The Family Man

Created, directed and produced by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. who also co-wrote the story and screenplay with Suman Kumar, and dialogues were penned by Sumit Arora and Suman Kumar, The Family Man is an Indian espionage action thriller streaming television series on Amazon Prime Video. The series features Manoj Bajpayee as Srikant Tiwari, a middle-class man secretly working as an intelligence officer for the Threat Analysis and Surveillance Cell (TASC), a fictitious branch of the National Investigation Agency. It also stars Priyamani, Sharad Kelkar, Neeraj Madhav, Sharib Hashmi, Dalip Tahil, Sunny Hinduja and Shreya Dhanwanthary. The Family Man drama  unfolded in Mumbai, Delhi, and Kashmir. 

1) "The Family Man": The Indian Coast Guard captures three ISIS terrorists in Arabian Sea near Kochi. Force One is tasked to handle the transportation of these personnel under TASC supervision. Meanwhile, Dhriti, daughter of Srikant Tiwari (Manoj) who works for TASC, is on the brink of suspension from school for her activities. The ISIS personnel tries to escape in Mumbai which results in a shooting by Force One. Srikant convinces Moosa, one of the ISIS operatives to surrender. Meanwhile, in Pakistan, Major Sameer is planning a mission in India to force India into taking military action. One of the ISIS militant plants a scooter bomb and is considered by Sameer for Mission Zulfiqar.

2) "Sleepers": The bomb planted by ISIS militants in the scooter near Black Horse (Kaala Goda) statue explodes even after the security forces try to defuse it. Pressure increases to find the bomber. Chief analysts of T.A.S.C receive information about three gaming engineers who are linked with ISIS. Srikant plans to arrest them. After arresting them at their company, on interrogation they mention a dropbox and strongly suspect it is a student in Victoria College but they reveal that they have never met him face to face.

3) "The Anti-National": Under the instructions of T.A.S.C., local police monitors the dropbox. Meanwhile, in college, Karim is contacted by ISIS for a mission. In Pakistan, Major Sameer plans to misguide the intelligence of India to throw them off their trail. Karim, at Victoria College, picks up a message from the dropbox and hence falls in the radar of T.A.S.C. T.A.S.C sets up surveillance at Karim's room and finds that he is planning something with a floor plan and guest list. However, Karim has his suspicions that he is being watched and gives T.A.S.C the slip. Karim with two of his friends are shown preparing a van to get into a party. T.A.S.C scrambles to find his location otherwise they will have to evacuate the market.

4) "Patriots": Srikant suspects that his wife is having an affair with Arvind, whereas Suchitra is just meeting Arvind for a new job offer. However, Srikant traces her phone and confronts her at the hotel, where Suchitra and Arvind are just having drinks. T.A.S.C is meanwhile able to hack into Karim's hard drive and they figure out the location of the strike. On night of attack by him, Karim and his friends run into the road blocks set up by T.A.S.C. One of Karim's friend starts shooting and hence all three are shot down in the return fire. T.A.S.C finds out that their plan was to just feed beef to the guests in the party and not to bomb the place. Srikant reaches home drunk and accuses Suchitra of having an affair. Karim and his friends are branded as terrorists to save T.A.S.C's face. In the last scene, it is shown that the actual person responsible for the scooter bombing is, in fact, Sajid, also a student from Victoria College, who has just been released from jail after a rough interrogation.

5) "Pariah": Sajid meets with ISIS agents who tell him that they have bigger plans for him and Karim was sacrificed to protect his identity. Srikant is under investigation and during interrogation assumes all the blame on himself. Guilt ridden, Srikant visits Karim's girlfriend Jonali and tells her that Karim is not a terrorist. On the other hand, Moosa seduces nurse Mary to meet his ends. He is able to make a call using Mary's cellphone and informs ISIS militants that he will escape from hospital in 2-3 days. In the middle of having sex with Mary, he leaves his hospital room to see Asif. There Moosa kills Asif by injecting Potassium into his blood. Sajid's next task is to go to Srinagar for Mission Zulfiqar. Meanwhile, Srikant is temporarily transferred to Srinagar as punishment. He and Suchitra are still not on speaking terms. When Srikant reaches Srinagar, Kulkarni then tells him that there is a reason for his transfer as they received intel from R&AW about a key terrorist sleeper agent coming to Srinagar.

6)"Dance of Death": In flashback, it is shown that Moosa is one of Faizan's top ISIS agent and he had orchestrated a terrorist attack in Istanbul in which he killed 270 people with nerve gas. Major Sameer recruits him for Mission Zulfiqar. At present nurse Mary is scared when she learns about Asif's death but does not reveal the truth to T.A.S.C or any other authorities. Asif's death is attributed to cardiac arrest and the security force is substantially reduced in the hospital while Pasha is suspended. Meanwhile, Srikant flirts with his current CO, Saloni Bhatt, who is coincidentally also his ex-girlfriend. The team at Srinagar is tracking Basharat who supervises every terrorist activity in Kashmir. Srikant has his doubts that Moosa is Al Qatil and asks Talpade and Pasha to rush to the hospital. At the hospital, Jayesh, Zoya and Milind are guarding Moosa, when four armed men attack the hospital in order to free Al Qatil (Moosa). In the fighting that ensues, Jayesh and Pasha are killed along with the four attackers. During the ensuing firefight in hospital, Moosa is able to escape from the hospital but only after brutally murdering Mary with a surgical knife and leaving a trail of bodies behind him.

7) "Paradise": As the news of the attack at hospital spreads, T.A.S.C. faces criticism and investigation. Suchitra goes to help Arvind when his daughter falls sick. In Srinagar, Sajid gets impatient and demands a call with Faizan. Meanwhile, the Indian security forces team gets the intel that Basharat is attending a wedding in Baramulla; however, the residents of Baramulla recognize themselves as Pakistanis and the army cannot enter that area without upsetting the status quo. Basharat attends the wedding to meet Sajid and to get him in touch with Faizan. Srikant, being anxious, enters the wedding in disguise and recognizes Sajid as one of the suspects arrested by Mumbai police. But Srikant continues to pursue Sajid ignoring the warning and orders from Saloni and Major Vikram. Srikant's impulsive actions causes the army to lose Basharat's trail and Sajid easily escapes in Baramulla with support from the locals.

8) "Act of War": Faizan is captured in Pakistan in a operation by U.S. forces. Srikant enters Balochistan with the help of an undercover R&AW agent. They extract information out of Faizan posing as agents from the ISI, appealing to his patriotism towards Pakistan. It is found that the terrorists are planning to release a nerve gas in New Delhi. The gas has been smuggled into Kashmir over time and is now being transported to Delhi. Sajid is supposed to transport the nerve gas and build the bomb together with Moosa. The PM of India is alerted about this plan. Suchitra goes to Lonawala for a conference and impresses the VCs. Dhriti being home alone goes to a late night party at her friend's house and Atharv finds Srikant's revolver in the locked room; being curious, he starts playing with it, but puts it under the pillow, when Dhriti comes home.

9) "Fighting Dirty": Some officials of T.A.S.C accidentally send an SMS to Jonali from Karim's phone. This make Jonali curious and she goes on a search for Karim's body-cam which is hidden in an abandoned car. Pakistan's PM makes a deal with General Ansari and General Ansari abandons Mission Zulfiqar. Major Sameer is arrested by 1/11 infantry of Pakistan army and provides the details of the nerve gas attack when he finds out about General Ansari's deal, but is able to warn Basharat, who catches up with Sajid and warns him but the Indian army is able to procure all the nerve gas canisters and Basharat dies in a cross-fire. Moosa is planning another attack by blackmailing a chemical engineer, Vaibhav, in New Delhi. Sajid meets with Moosa in New Delhi where Moosa informs him that there is a plan B for Mission Zulfiqar.

10) "The Bomb": T.A.S.C. realizes that Mission Zulfiqar is not over. Moosa's plan is to recreate the Bhopal Gas Tragedy in New Delhi. Sajid blackmails Vaibhav to gain entry into Orion chemical plant. Moosa's men commandeer a water tank which Moosa uses as a reagent for the toxic reaction. Moosa and Sajid get into the chemical plant and Moosa kills Vaibhav. Moosa sets up the plant to spew toxic gases which will kill everyone in Delhi within 2 hours. Zoya and Milind enter the chemical plant and end up in a cross-fire with Moosa's men disguised as security guards. Srikant meets Moosa's mother in Delhi and releases a video in the news in which Moosa's mother appeals to him to surrender. Moosa changes his mind and decides to stop the toxic gas from leaking but Sajid disagrees and kills Moosa. Srikant and Talpede again prematurely celebrate their victory when they find Moosa's dead body. Meanwhile, Zoya and Milind are pinned in the cross-fire and are unable to reach Srikant. In the last scene, it is shown that the pressure has reached the critical limit and the toxic gases have started leaking while Zoya cries in desperation. Suddenly, one of the containers bursts open after reaching the critical pressure, and the show ends on a cliffhanger.

While season 1 kept me wondering, how and who is The Family Man, the second season began with an answer to it.   The Family Man season 2 stars Manoj Bajpayee, Sharad Kelkar, Priyamani and Sharib Hashmi reprising their roles from the first season while Samantha Akkineni has also been roped in for a pivotal role. This marks Samantha’s debut in a web series. Several Tamil actors including Mime Gopi, Ravindra Vijay, Devadarshini Chetan, Anandsami, and N Alagamperumal also play important roles in the web series. Amazing characters, well played.  In the second season, the story was set in Chennai, London, Mumbai, and Delhi.

Uday Mahesh (Chellam) is one we all loved.  He’s the most cautious person in the country; he carries multiple phones and even knows how to smartly discard SIM cards once the job is done. And he’s an encyclopaedia of information and data that helps JK successfully finish the operation. One wonders how his earlier days at TASC must be. Who all are there in the family? Did he have to face some really unpleasant experiences that made him so cautious? If any character from The Family Man universe deserves spin off series, then it has to be the mysterious Chellam hands down!

Devadarshini Chetan (Umayal) She is tough and hot-tempered and that’s evident when she throws away JK’s phone in the water. But when she realizes about JK’s real identity, she goes out of her way and even offers to pay for his new mobile phone. And her coolness comes to the fore when she asks JK to prepare a larger peg of whiskey and even admits nonchalantly that she won’t mind a cigarette. Raji overpowered her badly but one can’t take away the fact that she gave her best shot.

Ravindra Vijay (Muthu Pandian) He is likeable from the first scene especially when he taunts JK without him knowing about it. He also has issues with the stereotyping of people belonging to the South of India. But he’s friendly, he’s brave and he’s always there for his colleagues and the country at large.

Late Asif Basra (Counselor) He raises a lot of laughs with the way he would rattle off quotes. He’s so angry with Srikant’s behaviour that he tells the receptionist to charge him Rs. 5000 instead of Rs. 3000. He also forces his patients to buy a book which is said to be complimentary but is actually sold to them at a discounted price! However, towards the end, he wins hearts when he makes an important statement that truth does not always set one free. One really feels sad that such a fine actor had to end his life and is not alive to see how much people are raving about his performance.

Dhriti (Ashlesha Thakur) She was present even in Season 1 as the rebellious daughter of Srikant and Suchi. In her quest to continue with her cool attitude, she gets into a relationship with Kalyan (Abhay Verma). One thing leads to another and she gets kidnapped. At this juncture, the manner in which she eliminates Kalyan aka Salman and even saves herself from Sajid (Shahab Ali) while locking herself in the room was brave. Dhriti proves she has her father’s genes and can make for a great agent in the future!

Deepan (N Alagamperumal)He is the voice of sanity among the Tamil rebels. He stresses on dialogue rather than violence and even helps the agencies in locating Bhaskaran (Mime Gopi). It is his Gandhian approach that makes him really awesome.

Seema Biswas (Basu)She essays the part of the Prime Minister of India and is shown to be stubborn and adamant. There’s clear intel that she can lose her life if she goes ahead with the meeting with the Sri Lankan Prime Minister in Chennai. Yet, the way she decides to take the risk makes her a hero of sorts.

Corporate Life = Screen, Chair, Printer, Coffee Machine, Celebration, Dining in fancy expensive restaurants  AND 'Don't be a MINiMUM guy'; the five letter mantra - definition of minimum is defined by respective bosses 

The Family Man is returning soon with its third season.  The new season rolled out on Amazon Prime Video revived many twists and turns from the first season. A source close to the development informed the portal that Srikant Tiwari, JK, and his colleagues will reunite again on a new mission. According to the post-credit scenes of season 2, the upcoming one will be set in the Covid times. The report further revealed that Srikant will not be fighting with the invisible virus, but he will be tackling the Chinese troops.  The makers might be looking forward to the North Eastern belt of India for the major part of season 3. It will reportedly be set in Nagaland alongside Kolkata, Mumbai, and Delhi.