‘The Family Man’ trailer is promising

Manoj Bajpayee has excelled in his portrayals of ordinary men in the past. The accomplished actor will be now seen in The Family Man, an Amazon Prime Video web series directed by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK, better known as Raj and DK. The action-packed series with an unusual story will be available for Prime Video subscribers on September 20.

The official trailer shows Bajpayee as Srikant, a seemingly ordinary middle- class man attempting to strike a fine balance between his family life and professional commitments. He doesn’t succeed in doing so, or so it seems.

The synopsis accompanying the trailer informs that Srikant works with a special cell of the National Intelligence Agency. It adds, “While he tries to protect the nation from terror threats, he also has to protect his family from the impact of his secretive, high-pressure, and low paying job.”

Trailers, which introduce films and serials, are frequently misleading. A collage of moments might not give a reasonable idea about the product in its entirety. That said, The Family Man comes across as a series with an interesting plot that should engage and entertain the viewer.

Bajpayee appears to have sunk his teeth into the role of the protagonist with a tough professional life. Being an undercover spy, he cannot discuss the activities of his job with his wife. The trailer shows a sequence in which he lies to her that he has picked up their kids from the school. He is caught red-handed because the wife has done that already. In another sequence, he has a difficult time dealing with the school principal when she talks to him about his kids. Plucked from everyday realities of life, such moments shall be relatable for most viewers.

Srikant tries to avoid confrontations on the streets. But he is the same man who wears bulletproof jackets and tracks down terrorists, who have their roots in Kashmir. That real-life newspaper headlines have inspired the writing of the story suggests that the makers have tried to create realistic moments in the series.

Speaking to IANS sometime ago, Bajpayee had said, “There is a lot of content out there for people to watch, so it becomes essential for us to not only make our series sincerely and sensitively but also to tell a unique story — something that concerns the common man and his uncommon life with his extraordinary struggle.”

The Family Man also stars Priyamani, Gul Panag, Dalip Tahil, Sharib Hashmi, Neeraj Madhav, Sharad Kelkar, Sunny Hinduja and Shreya Dhanwanthary. Except for the wife’s character played by Priyamani, the trailer doesn’t reveal much about any other character in the series. What is amply clear is that Bajpayee’s character is not a cardboard cutout, and it is he, the ‘family man,’ who will take the centre stage throughout the series.

Now that we have seen the trailer, let us wait for September 20