MUMBAI: What does one do when he wants to verbally abuse to his heart’s content, but has his kids right in front of him? He stays quiet, obviously, waiting for the kids to walk away before the expletives burst out of his mouth.
Being exposed to content from across the world, we have all watched multiple series about national security, intelligence and terrorism, but shows that take family and national intelligence, pepper it with subtle humour and shake things up with traffic stopping action, are rare. The Family Man has all that and more.
Srikant Tiwari (Manoj Bajpayee) works in a specially created cell of National Investigation Agency (NIA) – Threat Analysis and Surveillance cell (TASC) – located in a non-descript building in Mumbai. He tries hard to balance his family and job, which despite having taken over his life, does not pay well. His wife, Suchitra (Priyamani), is a college professor and is unaware of Srikant’s more than eventful field work. She is tired of his erratic life and work hours. Apart from their trouble-inviting teenage daughter, Srikant and Suchi also have a music-loving, but tone-deaf son, who is extremely vocal about certain issues and wishes his father was, too.
The Family Man is about TASC using few of the most intelligent brains in the country and state of the art technology to detect threats to the nation. The action, on the job, starts with Mujahideens being captured by the coast guard and he, along with JK (Sharib Hashmi), is sent to interrogate them, accompanied by Zoya (Shreya Dhanwanthary), the new recruit. While Srikant, JK, Zoya and others are busy chasing men, interrogating them, planting hidden cameras and joining forces to foil evil plans, Srikant tries to dodge the bullets family life fires at him on a daily basis. One of those bullets includes his wife Suchi getting too close for comfort, to one of her colleagues, Arvind (Sharad Kelkar). Srikant is even seen getting an earful for something his daughter does in school.
While work and life are happening to Srikant, unbeknownst to him, a devious plan is hatched to create tension in India and bring it to its knees. What follows is a series of incidents and round the clock surveillance to catch the suspect(s) in the act and find out what the ‘act’ threatening India’s security actually is. The funny part is that Srikant’s surveillance extends to his family members too.
What’s Wow: Inspired by real-life incidents that flood newspapers nowadays, The Family Man weaves together Manoj Bajpayee’s lives – the crazy non-stop action filled one and another where his family is the boss. It is super relatable on many levels.
There is no dull moment in the series. The kids extorting their father in lieu of keeping their mouth shut is EPIC! At one point, you will even feel sorry for the man.
Mehak Thakur, who plays the role of Manoj Bajpayee’s daughter Dhriti, delivers a stellar performance and is definitely someone to watch out for.
The camaraderie between Srikant and JK shines through consistently, be it on the field or with things on the home front.
What’s Blah: Nothing.
Parting Shot: The Family Man is a rare gem that doesn’t just thrill and keeps you guessing till the end, but also has a generous serving of drama and humour stirred in.
Cast and Crew:
Cast: Manoj Bajpai (Srikant Tiwari), Sharib Hashmi (JK Talpade), Shreya Dhanwanthary (Zoya), Moosa Rehman (Neeraj Madhav), Suchitra (Priyamani), Arvind (Sharad Kelkar), Mehak Thakur (Dhriti), Vedant Sinha (Atharv), Gul Panag (Saloni) and others.
Producers and Directors: Raj and DK
Writers: Suman Kumar, Raj and DK
Dialogues: Sumit Arora
Editor: Sumeet Kotian
Check out the trailer here:
Credit: The Digital Hash
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