B-10 | Friday, September 27, 2019 BOLLYWOOD www.WeeklyVoice.com ‘The Family Man’: An ‘Unputdownable’ Series By Subhash K. Jha to super-success. In “The Family ism and the cultural conundrum Man” they are on irmer ground. of Mumbai in striking yet subtle The Family Man (Amazon Prime The material is strong and con- shades. There are some brilliant Video); Cast: Manoj Bajpai, Shar- stantly interesting. chase sequences on the streets of ib Hashmi, Priyamani; Direction: Issues such as mob-lynching and Mumbai shot with a keen eye for Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK; anti-beef attacks or covert opera- the crowds that disperse magically Rating: * * * and 1/2 (three and a tions overreacting to terror threats, when trouble hits the roads. half stars) are raised organically in the plot Some of the non-pivotal charac- as Srikant (Bajpai) grapples with ters such as the Kashmiri radical The idea of a dull white-collar home and terror (and sometimes Qarim (played by a Kashmiri new ofice-goer moonlighting as an un- terror at home) issues to the best of actor Abrar Qazi) or the Malayali dercover agent is not new. Arnold his abilities. terrorist Moosa (Neeraj Madhav) Schwarzenegger did it in James To be honest, Srikant’s best is wounded in ways that cannot be Cameron’s “True Lies” 25 years plainly inept. He lies to his pretty reiied, are so memorable they ago. Now it is Manoj Bajpai’s turn and smart (much more than he for tend to overshadow the main char- in a 10-part series that is as irre- sure) wife Suchitra (Priyamani) acters. sistible as streetside gol gappas. I and yet somehow manages to get “A Family Man” has a wealth A scene from the gripping new Manoj Bajpayee starrer couldn’t stop binging until it was some respect from his two clever of well-written, deftly shot epi- all done. children (“If dad works so hard in ‘The Family Man’ (Picture: Amazon Prime Video)) sodes that manage to merge the The directorial duo of Raj and his ofice, shouldn’t we be rich by than the larger-than-life heroes hero’s friend played by the verythemes of working-class conlicts DK has a reputation of doing the now?” asks the little boy) more we’ve been watching all this year.talented Sharib Hashmi, to getand terrorism seamlessly. If you unexpected, whether is India’s irst for his ability to wriggle out of Bajpai specialises in playing -a corsome of the best lines. like binge-watching, this one is for zombie ilm (“Go Goa Gone”) or sticky situations than any parental nered Everyman with a dark secretIndeed the spoken lines are not you. Like many of the characters the gamechanging comic chudail virtuosity. It’s refreshing to meet (even in Aligarh he played that).just pithy and pungent they repre- in it, “The Family Man” leaves us ilm “Stree”, which the duo wrotea screen hero many sizes smaller It’s even more refreshing for sent the the colloquial cosmopolitan- viewers with no choice. From Dance Steps To Stardom... India’s longest-running Soap Marks Milestone MUMBAI: The popular tele- without losing the essence of the vision series “Yeh Rishta Kya script.” Shahi added. Kehlata Hai” recently completed “Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai” 3,000 episodes, creating history premiered in 2009 on the Star on Indian television. Producer Plus channel and featured Hina Rajan Shahi says the show man- Khan and Karan Mehra as the aged to stay relevant with chang- lead in the early seasons. ing times for almost a decade pri- “Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai” marily because the makers never has always banked on the great allowed stagnancy to set in. Indian family. The show revolves “Running a show for almost around a large Marwari joint fam- 10 years with 3,000 episodes ily based in Udaipur. is historic for the entire televi- However, the show, along with MUMBAI: They crossed bor- “Pachtaoge”, an interesting cam- Saiyaan” and “Poster Boys” thatsion industry. It is a collectiveits cast, has changed over the de- ders with mostly acting on their eo turn in “Batla House”. got attention. achievement of the people who cade, to accommodate changing minds. Instead, they got typecast “With a project like German-Indian actress Evelyn loved the show for years, as welltimes. as “item girls”. Now, they believe ‘Pachtaoge’, I got to purely show- Sharma has also shown her danc- as the storytellers, who followed Current lead actors Shivangi things are changing. Bollywood case my acting skills to another ing skills, but mostly in music the pulse of the audience,” Shahiand Mohsin are overjoyed with is noticing their acting skills, in- level,” Nora said. She made her videos, including “Anni pa de”. told IANS. the popularity of their characters. sist Nora Fatehi, Elli AvRam and acting debut with “Roar: Tigers If “Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani” and “I think our creative team nev- Over the years, as “Yeh Rishta Evelyn Sharma. The Sundarbans” in 2014. most recently the multi-lingual er allowed to stop the low of theKya Kehlata Hai” steadily headed If it’s about dance and happens Swedish-Greek origin stunner “Saaho”, starring Prabhas, are show. That is the main reason we for its record, it outstripped Ekta to be a recreation, then “Dilbar” Elli AvrRam, has a similar story. some of her ilms that she can managed to keep it relevant. Of Kapoor’s longrunning blockbust- girl Nora is your go-to person She has had a mix of dance and boast about. “‘I have inally course in a daily soap, we have ers such as “Kyunki Saas Bhi in Bollywood right now. Nora, acting projects. She played the learned Hindi now and Telugu is to maintain the core texture of Kabhi Bahu Thi” (with 1,833 who moved from Canada to be- lead actress in “Mickey Virus” completely different. But I’m up the show but we change the - dyepisodes) and “Yeh Hai Mohab- come an actress in Bollywood, and shared screen space with for a good challenge! Other ‘bor- namics between the characters batein” (1,836 episodes). has done some intense drama op- Kapil Sharma in “Kis Kisko- Pyder crossers’ include Katrina Kaif posite Vicky Kaushal in the mu- aar Karoon”, but it was her danceand Jacqueline Fernandez, who sic video of singer Arijit Singh’s numbers in movies like “Fraudhave made names as top stars. Raj Kapoor Charged Re.1 For ‘Teesri Kasam’ MUMBAI: Veteran actor Annu from “Teesri Kasam”. roles in helplessness as I belonged Kapoor has shared the informa- “The producer of ‘Teesri to a not so inancially strong fam- tion that late actor Raj Kapoor Kasam’; Shailendra ji was also ily. But because my father did had charged only Re 1 as fee to the writer of all its songs. Also, not have enough money hence, I act in the 1966 movie “Teesri Raj Kapoorji charged a fee of Re could not do IAS. I was left with Kasam”. 1 to act in the movie which turned no other option to choose from Annu was shooting for an epi- out to be a huge blockbuster,” and that is why I started my - ca sode of “Superstar Singer” as a Annu said. reer in acting by doing Nautanki guest judge. One contestant sang The “Mr. India” actor said: “I shows like ‘Laila Majnu’ and Celebs at the celebrations of 1000 episodes of ‘ Yeh Rishta Kya “Paan khaaye saaiyan humaro” started my career with Nautanki ‘Harishchandra’.” Kehlata Hai’ at Filmcity in Mumbai . (Photo: IANS)

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