As he waits by the staircase of a building while his teammates sweep it for a terror suspect, secret agent Srikant Tiwari gets a call from his wife. She is angry at him for cutting off their conversation mid-way the previous night to attend to an urgent work call. She thinks he is a regular government employee with a desk job. As for Tiwari, he is determined to be committed both to his family and his country.
While he is on the phone with his wife, the terror suspect shoots past him. Tiwari gives chase but is unable to catch up. He tries to flag down passing vehicles; he is not in uniform so no one stops. Finally, a lady on a scooter halts when he tells her that the man is running offwith his wife’s mangalsutra. It is a humorous scene and Manoj Bajpayee as Tiwari in Amazon Prime Video’s new 10-episode series, The Family Man, is funny even while he essays a serious character. Like his role as an insurance salesman-cum-serial killer in Ram Gopal Varma’s Kaun (1999), to which he brought a certain comical undertone. But then, he was the villain in that one while he is the hero in his latest.
The jokes work at every instance. Bajpayee’s performance has freshness, even though he has played intelligence agents and cops a couple of times before. Krishna D.K. and Raj Nidimoru, the creators of the show, realised that he had not done anything that had a humorous undertone. They were not sure of his response when they showed him the script. But within 20 minutes of going through it, Bajpayee said yes. “And then he internalised the character so well that it was difficult to separate Manoj from Tiwari during the shoot,” says D.K. He feels that Bajpayee coming from the same middle-class milieu as Tiwari helped them convince him.
“He got the graph of the character,” says Nidimoru. “He understood his dilemma and the politics that we were referring to.”
Denne historien er fra September 22, 2019-utgaven av THE WEEK.
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Denne historien er fra September 22, 2019-utgaven av THE WEEK.
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A golden girl
One of India's most formidable beauties passed away earlier this month. The odd thing is she would absolutely hate this obituary; she hated being written about and avoided publicity for all of her nine decades. Indira Aswani was 93 when she died. But anyone who encountered her, even briefly, was in such awe of her grace and poise, and one could not but remember her forever.
The interest in wine is growing delightfully in India
The renowned British wine writer and television presenter Jancis Robinson, 74, recently came to Delhi and Mumbai to reacquaint herself with India's wine industry. This was the Robinson's fourth visit to India; the last one was seven years ago. On this trip, Robinson and her husband, restaurateur Nicholas Lander, were hosted by the Taj Hotels and Sonal Holland, India's only Master of Wine.
United in the states
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COVER DRIVE
Usage-driven motor insurance policies offer several benefits
GDP as the only measure of progress is illogical
Dasho Karma Ura, one of the world's leading happiness experts, has guided Bhutan's unique gross national happiness (GNH) project. He uses empirical data to show that money cannot buy happiness in all circumstances, rather it is family and health that have the strongest positive effect on happiness. Excerpts from an interview:
India is not a controlling big brother
Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay considers India a benevolent elder sibling as the \"big brotherly attitude\" is happily missing from bilateral ties. He thinks the relationship shared by the two countries has become a model of friendship not just for the region, but for the entire world. \"India's attitude is definitely not of a big brother who is controlling and does not allow the little brother to blossom and grow,\" says Tobgay in an exclusive interview with THE WEEK.
Comrade with no foes
Lal Salaam, Comrade Yechury-you were quite a guy!
Pinning down saffron
In her first political bout, Vinesh Phogat rides on the anti-BJP sentiment across Haryana
MAKE IN MANIPUR
Home-made rockets and weapons from across the border are escalating the conflict
SAHEB LOSES STEAM
Coalition dynamics and poor electoral prospects continue to diminish Ajit Pawar's political stock