Family Man 2, Just As Irresistible As Season 1, If Not More

The Family Man Season 2(Amazon Prime; 10 Episodes)

Starring  Manoj Bajpai, Samantha Akkineni, Priyamani,  Sharib Hashmi

Directed  by Raj-DK, Suparn Varma

Rating: ****

Good to grow!  The new season of  Family Man escapes  The Curse Of The Second Season.I mean, gawd,  look at what  happened to Mirzapur 2.  The Family Man  2  is  a lean mean  sinewy sexy dramatic and  topical   piece of work  that shows a natural  organic growth  from season1. Though it runs  into 10 episodes there is not an ounce  of  flab , as the sprawling yet taut narrative moves across a luscious  labyrinth   of global   terrorism(helmed by the chilling presence of  Samantha Akkineni)  and  domestic warfare.

Ah, domestic  strife! Our unlikely hero Srikant Tiwari is still at  it. His wife(played by  the underused Priyamani) is still sulking and his children Vedant(Atharv Tiwari) and  Dhriti(Ashlesha  Thakur) still think their father is a bit of  a fool. Little do they know.Incidentally,  or maybe  not so incidentally,this time  Srikant’s daughter has a  pivotal  part to play in  the  plot’s  emphatic action. Can’t reveal much. But the way her role shapes up will takes FM fans by surprise. 

 This  season, the action moves to Chennai where  Rajalaxmi,a.k.a Raji  and  her  rebel  friends are  planning a massive attack. The most gripping sequences  in the  entire narrative spectrum  recur each time  Akkineni’s Raji is on screen. She is ominous in  her  silences.  You know  when she erupts  there  will  be  pay hell  to pay.

The story  of her stint as a fearless  soldier in Sri Lanka and  a cowering sexually harassed  civilian in Chennai and …well , whatever happen as  the plot explodes  into a show of strength  between  Srikant and his team’s Task Force and  the rebels,  has a life of its own. I would love to see a feature film based on  Raji’s character.

Manoj Bajpai’s Srikant  is  a character  of immeasurable possibilities. He is hopelessly naïve with his family and devilishly sharp at work. And his partnership with   J K Talpade(Sharib Hashmi, brilliant back-up) accommodates some  of  the series’ most  entertaining episodes. Apart from a miscarried  joke when both of them inadvertently end up in  lock-up with a  female  cop(Devdarshini)  mistaking Srikant’s  desperation for abuse, this partnership sparkles with   wit and  street wisdom.

There is also a delightful  linguistic battle between Srikant-Talpade and their Tamil colleagues in Chennai. The  writing never overruns into  the subplots . The focus shifts  from  the  main event only  as long as the shift doesn’t damage   the  concentrated  energy of  the  rapidly imploding plot. Often-times, the humour  is  sly to the  point  of being  invisible  to  the  inattentive  viewer. To cite an example , at one point  the Hindi and Tamil speaking members  of  the TaskForce  fight over a song  on the  radio . The Tamil  chap keeps switching  off the Hindi song. The irony is, the Hindi song playing on the radio is Sach mere yaar hai, sung and lip-synced  on  screen by South Indians.

Super-skilled writing and an alert narration that catches the  drama even as  it  falls, make   this  a a  constantly  watchable sequel with  actors from every generation pitching  in with  performances that  sweep  the  storytelling  forward  into a sinfully engaging swoop  of adventure and drama. Indeed the only  good that comes  out of  crime against mankind  such as  terrorism  is that it  yields some terrific  art, instant or  otherwise.