Farrey Movie Review: Alizeh Agnihotri Makes A Remarkable Debut In Soumendra Padhi's Campus Thriller

Director: Soumendra Padhi

Cast: Alizeh Agnihotri, Sahil Mehta, Prasanna Bisht, Zeyn Shaw, Ronit Roy, Juhi Babbar Soni, Shilpa Shukla

Where: Running in cinemas

Rating: 3 stars

Campus thrillers have been quite the rage on OTT and it's only brave on the part of the makers of Farrey, to mount and present the film on a larger canvas for the big-screen experience. Promising to regale us with the acting talents of it’s leading quartet that comprises of new faces, director Soumendra Padhi of National Award-winning film Budhia Singh Born To Run and Jamtara fame, returns with Farrey (notice how the 'R's in both Jamtara and Farrey are flipped to represent the rupee symbol), a tale of balancing the act between aspiration and greed and everything that lies in between. Farrey, for those who do not know, translates to ‘chits’, a cop-out that students use during examinations to cheat and secure better grades.

Niyati (Alizeh Agnihotri in an impressive debut) is an orphan raised by supportive parental figures in her warden (Ronit Roy) and his wife (Juhi Babbar Soni). They run a home for orphaned girls. By the course of her merit, she gets enrolled in an elite school. Her neighbourhood friend Akash (Sahil Mehta) also secures a place for himself in the same school, while moonlighting as a food delivery executive. His aspirations leave his widowed mother more worried, who’d rather want him to chase milestones that are within his reach. Both Niyati and Akash share a dream. The dream for bigger and better lives, far away from their dreadful realities. It comes a step closer, when the school chooses them to pursue scholarships at Oxford. Right at the other end of their socio-economic spectrum are Chhavi (Prasanna Bisht) and Prateek (Zeyn Shaw), who are raised to believe that every dream is achievable with their wealth in abundance. Chhavi’s father (Arbaaz Khan in a cameo) wants her to follow suit alike her brother and secure a seat at Stanford. In order to secure better grades so that she stands a chance, Chhavi lures Niyati into helping her cheat. Niyati undertakes the risk, wanting to earn the quick buck, in order to pursue higher education as she is well-aware that her foster parents do not have the means to match their unwavering faith in her potential. Between existential dread, desperation and doom, Farrey promises to be an engaging affair between need and greed.

While Padhi and Abhishek Yadav (who also wrote Kota Factory) elevate their premise with effective dialogues, their screenplay isn’t particularly fleshed out. Except for Niyati, the rest of the cast are barely accorded convincing character arcs. Keiko Nakahara’s cinematography is rich and it captures the existing class and status divide between the four characters, thereby perfectly conveying Delhi’s duality. While Sachin-Jigar’s music boasts of nothing much to write about, Machade Tabahi, sung by Sunidhi Chauhan, particularly stands out. Sidhant Mathur impresses with his background score, which infuses respite in between the tense cheating sequences that play out in the film.

Speaking of the cast, the film rests firmly on the shoulders of its new leading faces and despite their unequal storylines, all four actors make the film, a compelling watch. Each actor plays a relatable face that you may have encountered sometime during your school life, which helps them in delivering convinving performances.

For the sake of new talent, Farrey is recommended.