Prabhathalovesmovies – Page 3 – Rigobertha Reviews

Irrespective of how The Family Man Season 2 has been viewed, the common thread has been the talented Samantha Akkineni’s performance. Even those who haven’t liked the show that much have praised her performance. In fact there are many who have said that she outshone Manoj Bajpayee

Samantha has always been an actress with potential, examples being Rangasthalam and Super Deluxe. In Rangasthalam, she played a completely deglamourised part and challenging particularly given the roles that Samantha had done before then. However, she rose up to the challenge and delivered a very good performance.

Super Deluxe was another interesting part as she played the role of an adulterous. It is not a role that many actresses would take on but Samantha once again showed her ability to pick unique parts. In spite of sharing screen space with Fahadh Fassil, she more than stood her own.

However, as The Family Man has shown, those two films were just teasers. Samantha’s Raji is someone who comes across as a quiet person and as someone who doesn’t want to draw too much attention to herself. In fact she lets men grope her and touch her inappropriately. However, there is a suppressed rage that is visible, and that rage comes out in the brilliantly executed action scene. From a girl who is scared, she transforms into a killer within seconds.

In various interviews Samantha has said that she doesn’t look at her character as a villain and it is quite clear why she said that when you finish watching the series. Raji is someone who has faced brutality at the hands of not just Sri Lankan soldiers, but also at the hands of men and society at large. Therefore her anger is directed not just towards the government but also patriarchy.

Samantha embodied all the shades of her character perfectly and delivered a terrific performance. She was also excellent in the action scenes. Through her character, director duo Raj and DK showed how a freedom fighter is a terrorist for a person who is on the other side of the fence. In this case, it is Manoj Bajpayee’s Srikant Tiwari.

Here’s hoping that Samantha will continue to deliver very good performances and go from strength to strength.

For those who haven’t seen the first season the plot is about Srikant Tiwari who lives a double life. On one hand he appears to be a regular middle- class man who works in a government office pushing files for a living but he is actually an agent at the threat analysis and Surveillance cell (TASC). Srikant’s job consists of going after terrorists and looking for clues while bombs are being defused by the experts. The terrorists here are a bunch of people with links to ISIS and Pakistan. The job of Srikant and his team is to uncover the plot and make sure that the plans of the extremists don’t work.

While all this going on there is also the track of Srikant’s family life crumbling. His wife played by Priyamani is on the brink of an affair. His daughter on the other hand is covering up for a boy who’s is pushing pills in their class. To top it the son is a little brat of his own.

What made this plot work was the treatment of the director duo Raj and DK. This can be particularly seen in how they handled the main character. While we are used to seeing spys as larger than life characters Raj and Dk gave a different spin to this character. Some of the best scenes in the series involve Srikant juggling between his personal and professional life. This juggling act makes the character of Srikanth and his world more relatable.

The series also worked for the jugalbandi of Manoj Bajpai and Sharib Hashmi who plays Srikant’s trusted aid. The friendship that the characters share appeared very real thanks to both the actors. Every scene that both of them appeared brings a smile to your face.

The series also deserved appreciation for how it dealt with some of the issues affecting our country. Yes, the treatment could have been better at places but both Raj and DK deserve appreciation for what they have done.

For example there are scenes where we see the Muslim students being rounded up by the policemen for no fault of theirs. You also have videos of mob lynching that are circulated among the students.

You also have a segment on Kashmir when Srikant gets transferred to that place. There is a scene where Gul Panang’s character talks about how common people are the worst effected in the crossfire between Indian army and militants. She almost suggests that there is no difference between army and militants in this matter. Not surprisingly these dialogues didn’t go down too well with the RSS.

Last but not the least, the series gave the opportunity for Manoj Bajpai to lead from the front which is something that we don’t see in commercial Hindi films.

As a result of all these factors the second season has become one of the most awaited web series of this year. Family Man Season 2 was supposed to release in February but it is releasing now due to the controversy that Abbas Ali Zafar’s Tandav faced.

From the trailer of the second season it is very evident that Srikanth is still juggling between his dual duty of being a middle class family man and world class spy. There are witty one liners delivered by Manoj and the camaraderie between him and Sharib Hashmi looks crackling just like the first season.

The thing which I am looking forward most is watching Samantha. It looks like an edgy character with grey shades. Given the talent that Samantha has we can look forward for a powerful performance.

There has also been some controversy regarding Samantha’s character as some people feel that her character of LTTE militant has been shown in an objectionable manner. However, it wouldn’t be appropriate to judge the character based on the teaser. Raj and DK are sensitive directors and in all probability they would have dealt with the story in a responsible way.