Farzi (Fake, Miniseries; 2023)
Created, Written &Directed: Raj & DK
It said that Pakistan is on the brink of bankruptcy. It has gone with a begging bowl to IMF for aid. After securing massive loans with low interest from China and investing in projects that never saw daylight, Pakistan found itself in trouble deep. The creditors came knocking on its door. The pandemic and local political turmoil tilt the economy further into hopelessness. Even God was not kind. Massive flooding, almost unheard of in desert-like Pakistan, took many lives in the densely populated regions of the country.
The real reason for Pakistan's predicament, India likes to believe, is Modi's demonetisation policy. It is alleged that Pakistanis were actively printing fake Indian rupees and using them to fund terrorist activities across the border. With the help of corrupt politicians, civil servants and the Mafia, these monies made their way to the Indian marketplace. It is the grey market; a fake ₹100 is equivalent to ₹30 in real money. It is sanitised once it is fed into India. Everyone is happy. Politicians are free to utilise these easy ill-gotten gains to bribe constituents and for campaigning. Other avenues for this foolhardy are cricket betting schemes and Bollywood financing.
The new size of the new notes made it difficult for the counterfeit industry to keep up. With the increased use of digital currency, physical money is also slowly losing its place in daily cash handling. The fake note industry took a severe beating, which shows in Pakistan.
The movie 'Farzi' is said to be based on Amazon's bestseller book by Sree Iyer, 'Who painted my money white?'. After reading the book and viewing the miniseries, I see that the theme is similar, but the premise is different.
Sree Iyer's book is more about dirty politics and the shenanigans of politicians. It tells about everything going wrong in India through his lens - fake currency, Islamic terrorism, love jihad and more. The climax is the attempted assassination of India's Prime Minister. For those familiar with Indian politics, readers can immediately identify that all the characters in the story obviously carry an uncanny resemblance to present-day politicians.
The miniseries tell about a street-smart artiste with a neck printing fake Indian notes in his grandfather's newspaper printing press. His fake turns out so accurate that an international terrorist based in Jordan wants to use his services. And things get complicated as governmental enforcement is hot on his trail.
Somewhere in December 2016, Javed Khanani who runs Khanani and Kalia Foreign Exchange Company in Karachi had committed suicide. There has been criminal charges money laundering against him in Pakistan. On the other hand his brother Altaf Khanani was sentenced for 20 years by US court for illegal Hawala transactions and money laundering. Javed Khanani is known to be a kingpin in pumping fake currency to India. His company is believed to have pumped 2 lakh crore fake currency to India for the last 10 years from 2016. His company was alleged to have 40,000 crore fake currency in higher denomination notes of 500 & 1000 at that time.
ReplyDeleteI guess it’s understandable why he committed suicide when the demonetization occurred. Their company reportedly carried out 40 per cent of all money exchange transactions in the country at the time, according to the FIA officials connected with the investigation then.
So perhaps there was also a specific target that the demonetization exercise was aimed at. Rightly or wrongly implemented, I believe that the said exercise indeed had its positive outcome, not just about imported fake notes but also cleaning internal dirt and giving warning to potential fraudsters, that at the length the gov is willing to go if they deem something is off tangent in their eyes.
the overall effect of demonetisation is seen in present day PAK
Deleteit was no mere coincidence that immediately after the demonetisation exercise, terrorist activities in Kashmir and Jammu took a tumble. Zilch. The instigators could not be paid!
ReplyDeleteBy the way the series was fine. I like the inclusive approach taken by the director in bringing about each character. I guess this is India today. Bengaluru has been long the socio cultural melting pot of India. This trend is happening in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad.
ReplyDeleteProbably a segway to a possible second season…
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