Very rarely do we find Bollywood star kids — a term I don’t like using, but consider infinitely better than the vastly derogatory ‘nepo baby’ — making a debut that doesn’t involve cavorting in chiffon saris on snowy slopes or flaunting six-pack abs which speak of too much time spent in the gym and very little in an acting class. Breaking that notion — and often shattering it through the course of the film with her clutter-breaking and confident act — is Alizeh Agnihotri. Hailing from the family of Salman Khan, no less — she is Salman’s niece and ’90s leading man Atul Agnihotri’s daughter — Alizeh packs in a solid act on debut in a film which converts a mundane (and, of, course, nerve-wracking) activity like taking an exam into a thoroughly entertaining, edge-of-the-seat thriller.
An official adaptation of the much-acclaimed Thai film Bad Genius, Farrey — the slang usage for cheat chits used in exams — is directed by Soumendra Padhi, who isn’t quite new to the genre. The hit Netflix show Jamtara, an incisive yet entertaining look at the intricately engineered phishing racket in the district of Jamtara in Jharkhand, and culled from true life events, is Padhi’s work. In Farrey, Padhi, aided by co-writer Abhishek Yadav, undoubtedly has the framework of Bad Genius to operate with, but the film’s real win lies in the contextualisation of its milieu and moments.
There is also the relatability factor. We all have taken exams. Most of us, at some point of time or the other, may have been so underprepared for a paper that the thought of carrying a chit or two into the examination hall may have been more than just fleeting. The friend in front slightly shifting his position to enable you to catch a glimpse of what he’s written on his answer sheet, scribbled notes on your hands and legs which are legible only to you, the plan — and perhaps, even the action — of smuggling a phone into the exam room... there is much at play in an exam. Farrey, like Bad Genius had done before, takes the germ of all that seems very familiar and gives an all-new spin to it. It is a hugely effective heist film (yet not conventional to the genre in many ways) that masquerades as a teenage drama.
Gaming the system lies at the heart of Farrey. Like the original, the film makes a seemingly simple multiple choice Q&A on an examination sheet seem like a feverish high-stakes game where the players participate for zenith or zilch. Alizeh plays Niyati, one of the 20-odd girls brought up in a Delhi orphanage by parent-like figures, played by Ronit Roy and Juhi Babbar Soni. Niyati is highly ambitious, and is blessed with intelligence and instincts to further that. The need for survival in a dog-eat-dog world has also sharpened Niyati’s ability to be both street smart and a social climber, both of which she uses with abandon.
When a chance to enter into one of the most posh educational institutions in the city comes her way, Niyati milks it in ways that initially blur the lines between right and wrong and then develops into a test-cheating scheme for profit. Its roots, of course, lie in Niyati and her close gang’s greed, but also bring forth the uncomfortable reality of class divide and peer pressure and the ever-widening chasm between those who are born into privilege and the others who have to fight to earn it. It also offers an insight into our highly flawed and often corrupt education system.
When it released in 2017, a review of Bad Genius befittingly described it as: “Ocean’s Eleven meets The Breakfast Club.” Like that film, Farrey, apart from its unwieldy concluding portions which is also guilty of slipping into genre monotony, is a biting watch that is deliciously clever but is also tempered with laugh-out-loud funny moments. Parts of it may seem implausible, but the film’s strengths far outweigh its shortcomings.
A major strength of Farrey is definitely Alizeh, whose super confident act doesn’t give the impression that this is her first film. The rest of the young cast — Sahil Mehta, Prasanna Bisht and Zeyn Shaw — is also impressive, but it is Alizeh who is given the meatiest part and the young talent excels. A star — strike that! — an actor is born.
Which Bolly debutant of 2023 holds the most promise?
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