The Family Man 2- For the first time an OTT web series presents Love Jihad the way it is
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- Animesh Pandey
In 2011, a movie named ‘Chillar Party’ was released. It had a very profound dialogue, ‘We must stand up for what is right, even if it makes others unhappy.’ Looks like the director duo Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK took that dialogue quite seriously because the way ‘Love Jihad’ has been portrayed in the second season of the espionage series, ‘The Family Man’ — sends a positive signal in terms of the changing narrative in the OTT space.
Recently, the second season of ‘The Family Man’ streamed on 4 June on Amazon Prime Video. It is directed by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK. It stars Manoj Bajpayee and Samantha Akkineni in principal roles, and they are supported by actors like Sharib Hashmi, Priyamani, Ravindra Vijay, Sunny Hinduja, Shreya Dhanwantary, Kaustubh Kumar, and, Dalip Tahil as the list goes on.
The second season of ‘The Family Man’ shows that after barely managing to save Delhi from a murderous gas attack, the main protagonist Shrikant Tiwari quits ‘TASC’ and joins a private job so that he can give more time to his family. However, he misses the risks and the thrills associated with his job as a ‘TASC’ analyst from the NIA. How this attraction makes him rejoins ‘TASC’, and how he saves his nation from the challenges posed by a mysterious rebel, makes the crux of the current season.
If the pacing issues are left aside, the second season is undoubtedly a brilliant watch. However, the most interesting aspect of this series is the way love jihad has been portrayed in this series. Nobody is unaware of how some radical Muslim boys pose as non-Muslims to trap and sexually exploit non-Muslim girls, especially from the Hindu community.
However, be it Bollywood or OTT platforms, love jihad is something that is looked down upon and mocked. Some laugh it off as a mere ‘figment of imagination’, and some attempt to portray it as an evil ploy of Hindutva activists to destroy humanity. Previously, in a show on Sony LIV titled ‘A Simple Murder’, the issue of love jihad was mocked, and anybody who protested against this phenomenon was shown in an extremely negative light. Likewise, in Netflix’s ‘Leila’, a Hindu woman is tortured in ‘Aryavart’ just because she was in a relationship with a Muslim man.
However, to everyone’s surprise, the portrayal of love jihad in ‘The Family Man’ is extremely different. Here is it shown how radicalised Muslims pose as Hindus and sexually exploit women in the name of love. A radicalised Muslim guy befriends an important character in this series by posing as a Hindu. He later kidnaps her and attempts to sexually exploit her as well. Nothing, and I say nothing, has been shown without any kind of justification that is often notorious among the left liberals.
The way the important character learns the reality of the boy, and the troubles she has to face because of that, is what makes this series different. Now who is this character, and how she is tortured, is something for which you will have to watch the entire second season of ‘The Family Man’ very carefully.
The way love jihad has been realistically portrayed in this series, is something, which can rightfully be called a positive step in the right direction. Before ‘The Family Man,’ we have seen or rather have been compelled to watch series that have continuously insulted and mocked the indigenous culture, in the name of showing ‘something different’. The Family Man’s first season itself was stuffed with some such scenes, which were not even necessary to the plot.
However, the way ‘The Family Man’ has taken subtle digs on important issues without being biased towards a particular community is something for which it deserves a loud round of applause. We are not sure about Tamil Nadu, but the ‘woke citizens’ of the country will not able to digest the second season of the series at all. The way Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK have portrayed various issues, including love jihad in the most realistic way possible, is something for which they need a standing ovation.
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