The Family Man 3 review: Manoj Bajpayee-Jaideep Ahlawat show is frantic yet obvious

The Family Man Season 3 starts from where Season 2 had left off, with top TASC agent Srikant (Manoj Bajpayee) finding himself embroiled in a snowballing crisis in Nagaland. The stakes are higher than ever. Serial bombs have claimed lives. A major casualty can be the high-profile ‘Project Sahakar’, which we are told is on the verge of being signed by ‘all rebel leaders’ in the North East: it is an initiative close to pro-active PM Basu’s (Seema Biswas) heart, meant to address long-standing grievances, and hold out promise of lasting peace and prosperity.

You can be struck, as I was, at the picturesque North Eastern region popping up again as the location for a popular show: Pataal Lok season 2, which came at the beginning of the year, was set there too. But that’s not a problem, because everywhere the camera turns, the scenery is quite breath-taking, with a crucial plot-point dropping right in the first episode, in the bloody dismissal of a couple of key characters.

The problem really is the way this much-anticipated season starts off with a bang, and then slackens and peters out as it goes along. And that has nothing to do with the actors, who go wherever the script wants to take them: Manoj Bajpayee is still the beating heart of the show, as is Sharib Hashmi as his trusty second-in-command; Priyamani continues to be as watchable too. The trouble has to do with the writing, which is at once frantic yet obvious, with its lashings of filmi dialogue strewn all over the seven episodes: how can you take a head of state seriously who says ‘yeh kursi meri hai, aur meri hi rahegi’? Even a seasoned performer like Seema Biswas can’t get past that sort of dialogue.

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The pace feels fine till the half-way mark, where we are filled in with the goings on in the lives of fumbling family man-cum-expert spy Srikant and wife Suchi (Priyamani) and their children Dhriti (Ashlesha Thakur) and Atharv (Vedant Sinha). Things between the couple are still strained — no spoiler here, as the previous season hinted at Suchi being excessively sweet on a colleague. A new house, which the four have moved into, could just be a new beginning, even though Srikant is still desperately trying to be cool, asking if he passes the ‘vibe check’ and other cringey dad stuff.

For a while, the new entrants keep us busy with their to-ing and fro-ing. The chief antagonist is Jaideep Ahlawat whose drug lord Rukma Bhai is the local points-person for the reps of a global weapons cartel — Jugal Hansraj and Nimrat Kaur — busy pushing deadly wares into India. The former is based out of a fancy mansion in the UK, the latter, dressed in immaculately-cut power-suits, globe-trots while hopping in and out of helicopters and border outposts, with nary a hair out of place. A slain Naga leader’s son (Paalin Kabak) is gathering forces along the Indo-Myanmar border, trying to get back to his position in Kohima; his rivals are ready for conflict. There are dark mutterings about China and Pakistan in the PM’s office, with ‘intel’ about ‘covert military ops’ being leaked: who is the ‘foreign hand ka hand’? And who, hold your breath, is the mole inside TASC?

That’s a lot to unpack. As in the previous seasons, the show goes off on brief tangents, but keeps returning to its North East hot-spots, with our bravehearts Sri and JK (Sharib Hashmi) and able company standing firm against the enemies of the nation, helped by ex-flame current on-ground partner (Gul Panag), conflicted agent (Shreya Dhanwantry) working in tandem with a man on a mission (Harman Singha). Then there is PM Basu and her babus, Vipin Sharma returning from the previous seasons, along with Aditya Srivastava, whose job is to come up with ideas only to be shot down.

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But despite everything the over-busy, straining-towards-chaos plot throws at us — agents on the run, moles, blasts, bodies, kidnaps, chases — Season 3 runs out of steam unseasonally. What can you do if you can’t keep the principals and the supporting cast as interesting as they have been in the past? I missed Samantha Ruth Prabhu, whose steely presence lifted the previous season, which remains the best of the lot: it takes the brief appearance of the stoic SIM-card-changing Chellam Sir and a walk-on character who shall remain a secret to perk things up. The insertion of the family man’s family plumb in the middle of a dangerous operation comes off forced; and none of the baddies, which include Ahlawat in his straggly man-bun and soft-spots, and Kaur in her spiffy costumes, are menacing enough.

The dialogues in Family Man were always explanatory so I wasn’t really expecting much nuance this time around, but here the explication is ratcheted: two Naga leaders talking to each other about how ‘peace is finally around the corner because Delhi is now listening to them’? The underlining jars. An interlude featuring Srikant and his kids when he finally ‘fesses up about his profession is another example: aap spy ho, remarks the son without missing a beat, or words to that effect, and the moment of truth turns into a jokey line. Kaur is made to say ‘I’m chuffed’ not once, but twice, before dipping into the choicest invective. And ‘that ship has sailed’ becomes ‘woh bus nikal chuki’ in its subtitle.

I thoroughly enjoyed season 2, and had high hopes of Season 3, but after a point this one doesn’t cut it. I’m still invested in Sri and JK and Suchi — the idea of a seasoned spy as a family man has long, strong legs –so I do hope things will get fixed for the fourth season.

The Family Man 3 cast: Manoj Bajpayee, Sharib Hashmi, Jaideep Ahlawat, Priyamani, Aslesha Thakur, Vedant Sinha, Seema Biswas, Harman Singha, Paalin Kabak, Shreya Dhanwantry, Jugal Hansraj, Dalip Tahil, Vipin Sharma, Darshan Kumar, Aditya Srivastava
The Family Man 3 directors: Raj & DK, Suman Kumar, Tusshar Seyth
The Family Man 3 rating: 2.5 stars

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