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It is one thing to make a new season, and quite another to make it interesting and substantial—and entertainingly sensible, the last being a key requirement and, if fulfilled, a massive achievement. Just recently, Delhi Crime 3 and Maharani 4 were quite underwhelming. And both had climaxes that were cliffhangers. But despite a cliffhanger here as well, The Family Man’s third season is very well-conceived and executed.
For one, the theme this time may be a combination of politics emanating from Delhi, a global conspiracy including Indians in the UK to thwart well-meaning initiatives and a drug smuggler involved in political assassinations, but the thrust as it turns out is on ‘Family Man’ and ace agent Srikant Tiwari (Manoj Bajpayee)’s family comprising determined yet helpless wife Suchi (Priyamani), moony son Atharv (Vedant Sinha) and a very emotional daughter, Dhriti (Ashlesha Thakur).
China is making efforts to expand its presence along the Indo-Chinese border. International defense companies also want to increase deals in military hardware sales by fomenting rebellion, instability and chaos. Srikant Tiwari is made a scapegoat by Meera (Nimrat Kaur, interestingly, a Shaurya Chakra-winning army major’s daughter in real life!), who supervises the destabilization operations, and by Rukma (Jaideep Ahlawat), a drug dealer turned mercenary. Pakistani Major Sameer (Darshan Kumaar) observes what is happening and enters the picture.
Things come to a head when Meera targets Srikant, whose mentor and guru, Kulkarni (Dalip Tahil), has been killed in front of his eyes by Rukma. A time comes when Srikant, injured in the same fracas, is framed and made to look like a traitor. An arrest warrant goes out in his name, and the Tiwari family, accompanied by Srikant’s colleague-cum-best friend, J.K. Talpade (Sharib Hashmi) is forced to be on the run. What happens next?
As characters from the past episodes, like Srikant’s colleague and ex-flame Saloni (Gul Panag), Zoya (Shweta Dhanwanthary), who thinks that Srikant was morally responsible for the death of her love interest in their intelligence team, Prime Minister Basu (Seema Biswas) come in, we also see newer characters like Yatish Chawla (Harman Singha), Dwaraknath (Jugal Hansraj), Colonel Zhulong (Jason Tham), Michael Vedanayagam (Vijay Sethupati in a cameo and more.
Sunil Thapa as David Khuzou, Paalin Kabak as Stephen Khuzou, Ravi Varma as Varaprasad, Andrea Kevichüsa as Nima, Riyan Mipi as the cute Bobby, Millo Sunka as Jesmina, Poonam Gurung as Ulupi and the seasoned and repeated cast that form the bureaucracy in Delhi are also featured. Standing out among them is Aritro Rudraneil Banerjee as Punit, whenever he appears.
Every actor has performed well, and the bulk of that credit also should be shared by the spoken words (Sumit Arora) and screenplay (Raj & DK, Suman Kumar and Tusshar Seyth) and Raj & DK’s fantastic direction. The title-music (Sachin-Jigar) is terrific, the background score (Ketan Sodha), cinematography (Jay Charola) and editing (Sumeet Kotian) ditto.
As for all the main artistes—Manoj, Priyamani, Sharib, Vedant, Ashlesha, Sharib, Seema, Shweta, Gul, Jaideep, Nimrat, Palin, Riyan, Harman and Jugal—they are all surpassingly excellent! Sorry to keep their names short, because it is a long list!
The series marries emotions to action and unites drama and humor seamlessly and every episode makes us want to make a dash pronto to the next. In web series, every agent or police officer has a (often unnecessary) backstory, but this time, since the title itself is what it is, the arcs of the storyline and characters are skillfully integrated into an espionage plot. At the end of Season 2, Suchi had come to know what Srikant, the Family Man, actually does for a living, and this time it is the kids realizing this in a humorous sequence!
The climax, where I guessed some of the baddies will not be eliminated to facilitate a future season, has left me waiting for Season 4, and I seriously want Raj & DK to waste no time in bringing an equally, if not more riveting, Season 5.
Rating: ****
Amazon Prime Video presents The Family Man Season 3 Created, produced & directed by: Raj & DK Written by: Raj & DK, Suman Kumar, Tusshar Seyth & Sumit Arora Music: Sachin-Jigar & Ketan Sodha Starring: Manoj Bajpayee, Priyamani, Sharib Hashmi, Jaideep Ahlawat, Nimrat Kaur, Gul Panag, Shweta Dhanwanthary, Seema Biswas, Dalip Tahil, Vedant Sinha, Ashlesha Thakur, Harman Singha, Jugal Hansraj, Jason Tham, Vijay Sethupati, Sunil Thapa, Paalin Kabak, Ravi Varma, Andrea Kevichüsa, Riyan Mipi, Millo Sunka, Poonam Gurung, Aritro Rudraneil Banerjee, Sundeep Kishan, Darshan Kumaar & others
