This week on the popular demand of my friends and relatives I am reviewing a digital OTT product that falls into the entertainment zone. Recently a web series was premiered on Amazon Prime, The Family Man 2. Yes, I am going to review The Family Man Season 2 today.

Plot

Srikant Tiwari (Manoj Bajpai) works for T.A.S.C. Threat Analysis and Surveillance Cell (a fictitious branch of the NIA). He is a married man with two kids. Due to the nature of his job he keeps his identity secret from his family. How he juggles between his role at T.A.S.C and home affairs is the basic premise of the Family Man. While the first season was around Operation Zulfikar and how a team of TASC foils the terrorist attack on India.

The second season takes off from where the first one was ended, Delhi was saved in the nick of time from the deadly gas leakage. But it took a toll on Srikant and he leaves TASC to work in an IT start-up. Routine stuff, nothing adventurous, but he’s dedicating his time to cooking dinner, taking care of schooling of kids, trying to make things work with his wife Suchi (Priya Mani) etc. But something is amiss and his heart is still at T.AS.C. He gets regular updates from his friend and colleague JK (Sharib Hashmi)

Circumstances force Shri to join T.A.S.C. again. This time the challenge is more severe and action shifts to Tamilnadu as the Sri Lankan Tamil rebels are plotting something sinister with the help of ISI. What happens next? Is Shri finally able to save the day with the help of his TASC colleagues, and what happens to his family life? You will get the answer to all these questions once you watch the second season of The Family Man 2 on Amazon Prime.

My observations of The Family Man Season 2

• I understood makers wanted to be as authentic as possible but excessive use of the Tamil language in a Hindi web series might put off some of the viewers. Every time I had to look at the English subtitles, it somehow broke the flow for me.
• Samantha as Rajji is kickass, I have seen her in many Telugu films and she has never done something like this before. This was one of the lifetime opportunity for her and she grabbed it with both hands.
• Seema Biswas’s character of Prime Minister Basu is based on TMC leader and chief minister of West Bengal Mamta Banerjee, I am just wondering what was the thought behind this move, could this have been avoided?
• Though the character of Mr Chellam has become popular among the masses still, I didn’t like the fact that makers took a lot of liberty by placing him at crucial junctures in the narrative.
• I liked the character development and the relationship between JK and Shrikant, it reminded me of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. I especially liked the scene where JK is injured and is in the hospital and Shrikant visits him.
• In the first episode, due to some unknown reason makers chose not to show explosion scenes on the screen. I felt it was a bit of a letdown.
• Action sequences are impactful especially the climax and the police station scene where rebels attack Srikant and the team to rescue Rajji.
• Supporting cast was wonderful be it JK, Sajid (the terrorist), kids, Arvind (Sharad Kelkar) or Suchi (Priyamani)

Final Thoughts

Overall, The Family man Season 2 is a decent one time watch with good direction from Raj and DK and some stellar performances from the star cast ably lead by Manoj Bajpai. If you haven’t seen it yet please give it a go. Don’t compare it with Season 1 as the storyline/plot is entirely new.

I am just wondering if makers decide to pivot and hit the big screen (cinemas) with season 3? There is already a big fan following and moving from OTT to the silver screen might prove a profitable venture.

My Rating: 3.5/5