Family Man 2 : Review
Amazon has delivered another excellent thriller
Family Man was an instant hit. Family Man 2 again will be another big hit without a doubt. Amazon and Netflix has helped Indians escape the usual cliched entertainment and has seriously upped the game.
Family Man 1 ended in a limbo where the bad guys died but the gas still leaked. Family Man 2 does not tell us quickly as to how that ended bu takes its own time. We see officers suffering from PTSD and cover ups by higher bosses. Indian prime minister has changed.
Srikant has left his TASC job and is now working in an IT company. This angle I feel was needless and perhaps was added only to create some humor. We see all characters Suchi, Srikant, Indian government babus etc. having their own world of lies along with the little children like Dhriti as well. Dhriti continues to surprise and has a big role to play in this season.
The villains this time however have changed. Captain Sameer who is now in England has joined hands with Tamil rebels from Sri Lanka. We have characters similar to Prabhakaran and Amazon has done an excellent job of keeping characters and their motivations politically correct and yet very interesting. There are no one sided characters here. Tamil rebels do come across as human and one can almost sympathize with them.
The broad plot is that the Pakistani ISI agent is exploiting Tamil rebels and geopolitics to carry out an even bigger attack this time and TASC without Srikant has to fight it out. JK (Talpade) has more footage this time and he shines really well. There is more action this time including gun fights and deaths.
But what stands out is how this tale weaves Southern India and Northern India and Mumbai so seemlessly, the diversity is clearly at display and yet the bond that connects us all is too brightly visible. Tamil agent Mutthu, Rebel Raji, ordinary police, everyone is so much Indian in its portrayal. To given an example the antagonist of the story is Raji and throughout the series you end up sympathizing for her. Somewhere in your heart you understand her pain. I think that is something Indian movie industry has always failed do to. Our villains are always too black. Like Mugambo and when it comes to patriotism Indian industry shies away from doing shades of gray with their villains.
Kudos to Amazon for tackling the issue of Love Jihad and grooming gangs as well which I do not think any mainstream movie director would have touched and also special kudos to show it in a human way without a blatant one sided narrative from either sides.
Overall Family Man 2 has raised the bar. It is a must watch.
