The first season of Farzi follows the story of an artist who in order to earn a quick buck, starts printing and circulating fake currency notes. Will he be caught? This is pretty much the one-liner of the story that you should know before venturing into the series that does promise for a gala watch. The balance of crime and comedy is perfect here, although the story does slightly get repetitive. But trust Raj and DK to take you on an enjoyable ride like no other. They have their trademark set pieces which I will get to in a minute. The screenplay standing at 8 episodes ranging from 50 odd minutes to more than an hour does make for a daunting watch to begin with. But there was never a single dull moment throughout its runtime that made for one a brilliantly compelling watch.

I am a fan of world building as far as webseries is concerned primarily because you do have a good amount of time on your hands. And that is done wonderfully well here. So you are introduced to the protagonist Sunny who is an artist along with the principal characters around him. Amongst those is his grandfather whom he fondly addresses as ‘Naanu’ but very early on you can guess that their ideologies are different. Sunny belongs to the current generation who would always have his way of earning money without worrying too much about his morals. On the other hand, his Naanu is a principled figure who continues his work keeping his morals in check. Elsewhere, in a dramatic sequence you are introduced to the antagonist and his face off with the cop who is a vital cog in the drama.

There is a keen eye for detailing here which makes the drama even more engaging and engrossing. After the introduction of the conflict, the attention to details revolving around a currency note was an eye-opener and quite immersive in its approach. It almost did act as a guilty pleasure for the viewer who would assumingly start rooting for the protagonist despite his wrongdoings. This was an important approach by the makers to not let the viewers be judgemental about some of the characters(although nothing can ideally justify the wrongdoings). Soon the different worlds merge resulting in a cat and mouse change as Sunny does join hands with the antagonist Mansoor.

The typical trademark of the makers does lie in finding humour at some of the most bizarre places. Like seen previously in The Family Man, the humour here is situational and almost effortless, meaning the writing wasn’t trying to be funny. The writing here is intense with doses of dark humour that does make for a delicious watch. Also the amalgamation of different cultures represented through different characters is another impressive trademark of the makers which does result in a killer casting coup, often!

And trust Raj and DK to grab the opportunity for a universe of their own. The character of Tiwari plays the common thread here which means that The Farzi Universe and The Family Man universe would be merging at some point. What that means is we would get to watch Shahid Kapoor, Manoj Bajpayee, Vijay Sethupathi and Kay Kay Menon all in a single frane at some point. If you aren’t excited by this then there would be nothing that would actually excite you!

What I did like about the drama was also the characterization that did result into some interesting sub-plots along with a few parallels from The Family Man. For instance, the private life of Michael(essayed by Vijay Sethupathi) was similar if not a tad worse than that of Shrikant(essayed by Manoj Bajpayee in The Family Man) wherein he is involved in a strained relationship with his wife. These are interesting parallels which may all converge into something huge!

The twists and turns are engaging, but more importantly the pace of the drama does not lag or drop. This was crucial given that the writing just tends to get a bit repetitive as you proceed towards the end. The situations created are interesting and it is primarily the reaction of the characters to these situations that formulates the drama and fuels it ahead! The final sequence is a good one but I did wish that atleast a couple of the threads would have been tied together or atleast met with a closure. But if I were to look at it from the other side, then this might just be the tip of the iceburg for the The Family Man × Farzi universe! Overall the screenplay is excellent and quite enjoyable.