To launch a youngster from one of Bollywood’s top star families, Farrey is an unusual choice. Directed by Soumendra Padhi, the man who steered the gritty Netflix series Jamtara, Farrey marks the debut of Salman Khan’s niece Alizeh Agnihotri. It is presented by Salman Khan Films, and produced by Alizeh’s parents — former actor Atul Agnihotri and Alvira Khan Agnihotri. And to all of their credit, Farrey takes the seemingly mundane act of cheating in exams and turns into a heart-pounding thriller.
Padhi adapts the heist-style portrayal of scamming exams from the 2017 Thai blockbuster Bad Genius (of which Farrey is a remake) and adds a social perspective that navigates the world of privilege and disadvantage where success is not just an achievement but a matter of survival.
Alizeh plays the protagonist, Niyati, a young girl raised in an Old Delhi orphanage with dreams that are beyond the reach of her modest means. Niyati is brilliant in academics and when an all-expenses-paid scholarship to study at Winston High, a prestigious school, falls on her lap, she grabs it with both hands. This opens doors to an unknown world — friendship with an elite clique of rich students who can bend rules without moral compunction if it serves their interest.
Spotting Niyati’s ambitions, this swish set of opportunistic classmates dangle a carrot before her. If she helps them cheat in exams, they will flush her with cash. Niyati takes up the offer (‘farrey’ is the colloquial term for passing chits in an exam hall), with a scholarship to Oxford University hanging in the balance.
The film explores the psychological dynamic between youngsters born into disadvantage and those born into privilege, almost reminiscent of the recent Netflix series Class, but avoids the cliché of the entitled mocking those from humble backgrounds. Instead, Farrey paints a nuanced picture of the challenges faced by outsiders in an upscale academic environment.
With his expertise in this theme, Padhi — who has written the screenplay and dialogues of Farrey along with Abhishek Yadav — captures the mischiefs of teenagers that often blur the line between right and wrong, and turns the act of cheating in exams into a high-stakes intellectual endeavour and intellectual theft. The plot thickens and the tension escalates, revealing the risks and consequences of their collective actions.
Alizeh plays Niyati with remarkable confidence and understanding of the character’s struggles, especially her skewed moral compass that is fuelled by a desire to live the life of her affluent peers.
The supporting cast making up Niyati’s classmates — Prasanna Bisht, Zeyn Shaw and Sahil Mehta — is promising. Prasanna makes a mark as a rich girl who aims to go to Stanford and has a complex relationship with her family. As Akash, another scholarship student at Winston High, Sahil Mehta brings the angst of an outsider. Zeyn Shaw's depiction of the charming but entitled classmate is also impressive.
The absence of romantic entanglements between Farrey’s central characters keeps the story crisp and focused on the task at hand — exploring the interplay between social classes and the dilemmas of these Gen-Z hustlers, while serving as a cautionary tale on how shortcuts to success come at a cost.
