<h2>&lsquo;The Family Man 3&rsquo; On: Prime Video Dir: Raj Nidimoru, Krishna DK Cast: Manoj Bajpayee, Jaideep Ahlawat Rating: 3.05/5</h2>
Let&rsquo;s get this clear first, if you don&rsquo;t know it already: the third season of <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/entertainment/web-series/article/the-family-man-3-salaries-manoj-bajpayee-jaideep-ahlawat-fees-revealed-23604397" target="_blank" rel="none noopener">The Family Man </a>doesn&rsquo;t end conclusively. As in, there isn&rsquo;t the usual closure.&nbsp;
Such that the fourth season isn&rsquo;t just imminent &mdash; it&rsquo;d practically be an extension of the current one, for a bit, anyway.&nbsp;
To the point that I felt the seventh episode was gonna lead up to the eighth, for a finale, since most shows/seasons end on an even number of episodes. That&rsquo;s not how it worked.
And no, this this isn&rsquo;t a spoiler for FM3, FFS.&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s simply forewarning to prepare you sufficiently. All the more, as the same advisory helped lessen my disappointment, recently, sitting through Search: The Naina Murder Case (Konkona Sensharma), on JioHotstar. Which is a murder mystery, where the mystery stays under wraps for the following season.&nbsp;
This sucks, when the time gap between two instalments of a series is inordinately long. Although The Family Man, as a franchise, is not a whodunnit.&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s a spy thriller, with &mdash; given its creators <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/entertainment/bollywood-news/article/the-family-man-3-raj-and-dk-admit-nimrat-kaur-and-jaideep-ahlawat-have-expanded-their-vision-23604441" target="_blank" rel="none noopener">Raj &amp; DK </a>have described the protagonist regularly as &ldquo;James Bond from Chembur&rdquo;, i.e. Srikant Tiwari (inimitable Manoj Bajpayee) &mdash; the &lsquo;maximum guy&rsquo;, living between extremities, of adventure, action, adrenaline rush, in service of the state.&nbsp;
Plus, the regular mundaneness of being with wife, kids, over what&rsquo;s essentially a family show, after all (check title).&nbsp;
Evidently, Tiwari Ji has moved on from Chembur. The bigger/better home appears to be in Lower Parel/central Mumbai.&nbsp;
This must be on account of his wife&rsquo;s corporate income, since the family man remains very much the passionately honest government servant: under-paid, under-appreciated, under multiple bosses.&nbsp;
What&rsquo;s not changed, as it can&rsquo;t, so far as this series is concerned, in line with spy thriller as a genre itself &mdash; hence, as true for Zurich-born, British James Bond &mdash; are delusions of grandeur, with respect to national security, hinged on a one-man army&rsquo;s work, that can make or break geopolitics, international trade, global terrorism.&nbsp;
Consider this fantasy fiction: the Indian Prime Minister (Seema Biswas) hosts a press conference! Fiery journalists grill her over the coals.&nbsp;
So does the national news channel, albeit owned by a conflicting business-interest (Jugal Hansraj, such a genial onscreen presence). Indeed, to address local concerns, the PM also travels to the North East!
Which is the setting for FM3. In particular, Nagaland. As with <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/entertainment/bollywood-news/article/exclusive-abhishek-banerjee-addresses-the-pataal-lok-casting-controversy-23593825" target="_blank" rel="none noopener">Paatal Lok 2</a>, also on Prime Video &mdash; equally, like The Family Man, a rare sequel that matches the OG.&nbsp; Chiefly, because it flies you into another world, even if main character energies can&rsquo;t be interchanged.
The series travels with what is its USP, still: an inherent sense of humour, and general lightness of being among the established lead/ensemble cast, the likes of JK (Sharib Hashmi), Chellam Sir (Uday Mahesh), etc.
Besides, that you observe and enjoy the picturesquely green North East, for its virginal view, learning a thing or two about apong (rice wine), sweet pineapples, or Tamil settlers from Myanmar in Manipur.&nbsp;
Of course, with subsequent seasons, one brings more brains onboard. In what may be the first time that I&rsquo;ve noticed &mdash; besides the creators, FM3 credits &ldquo;developed by&rdquo;, to writer-director Suman Kumar.&nbsp;
The story is centred on a popular mainstream spy-trope, that is, the top agent, presumably, gone rogue. The audience knows this ain&rsquo;t true. Someone&rsquo;s sneaking in the system &mdash; so what, if you can identify that mole, from a mile. There&rsquo;s enough to keep you busy.
The background score is a fine mix of local sounds, hip-hop, even the nostalgia track from the late &rsquo;80s, Don&rsquo;t Worry, Be Happy, with a kid here called Bobby McFerrin!&nbsp;
Who&rsquo;s this boy? He&rsquo;s with the expectedly new antagonist, opposite Agent Tiwari. And, who would that be?&nbsp;
My sense is this actor came, before the character, on the script. That&rsquo;s the position the gentle-giant <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/entertainment/television-news/article/kbc-17-jaideep-ahlawat-tells-amitabh-bachchan-about-his-connection-with-jaya-bachchan-23604007" target="_blank" rel="none noopener">Jaideep Ahlawat</a> commands on the OTT screen, currently.&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s kinda hard to place his part. He knows the lay of the (Naga) land, but speaks in a fairly Haryanvi twang, and is strangely named Rukmangadha.
He&rsquo;s a gun on hire, and runs the drug trade for big money. What he does with the multi-million dollars is, honestly, beyond me!&nbsp;
What you wait for, though, is the Heat (1995)-like moment, where the hero (Bajpayee, law-enforcer) and villain (Ahlawat, law unto himself) meet. Ahlawat&rsquo;s character calls this meeting &ldquo;soldier to soldier&rdquo;. That it&rsquo;s anything, but; worth it, all the same.&nbsp;
Can that also be said for FM3, after what&rsquo;s been a four-year wait since the second season? Yup.&nbsp;
Something hardly true for a few third/fourth seasons of popular shows I&rsquo;ve attempted to watch, lately, and simply given up after a couple of episodes (Delhi Crime 3, Maharani 4).&nbsp;
In fact, I feel a fair bit of FOMO for FM4, already. That&rsquo;s the thing with how the season ends. Long live The Family Man then. &nbsp;

The Family Man 3 ends without closure, setting up Season 4 as a direct continuation. The new season shifts to Nagaland, blending humour, scenic storytelling

The Family Man 3 Web Review: The maximum man, always!

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To the point that I felt the seventh episode was gonna lead up to the eighth, for a finale, since most shows/seasons end on an even number of episodes. That’s not how it worked

The Family Man 3 Web Review: The maximum man, always!

‘The Family Man 3’
On: Prime Video
Dir: Raj Nidimoru, Krishna DK
Cast: Manoj Bajpayee, Jaideep Ahlawat
Rating: 3.05/5

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The Family Man 3 Web Review: The maximum man, always!

‘The Family Man 3’On: Prime VideoDir: Raj Nidimoru, Krishna DKCast: Manoj Bajpayee, Jaideep AhlawatRating: 3.05/5

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‘The Family Man 3’
On: Prime Video
Dir: Raj Nidimoru, Krishna DK
Cast: Manoj Bajpayee, Jaideep Ahlawat
Rating: 3.05/5