are losing by keeping the press going every day. They don’t have enough money to sustain themselves, and Sunny’s girlfriend isn’t happy about the fact that he isn’t earning enough.
Firoz and Sunny are at an impasse on how to make things easier for them, which is to earn more money to make sure they garner enough respect from people around them. Sunny, growing up, has seen it all. His mother passed away when he was too young, and his ever-nomadic father abandoned him on a train, only to be found by his Nanaji. Firoz remains his friend since his lonely days at the railway platform, only to be adopted by Sunny’s Nanaji. Sunny, Firoz, and Nanaji are faced with immense debts, which leads to Nanaji considering closing the press. In the motivation to do something for his grandfather, Sunny decides to use his skill as a sketch artist to design and print fake currency notes and sell them to customers who want and earn enough money from the sale. The money will help them clear the debt. Sunny is tired of being on the receiving end of helplessness, and he now thinks making fake currency notes will help him gain the momentum he is looking for. His first batch of notes is detected, but his second batch of notes go undetected at a local store.
Megha’s Quest To End The Counterfeit Money Supply
Megha works for the Reserve Bank of India, and she has been spearheading software that she has helped develop that will assist law enforcement officers and banks detect fake notes that are being circulated in the country at an alarming rate. Minister Gahlot does not take her work seriously, but she pursues her bosses to make sure her words are heard. Her bosses at the workplace do not pay any heed to her concerns regarding the fake money being circulated and used on a large scale. Megha finds herself at a dead end when her boss refuses to cooperate with her regarding her analysis of the fake currency matter. Megha, just like Michael, is passionate about hunting down those who are circulating fake currency in the country. If she had enough backing from the RBI, she would be able to investigate and conduct a thorough crackdown on the same.
Sunny’s Solution To The Problem
Sunny has found a solution to his problem. He has been successful in printing fake currency notes using his artistic skills and using the printing press to his benefit. He finds his first seller, a Gujarat-based MLA. Sunny and Firoz successfully deliver the consignment, realizing this is a job he is good at. Sunny fashions himself a new name, “the artist,” and he and Firoz soon clear the debt, but Sunny understands the demand for this business and indulges in printing more fake currency to sell it to earn more money on a regular basis. The duo sticks two papers together to form a currency note. Though they are almost caught by Megha they are saved in the nick of time, it only takes them a while to realize they need to use currency grade paper to create fake currency to avoid being detected. Sunny and Firoz were cocky until Megha’s unofficial raid took place. The raid made them take the risky decision to rob the paper factory. Sunny and Firoz have not lost hope at any point, and they are keen on earning more money by selling fake currencies to prospective customers. Sunny’s artistic skills, along with Firoz’s skill in running the printing press machine, helped the most in creating something for themselves from scratch. Unfortunately, Sunny’s Nanaji catches hold of them conducting illegal business in his press and under his nose. He asks them to leave his premises, which makes Sunny and Firoz take a step back to reflect on their deeds.
CCFART
CCFART (you read that right) is a task force that includes one member from all intelligence agencies in the country and helps tackle the menace of counterfeit money. Megha is also recruited into this task force as a member of the RBI, and she introduces the chip Dhanrakshak, which helps detect fake notes at every financial establishment in the country. Michael and his team are more than happy with Megha’s contribution in bringing down the menace and catching hold of crores’ worth of fake currencies. This makes it difficult for Mansoor to operate in the country, and he incurs unsurmountable losses for which he is responsible. Michael hopes this will force Mansoor to make a mistake, which will make it easy for him to arrest him. Michael and Minster Gahlot are more than happy to see their operation working out as they had planned. He is finally in the good books of Minister Gahlot, and they hope that this will help him get closer to Mansoor.
Mansoor’s Desperation
As Dhanrakshak is catching hold of all counterfeit notes, Mansoor is losing his grasp over the business, and he is answerable to many of his superiors. He is looking for a solution to this menace when he is told about a note created by “the artist.” Mansoor’s men abduct Sunny and Firoz and give them an offer they cannot refuse. Mansoor offers them the best machines for designing and printing notes. Sunny has no choice but to accept the offer because the money that will come his way will be far more than what he earned before using the old printing press. Sunny and Firoz take up the offer. Sunny comes out to admit that he had a good time previously minting money off of selling the fake banknotes he made, and he still does not feel guilty about taking up the job.
Sunny and Firoz are inseparable, and Firoz always follows in Sunny’s footsteps. But Firoz is the only person who is honest with Sunny about not being sure whether he is doing the right thing or not. As their work begins, Michael is informed about Mansoor’s henchmen being spotted in Bangladesh, as informed by Chellam sir (yes, we get Chellam sir’s cameo). Unfortunately for Mansoor, Bilal is caught by Michael and his men and taken into custody. Mansoor has no option left but to promote Sunny and Firoz to be his henchmen. Sunny takes up the offer without thinking for a second. Mansoor’s belief in Sunny comes from the fact that Sunny decided to work for them when Mansoor was at his worst, and Sunny did not shy away from speaking the truth. Mansoor was also highly impressed by the dedication that Sunny and Firoz show towards the work they do, which made Mansoor take the hefty decision.
‘Farzi’ Season 1: Ending Explained – Does Megha Find Out Who ‘The Artist’ Is? How Does Sunny Avenge His Grandfather’s Death?
With Bilal under the custody of Michael and his team, they are desperate to get information from him. Bilal decides to receive his information from another person in Mansoor’s gang who will talk. Mansoor is soon made aware of the fact that there is a mole in his team. Sunny is asked to get in touch with someone from the task force so that they can stay ahead of Michael’s team. He decides to meet Megha and befriend her as a businessman, forms a friendship with her, and finds out as much information as he can about her work of catching people making counterfeit banknotes. Sunny places a tracker on Megha’s phone to know who she is speaking to. Mansoor started forming plans to enter the country with 12,000 crores worth of fake banknotes, but most of the routes were blocked by Michael’s team thanks to information from Bilal. Mansoor’s team also keeps changing their routes as per the information Sunny is receiving from Megha’s phone. Sunny’s only game plan is to salvage Mansoor’s business. They are tired of them closing all smuggling routes, which is making Mansoor lose patience. Sunny is a calm person who makes sure Mansoor and Firoz do not make any mistakes under the guise of panic.
Mansoor soon comes up with the Trojan horse plan that will let them enter the country with anyone suspecting. Mansoor and his men are busy distracting Michael and his team by letting them catch the older fake notes, which are easily caught by the Dhanrakshak machine. The money they want to ship is the newest fake INR 2000 currency, which will not be detected by Dhanrakshak. Megha catches on to what Mansoor and his team are planning. She also catches the fact that the sandwich note that she caught hold of had a signature on it, and the same signature is found on the newest 2000 INR note. This would mean “the artist” is working for Mansoor and is purposely leaving a trace. Sunny and Firoz land with the money as per the plan made by Mansoor, but they are faced with a big issue, which is that there is no demand for the said counterfeit money. Only 10% of the entire sum was distributed, and the rest of the money is rotting in the dungeon. Sunny, though happy to have landed the money in Mumbai, is struggling to distribute the money to the said people. Megha and Sunny keep meeting, with Megha not realizing Sunny is “the artist.” They sleep with each other, and Sunny, out of his sheer fondness, uninstalls the tracker from her phone.
Michael’s team has been informed of a Gujarat-based MLA who has been caught holding crores’ worth of fake notes, and the said MLA is under CBI investigation for the same. The enforcement team on interrogation offers the MLA’s help in catching “the artist,” and Minister Gahlot will make sure the CBI investigation is erased from the books. The MLA agrees to help them trap Sunny and Firoz by asking him to deliver the said amount of fake currency at a mall. On reaching the mall in disguise Sunny spots Megha only to realize they were sent here as a part of a trap set up by MLA and the enforcement agency. Sunny was desperate to dispose of the fake currencies, and this deal came at the right moment.
Sunny was skeptical of this delivery and is forced to take up this assignment as instructed by Mansoor to distribute the money in any manner he comes across. Reluctantly, he takes up the offer, only to see himself trapped. A mad car chase ensues in the middle of Mumbai traffic. However, Sunny and Firoz manage to escape, but not before causing mayhem by letting go of the money from their car, which sends people on the road in a frenzy. This made sure the police and the enforcement team wouldn’t be able to catch up to them. Michael can recognize Sunny at this point because he caught them escaping, but they lose track of them in the mayhem. Michael’s team again faces a setback with the loss of “the artist,” but the good news is Michael can describe how “the artist” and Firoz look, and the CCTV that captured Sunny’s blurred image digitally recreates an image of him.
Megha still does not know Sunny is “the artist.” Sunny, on the other hand, goes to meet her one last time before things go south for him. He probably loved Megha and hoped that at some other time, they could be together. Sunny and Firoz are clueless about what to do from here on. They can only hope to be saved by Mansoor and his men, who will fly them out of India in no time. Mansoor, though, has other plans for Sunny and Firoz. He orders his men to kill them because their arrest would mean Mansoor’s downfall, and Mansoor, at this point, cannot afford another failure.
Mansoor is an opportunist who takes advantage of Sunny and Firoz’s talent only to dispose of them when things go wrong. Sunny and Firoz are saved by Firoz’s friend, but sadly, they cannot save Nanaji. The press was set on fire while Nanaji was working. Along with the press, sadly, Nanaji was burned to death. Sunny was filled with nothing but vengeance and the drive to ruin Mansoor. Sunny and Firoz are asked to leave town and lay low, but Sunny chooses to hunt down Mansoor’s men and the fake money. Sunny kills all of Mansoor’s henchmen and burns all the fake currency in the vault. Burning up the cash was an indication of the fact that Mansoor was now ruined. He lost Bilal to arrest, and now he has lost Sunny and Firoz by ordering their deaths. In that process, he lost the money Sunny, and Firoz made for him, and probably the best artists there are.
What Is To Be Expected From Season 2 Of ‘Farzi’?
Season two of “Farzi” will, at length, cover Michael’s hunt for “the Artist” and, through him, get to Mansoor. Sunny will catch up with Firoz, and they will probably start printing counterfeiting currency all over again just to sustain themselves because that is the only skill they are good at. Expect Sunny to be a brilliant sketch artist. There is a chance that Sunny will turn into an informant for Michael to get back at Mansoor. That would be a double whammy. Sunny would get his revenge, and Michael would finally get hold of Mansoor. With the appearance of two characters from “The Family Man,” Chellam Sir, and a voice cameo by Srikant Tiwari, there is the possibility of merging both universes and a theory that both series are set in the same universe, as both Michael and Srikant work for government agencies. It will be interesting to watch how Raj and DK merge storylines from both series and give us the spy universe we didn’t know we needed.
Conclusion
Raj and DK’s new outing, “Farzi,” felt like nothing new when it came to the premise of the show. The screenplay looked too similar to”the Family Man,” which took the OTT space by storm. With “Farzi”, though it is set in Mumbai, the treatment of the story and screenplay was far less complex. The show took time to set up and showcase the business of designing and printing counterfeit banknotes and how it affects the economy per se. The detailing of the subject is to be commended, though, and it threw light on illegal activity, which is mostly not spoken about. The humor is something Raj and DK never get wrong. It lands, and how. It is indeed a genius move made by the makers to cast Vijay Sethupathi. It is hilarious to watch him deliver lines in Hindi with a straight face. Deadpan humor is done right.
The chemistry between Minister Gahlot, played excellently by Zakir Hussain and Michael, will be cherished for years; it is one of the best arcs of the show. The screenplay lost the plot halfway through with the introduction of a love story brewing between Sunny and Megha, but thankfully it did not entirely affect the narrative. “Farzi” is far from perfect, but what the writers Suman Kumar, Sita Menon, Raj, and DK achieve are clever dialogues delivered with utmost ease, especially by actors of high caliber. Kay Kay Menon here is not a terrifying villain but someone afraid of losing the game to Michael, as he has superiors to whom he has to report. Kay Kay’s Mansoor is a businessman but is also delicate at heart and is afraid to lose his authority. Shahid Kapoor’s Sunny arc had shades of gray where there is thought if Sunny is an anti-hero or just a product of his environment. Amol Palekar’s character was wasted, for he did not have much to do in the second half of the show. The screenplay is hardly perfect, but the show is a good start for bringing out more stories of middle-class government officers trying to bring down anything that would ruin the nation. A good watch.
