The Family Man Analysis

The Family Man

Available on: Amazon Prime Video

Created, Directed & Produced by: Raj & DK

Starring: Manoj Bajpayee

The Family Man is a show about a middle-class man, Srikanth, secretly working in a secret agency in India. The writing of this show is so strong on structure, there are 4-5 subplots and all of them merge so seamlessly all the time. The look and the color of this show worked the best for me, it felt true to the locality and to Indian visual aesthetics. Even in Mirzapur, the look was good, it feels Indian to see with muted colors. Whereas in Sacred Games, they use a lot of yellow and blue like all other Netflix originals which gives it a Fincher-esque look but it doesn't feel like it's happening close to us. 

There is the main plot, which is Srikanth being with his colleagues trying to prevent terrorist attacks from happening. This plot is merged with whatever that's happening in these episodes, be it a scooter blast, be it whatever that happens with Kareem, be it interrogating a terrorist Moosa who has another subplot for himself in the show, be it arresting suspicious guys and interrogating them, he going to Srinagar on temporary transfer, he and his colleagues Talpade and Pasha. All of these fall under this plot, which is the A-plot, which defines the show.

There is a side-kick plot, where Srikanth's wife Suchi, is feeling lonely and is looking for some change in her life and things start happening when she changes her job at the trust of her friend Arvind. It isn't right to judge Suchi, we don't know much about Arvind though but we understand what's going on with Suchi. She doesn't want to be in an affair and spoil her marriage, but after all, she is a woman who wants something from life and from the past decade or so her life has been all about looking after the kids and hustling for the family. She feels she deserves to have a good time and to do something for herself too. She starts getting some appreciation when she does good at the new job, which is what she's been wanting for a long time. It's interesting to see where it goes, we don't know if something happened at the hotel when both of them found difficult to sleep.

There is another track, which goes from the perspective of the terrorists who plan a mission. This takes place in Pakistan.

There is another track of Srikanth spending time with his kids, Drithi and Atharv. Both the kids are written very well, the things that they say and the events which are written feel so relatable. There are some interesting dynamics explored here as well.

This is one of my favorite tracks, Moosa the terrorist who gets caught and is now in a hospital who says that he is been wronged into it and he just wants to meet his mother. He has moments with the nurse who spends a lot of time with him, listens to his vulnerabilities and although it feels a little convenient it never feels contrived. There is a long take action scene in the hospital and it left me shocked as to how they pulled it off, there is a lot of movement, there are doors opening and closing and it felt impossible to do it on a long take. It's sheer brilliance.

For me the best part of the show was the presence of Manoj Bajpayee, whenever he is on screen, he just lets the scene flow. There is a lot of comedy that he does, without coming out of the tone of the scene. Priyamani, as Suchi, also plays the character with conviction and the actor who played Dhrithi, was on point, I think it isn't a very different character from who she is in real life but she played it so good. The show is engaging and binge-worthy.