The Family Man 2

The second season of 'The Family Man' is now streaming on  Amazon Prime Video. Let's see what works and what doesn't in the web series.

Story:

Undercover agent Srikanth Tiwari (Manoj Bajpayee) is tasked with the mission of saving the life of Prime Minister Basu (Seema Biswas), who is sought to be killed by a suicide bomber named Raji (Samantha Akkineni as the member of a Tamil liberation army from Sri Lanka). If Raji is the only one capable of accomplishing the nearly impossible mission, Srikanth is the only spy on the good side who can avert the assassination bid.

The series has got sub-plots involving Suchitra (Priya Mani), the male lead's wife, their daughter Dhriti (Ashlesha Thakur), Pakistani agent Sameer (Darshan Kumar), and Kashmiri terrorist Sajid (Shahab Ali). The last of these two are in cahoots with the bad side.

Analysis:

Usually, films/web shows tend to present fictional characters that look like they have been fashioned after real-life characters. But 'The Family Man 2' indulges in a clever subversion in an important way. It imagines a Mamata Banerjee-type tough leader as India's PM instead of a male nationalist. Loaded lines ("There is no sympathy for refugees these days", "Not everyone in the country knows Hindi", "One man's revolutionary is another man's freedom fighter", among others) are infused into the drama without any sense of guilt. Stock lines ("We lost the battle, but we won the war") don't sound bland because directors Raj Nidimoru, Krishna DK and Suparn Varma pack a punch in terms of characterizations and plot-building.

The series (9 episodes) adroitly builds tension without making a song and dance. In a feature film of about 150 minutes, the male lead's daughter would have been kidnapped suddenly by dangerous men. And it would have been painfully routine that way. Here, the culmination is built in a believable fashion. The workplace comedy is not allowed to become caricaturish. The nagging boss, who tells Srikanth that he shouldn't be content being a 'minimum guy', is junked before he becomes unbearable.

To the credit of the creators, Samantha Akkineni's intriguing character is introduced right in the second episode. She dominates whole stretches. By the 6th episode, Raji becomes the fulcrum around whom a lot of gripping drama unfolds. There are portions where her character becomes a footnote, possibly because the writers (Raj, DK, Suman Kumar) didn't want to make her an unrealistically important suicide bomber.

Raji's dedication to the Eelam Tamil liberation movement is portrayed without taking sides. The movement has its moderates who have cozied up to the government. Then it has idealists who are incurably intoxicated. The casting is perfect, with proper Tamil-speaking actors (including not just Samantha but also the likes of Mime Gopi, Azhagam Perumal and Devadarshini) acing whole scenes and clouding Manoj Bajpayee.

The show would have covered itself in glory had the anti-terror ops been more informed and not looked far-fetched. While the PM may have her rationale to hold a summit in Chennai, there is no reason she would not move heaven and earth to stave off the threat to her life. Srikanth's team is left with meagre resources/wherewithal, as evidenced by the scene where they can't pull off an unchallenged search operation at Tigris Aviation. At one point, Srikanth is forced to rely on a retired RAW mentor when the PM's life is at stake!

The equations at Srikanth's family have been depicted with sensitivity. The conversations between Priya Mani's character and her daughter are realistic. They force the audience to think from the perspective of one and all at home.

The web series is a must-watch: from a missing plane to a high-profile suicide, from the engaging bond between colleagues to the primacy of national security, from the superb action set-pieces to the mellowed background music (the Sachin-Jigar duo), from the very many locations (spanning countries like Sri Lanka, India and UK) to the consistent performances.

Verdict:

'The Family Man' is an immensely watchable thriller series where vulnerabilities of different characters are portrayed without resorting to cliches. Watch it for the action scenes, performances, sub-plots, dialogues and everything in between.