The Family Man: What made the Manoj Bajpayee show a winner, in 5 points

With the second season releasing on June 4, here’s revisiting the first season to decode everything that worked for The Family Man.

1. Manoj Bajpayee

There’s no debate about the fact that Manoj Bajpayee is a phenomenal actor but thanks to the wide acceptance of the OTT platforms, the Aligarh actor hit the mainstream spotlight with The Family Man, much like he did in his early days with Satya. While he has appeared in critically acclaimed films like Pinjar, Gali Guleiyan and Gangs of Wasseypur, the so-called commercial cinema has roped in his talent for films like Satyameva Jayate and Baaghi 2 among others. With The Family Man, Bajpayee led the cast from the front and since he was present in more or less all the story arcs, his ubiquitous presence made the show all the more delightful.

Manoj Bajpayee plays Srikant Tiwari in The Family Man.

2. The pan Indian cast

While the trend of releasing pan-Indian movies is at an all-time high, we don’t usually see many films or shows where on-screen talents from different parts of the country come together, while representing their language and culture. The Family Man was leaps and bounds ahead of the curve when it cast Priyamani, Neeraj Madhav, Sundeep Kishan and Kishore from various regional industries and amazed the audience with the ensemble. The show aims to raise the stakes in the upcoming season as they have cast Samantha Akkineni in a pivotal role.

Neeraj Madhav’s performance as Moosa was widely applauded.

3. The well-balanced subplots

One of the biggest worries for a show which promises high-stakes crime drama is the creation of necessary but engaging subplots and in that department, The Family Man was largely successful. The initial few episodes made the audience aware that for Srikant Tiwari, catching terrorists was just as important as attending to his children’s school problems. Even the subplot that deals with Suchitra and Arvind’s will-they-won’t-they relationship was quite effective.

4. The twists

One of the biggest disadvantages of watching umpteen number of crime dramas is that it’s hard to get surprised by a plot twist. And while we have all seen our share of shows, The Family Man kept pulling the rug from under our feet every couple of episodes. Moosa seducing the nurse and escaping custody, the shootout at the hospital, and constant tension through the last ten minutes of the series gave us just the right amount of twists and at no point, did they feel like they just existed for the sake of it. For that, writers Raj & DK and Suman Kumar must be applauded.

5. The inspiration from real-stories

The Family Man isn’t completely based on one real story but is, in fact, inspired from many news stories that happen around us. In some cases, the references are quite obvious – like the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, or social media being used to spy on citizens; there are references here that require sharper general knowledge. This guessing game makes every episode quite an interesting watch.

The Family Man Season 2 starts streaming on Amazon Prime Video from June 4.