Directed by Fawzia Mirza and Nisha Ganatra and created by Abdullah Saeed, Deli Boys follows the life of two rich brats who happen to be unaware of their father’s multi-million dollar drug syndicate. The 10-episode series makes us privy to what goes down in the lives of the boys once they come to know of the reality and the challenges that come their way after that. So, let’s find out what happened in the series and if the Deli Boys were able to lead their company forward.
Spoiler Alert
How did Raj and Mir become the chief of the company?
Mir Dar saw himself as the heir to his father’s throne because of his qualifications, but his elder brother Raj Dar believed himself to be a natural businessman like his immigrant father, and so he, too, felt he was deserving of becoming the CEO of the company. But little did the two rich Pakistani American brats know that the Darco deli stores and the Caca pickle (achar) business were just a front, and the company generated its real revenue from drug smuggling known in the market as Dark DarCo. Baba Dar, Mir and Raj’s father, had hidden this fact from his sons because he wanted to keep them safe. He had told his most trusted ally, Lucky, to tell them everything once he was gone or in case of an emergency. Baba Dar wanted to expand his business, and he had made certain arrangements to go international. But before his plans could materialize, Baba Dar got hit by a golf ball while he was enjoying some downtime with his sons, playing the sport he loved. It was an unusual way to die, but nobody suspected anything at that moment. The FBI raided the Darco facilities, and everybody was in a state of panic as nobody knew who would become the next leader of the pack. Lucky knew that if she wanted to keep Mir and Raj, who were like her own sons, safe, then she needed to take charge of things. But another member of the syndicate, Ahmad, had dreamt of leading the company for a very long time. Lucky had one of the members of the company, Hamza, killed, as she knew that he was Ahmad’s closest ally. Feraz Khan, Ali Sahir, Dawar Omar, and Hassan Ali, the other members or Maaliks of the Dark DarCO board, came for an emergency meeting, but they weren’t able to decide who their next chief sahab or leader would be. That’s when a unanimous decision was taken to make the two inexperienced lads, who had no clue about the drug business, the joint chiefs of the company. Mir and Raj were still processing whatever they had gotten to know after their father’s death. Unfortunately, they had to help Lucky kill Hamza and dispose of his body. Lucky got stuck with the board members, and she had no choice but to ask the boys to do what was needed and get rid of the man, who could have proved to be a threat to them in the future. Mir and Raj were clearly not fit for the job, but surprisingly, in their own eccentric manner, they managed to find a way through the chaos and earn profits for their company. Their methods were absurd, but somehow, they always got results. While Mir was the brains, Raj considered himself to be the Rick Rubin of the company, who, though he didn’t do anything specific, somehow let his presence act as a catalyst.
Was the FBI able to find evidence against the Dar family?
Regional director of the FBI, Supervisor Simpson and Francis Mercer from the FBI were trying to find evidence against the Dar family. Mercer knew that the deli stores were not how the family earned money. She had found out that most of the products in the store were expired, and she had realized it was all just a show, a front for a possible drug business. Mir and Raj, under the guidance of Lucky and Ahmad (who had no option but to come on board), were trying to find newer distribution channels and expand their distribution area. Mir first negotiated a deal with an Indian family, who ran an eatery in the neighborhood. He asked the Indian family to use the pickle produced by the Dar company and set aside a few boxes for VIP customers. Basically, they wanted to sell drugs in the pickle boxes, but the Indian family was asking for a huge share of the profits, which Lucky and Ahmad were not ready to pay. The Indian couple had an unmarried daughter, and so Mir proposed that if they agreed to their partnership, then his brother Raj would marry Nandika, their daughter. The deal was sealed, though Raj had no intentions of marrying Nandika, since he already had a girlfriend, Prairie, whom he dearly loved. Lucky told Raj and Mir that there was a Met Gala of drug smugglers being organized by the mafia boss, Chickie Lozano, an Italian crime boss. Now, Chickie was the same guy who’d threatened to kill the members of the Dar company if they were not able to sell the drugs and give him his share on time. The Dars only had a part of Philadelphia under their control, and they wanted to expand to the western side of the city, too. The problem was that another drug syndicate, called the Pho brothers, was also after the territory. But Mir and Raj, through their own unique ways, were able to win Chickie’s trust, and distribution channels opened for them in Western Philadelphia.
Meanwhile, in Deli Boys, Prairie is contacted by agent Mercer, who asks her to be her informant by threatening to arrest her for insurance fraud through her illegal healing business. Prairie didn’t want to snitch on Raj, but she wasn’t left with an option. When the truth came out in the open, Lucky and the others were of the opinion that they should eliminate Prairie, but Raj didn’t let them do that. Then Prairie helped the Deli Boys create a diversion with the FBI agents, and she proved her allegiance. Still, Lucky tried to have Prairie killed, and because of this, Raj and Mir both stopped talking to her. Prairie was supposed to meet her handler, who was going to give her a new identity, but at the very last moment, Raj realized that it was a trap. He saved Prairie’s life, and she escaped from Philadelphia. Lucky had bona fide intentions for the brothers, but she realized that she had broken their trust by going behind their back.
Were Raj and Lucky able to pay off the Peruvians?
With time, one thing that became quite clear was that Mir wanted to be in the business, while Raj didn’t think that it was his cup of tea. At the beginning of the series, nobody could have imagined that drugs could be Mir’s thing, but they were, and he had proven through his business acumen that he was best suited for the job. Mir loved a girl named Bushra, and they had their share of ups and downs in the relationship. There was a time when Mir felt that he had lost Bushra, but she came back eventually. Bushra told Mir that she knew that he was involved in illegal activities, and she had no problems with it as long as he didn’t involve her in it. Basically, Bushra wanted an opulent lifestyle, and after what happened at the end of Deli Boys, she could say that she really loved Mir and she was there even knowing the kind of person he was. Even Bushra’s mother was very materialistic, and for the longest time, she was very cold towards her son-in-law. The Peruvians were after the board members since they hadn’t been able to pay them off in time. With everything that had been happening, Mir and Raj didn’t get time to communicate with the dealers and sell their product. Mir got an idea that he could use to sell off all their stuff. He decided to call drug dealers to his wedding disguised as guests, though he knew that the plan was very risky. But Mir and Raj didn’t have any other option. Bushra and her mother got so offended by everything that they called off the wedding at the very end. They were fine with using the drug money to fulfill their desires, but they didn’t want people to explicitly know where it came from. Once the wedding was called off, Mir, Raj, and the others didn’t know how to go about their plan. Actually, there was a huge wooden horse on which the groom was supposed to enter the banquet hall. That horse was hollow from within, and it was decided that all the money that the dealers gave was to be kept in it. So, without any wedding, there couldn’t be a horse, and that’s when Raj decided to play a masterstroke. He decided to get married to Nandika and keep the party going. The Peruvians got their money, and they even told Mir that they would work with him in the future. A guy named Chacho, who was heading the Peruvian gang, told Mir that he liked his style, and that he would get in touch with him in the future.
Who killed Baba Dar?
Lucky had an eye for detail, and she noticed something when she was talking to the guy she had hired to kill Prairie. That assassin had a partner who was extremely good at striking the golf ball and hitting a specific target. Lucky connected the dots, and she realized that Baba Dar’s death was not an accident, but a pre-planned murder. She asked Bruno who had paid him to kill Baba Dar, but the man hadn’t met the real perpetrator face to face. The only thing that Bruno knew was that the man who had hired him had “mid-hair” on his fingers. During Mir’s wedding, Lucky noticed that Chickie, the mafia boss, had such hair on his fingers, and she told Ahmad about it. Ahmad told Lucky that he was going to kill Chickie with his own hands. Ahmad went inside the washroom. That’s when we got to know that it was Ahmad who had hired the golf-ball assassin, and he was lucky enough that everybody thought that it was Chickie. Ahmad wanted to get rid of Chickie and pin all the blame on him, as after knowing about his plan Chickie decided not to side with the cunning man. But that wouldn’t happen because when he was having that conversation with Chickie in the washroom, another man was present there.
Mathew, Baba Dar’s assistant, who was extremely loyal to his master, overheard the entire conversation, and he came out of the toilet with a gun in his hand. But Ahmad shot at Matthew and Chickie, and though they didn’t die, they were severely injured. The FBI raided the venue, but they couldn’t find anything on the premises. Mercer and Simpson arrived there, but later, another set of agents came to the venue. Mercer and Simpson had entered the venue before they could procure a warrant, and so they were taken into custody for not following protocol. Though the FBI didn’t find any drugs on the premises, an injured Chickie came out of the washroom, and he told them that it was Ahmad who had ordered the hit on Baba Dar. Ahmad managed to escape, and nobody knew where he had gone. For the next few days, Raj got obsessed with connecting the dots, though nobody was able to find out where Ahmad was hiding.
In Deli Boys’ ending, a bomb was planted inside the general store, though luckily Raj and Mir made it out just before the explosion happened. I believe that Deli Boys has some unfinished business, and the stage is perfectly set for season 2. The boys know that they would have to find Ahmad, not only to avenge their father’s death but also to save their lives.
