With Raj & DK taking the series into the Northeast and introducing Jaideep Ahlawat’s formidable Rukma, Season 3 delivers scale and sporadic thrills, even as the plotting wobbles and the emotional core feels thinner
Srikant Tiwari (Manoj Bajpayee) is a family man, no doubt, but his idea of a family doesn’t seem confined to a wife, children, parents, in-laws and other peripherals. It stretches well into his work and the nation at large, if you will, and he cannot escape the fact that at least one of the two families of his always needs him.
In Season 2 of the Amazon Prime original, a huge composite militant army planned to assassinate Indian Prime Minister Proneeta Basu (Seema Biswas), with Srikant’s own daughter, Dhriti Tiwari (Ashlesha Thakur), nearly falling prey to the deadly plot. It became apparent that things would increasingly get personal for Srikant, who bites many a bullet to maintain the status quo on all fronts. He returns once again, unwittingly so, in the new season to tend to situations that only raise those personal stakes and demand his aching, slowly disengaging mind and body to get to work.
Family Man Season 3 is created by Raj & DK, with Suman Kumar developing its 7 episodes, and the trio (also sharing direction credits along with Tusshar Seyth) is cognizant of the show’s expected deliverables. Season 3 falls into the same trap that every new iteration of a multi-season show across the globe does, in that it exists primarily to lean on its established comforts. However, a fresh outing cannot be devoid of a (semblance of a) compelling plot spine and character ensemble, and the makers manage to tick a few of those important boxes here.
Action shifts to the Northeast
Season 3’s storyline welcomes Northeast India into its fold, and the ball gets rolling when a series of blasts across Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Mizoram, described as the ‘worst terrorist attack of the decade’, disrupts a lavish plan that had been in the works in the Prime Minister’s Office in New Delhi. Project Sahakar urges rebel groups of the Northeast to sit at the table with Madam Basu to collectively envisage peace and harmony, but a rival operation named Project Guan Yu threatens to obliterate it all before it is even set in motion.
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China’s mischief in setting up belligerent ‘phoenix’ villages in the Myanmar side of the border enters the fray, and so does a major defence deal that binds NRI billionaires, the ISI, international weapon dealers, shadowy troubleshooters and local drug smugglers together. Needless to say, Srikant Tiwari is drawn into the mix without any bait, and it doesn’t take long before the labyrinth comes to be anchored in him.
Manoj Bajpayee’s performance reflects the familiarity he shares with Srikant Tiwari, and the charm lies in how the 56-year-old makes small but effective tweaks to showcase the character’s sinuous journey.
As though mandated by a self-drawn bible, Season 3 of Family Man juggles the personal with the professional at all times, and even ends up stretching itself a bit too thin in the pursuit. On the one hand is Tiwari’s perennially wilting marriage and familial dynamics that he can never get himself to fit in; his wife, Suchitra (Priyamani), cannot wipe the disappointment off her face, and her two children don’t believe a word he utters.
On the other hand, a new freelance assassin, Rukma (Jaideep Ahlawat), arrives in town and immediately hurts Tiwari in a way he couldn’t imagine, prompting him to go on a frantic manhunt across Nagaland and Myanmar. If Zoya Ali’s (Shreya Dhanwanthary) re-entry into the Threat Analysis and Surveillance Cell (TASC) opens his old wounds of having to sacrifice innocent men during his missions, a rebel outfit named MCA-S further convolutes the plot of apprehending Rukma.
Moments to savour
Season 3 lays out a massive buffet of devices for itself. There’s Saloni (Gul Panag), a fellow agent who was once Tiwari’s beloved. There’s Suchitra’s own professional struggle that comes as another nod to contemporary Indo-China relations. Dhriti and her brother Atharv (Vedant Sinha) struggle as young adults, while Zoya complicates her resumption at work in unwarranted ways. Rukma and international fixer Meera Eston (Nimrat Kaur) branch out merrily on their own at times as the very pertinent insurgency angle originating in Myanmar (and supposedly fuelled by China) broods on the side.
The drama shuffles across winding roads of Kohima, hinterland regions along the borderlands, posh London enclaves and stately government offices, and it is ambitious of the series to take all this and so much more (trust me, there’s a heck of a lot to wrap your head around) on its plate. But the overindulgence doesn’t stay hidden as the narrative unfolds.
Of the things that succeed, Rukma’s personal angle brings a distinct family motif to the story, and there are many moments to savour in this subplot. Rukma is introduced as the run-of-the-mill trigger-happy villain with a share of quirks, but it is to the writers’ credit that a tender side to his personality doesn’t feel forced, nor does it perturb the main flow of events.
Ahlawat was recently seen scurrying on the streets of Nagaland as the steadfast cop Hathiram Choudhary in Paatal Lok Season 2, and the actor is effortless in switching personalities as well as moralities for Season 3. Although the gradual buildup of his new character’s personal life eventually, and frustratingly, yields little that is of significance to the story, the limited journey still leaves an impression that lingers.
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The grand act of tying the countless threads together isn’t without visible knots, but writers Raj & DK and Suman Kumar don’t take their eyes off the show’s USP: the sudden bursts of well-choreographed action. The story presents many opportunities for them to stage sequences that are a mix of shootouts, thrilling bike stunts, hand-to-hand combats, pyrotechnics, etc., that elegantly consider the geography of the place they are set in. The final two episodes, in particular, distract us from the gaping holes in the storytelling as they lay a near-singular focus on cross-border tensions and the delectable showdown between Rukma and Tiwari; although the latter could have been fleshed out better with punchier lines and more inventive scene design.
Vaulting ambition, cursory approach
Manoj Bajpayee’s performance reflects the familiarity he shares with Srikant Tiwari, and the charm lies in how the 56-year-old makes small but effective tweaks to showcase the character’s sinuous journey. The fatigue of a man who feels obligated yet incredibly dedicated to his duty is seen in Bajpayee’s physical expressions, be it the way Tiwari stares blankly in resignation or ploughs ahead knowing he cannot rest till he sees the end of his current mission.
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Nimrat Kaur as the snazzy Meera gets her moments to shine, and she plays the now-staple role on the web with conviction. Priyamani, Ashlesha Thakur and Shreya Dhanwanthary though get short-changed with roles that barely have much to add except be tools to help the plot move ahead, whereas seniors like Seema Biswas, Aditya Srivastava and Vipul Sharma do the best they can with their stock characters.
One could also note that the makers of the show felt a lot more at home exploring the worlds of the previous two seasons. A grouse against Paatal Lok Season 2 is that, although it does not exoticise, it lacked intimacy with the setting and its inhabitants, and Family Man Season 3 is perhaps guilty of that as well. The scope is much larger in the latter case to take us deep into the workings of the political structures and the rebel factions, as well as the routines of the everyday life of the region.
There is a marked difference compared to Paatal Lok, but the perspective here still remains slightly restricted to the old protagonists, which means that a new set of players — Paalin Kabak as MCA-S chief Stephen Khuzou, for instance — don’t become as recognisable as a Srikant Tiwari and a JK (Sharib Hashmi).
Season 3 is ultimately a melange of elements that work very well and others that are glaringly underexplored. Its vaulting ambition gets compromised by a cursory approach, leading to results that don’t carry the same bite as before. The antagonism is milder, the jokes aren’t as organic, and the story doesn’t emotionally tether the way it should have been. But the popcorn thrills somehow make up for the lack of bite in the storytelling, and that just about suffices.
