The third season of The Family Man sees ace spy Srikant Tiwari on a three-pronged rescue mission. Not only must Srikant (Manoj Bajpayee) protect his country (again) and steady his fragile marriage (again), but he must also extract himself from a trumped-up charge of treachery.
Despite having previously defeated Islamist terrorists and Tamil Tigers, Srikant now finds himself in the crosshairs. With the help of loyal aide Talpade (Sharib Hashmi) and military intelligence officer Saloni (Gul Panag), Srikant battles shadowy enemies and a hostile investigation unit led by Yatish (Harman Singha) and assisted by Srikant’s former protege Zoya (Shreya Dhanwanthary).
Created by Raj & DK for Prime Video, The Family Man’s latest chapter kicks off in the North East. Prime Minister Basu (Seema Biswas) is pushing a development programme called Project Sahakar for the region – which is treated as a single bloc despite its diversity and state-specific problems. Sinister international players supported by China have other ideas.
British businessman Dwarkanath (Jugal Hansraj) deputes his fixer Meera (Nimrat Kaur) as the chief party pooper. Meera, on the advice of Srikant’s bete noire Sameer (Darshan Kumaar), hires drug runner Rukma (Jaideep Ahlawat) to organise a series of attacks that eventually wash up at Srikant’s door in Mumbai.
Jaideep Ahlawat in The Family Man season 3 (2025). Courtesy D2R Films/Prime Video.
Srikant has moved into a tony apartment with his wife Suchitra (Priyamani), daughter Dhriti (Ashlesha Thakur) and son Atharv (Vedant Sinha). In the previous season from 2021, Dhriti stabbed her kidnapper to death – a horrific development that might never have happened as far as the teenager and her family are concerned.
Apart from a couple of panicky moments that are resolved through deep breathing, Dhriti is none the worse for wear. The precarious marriage between Srikant and Suchitra too has seemingly survived his indifference and her infidelity.
Having already ignored the obvious but also dramatically challenging solution to the Srikant-Suchitra problem – a divorce – The Family Man focuses on the Meera-Rukma partnership, Basu’s politicking and Srikant’s effort to prove that he isn’t a turncoat.
The same team behind the previous seasons is back at the helm. The screenplay is by Raj & DK and Suman Kumar; the dialogue by Sumit Arora. Raj & DK, Kumar and Tusshar Seyth have directed various of the seven episodes. Deeply conversant with the show’s narrative beats, the makers are adept at drumming up the elements that have made The Family Man hugely popular.
Nimrat Kaur in The Family Man season 3 (2025). Courtesy D2R Films/Prime Video.
The relatable characters and winning mesh of wry humour and deadly serious action sequences are all there. The third season aims even higher, trying out a plot that mimics the James Bond and Mission: Impossible movies in its country-hopping tendencies and sprawling set of players.
Basu’s advisors include bureaucrats played by Aditya Bhattacharya and Vipin Sharma, who must dissuade their leader from paying too much heed to American-style opinion polls. The North East peace deal involves local leaders David (Sunil Thapa) and his grandson Stephen (Paalin Kabak). Rukma’s associates include his girlfriend Nima (Andrea Kevichusa) and the dealer Rabbit (Tenzing Dalha).
Srikant’s snarkasm, best depicted by Manoj Bajpayee’s semi-mocking expression, is put to the test and stretched to the limit. Viewers too might have trouble keeping up with the cross-border activity and hectic turn of events. A fourth, less obvious rescue effort now thrums through The Family Man – to save the series from its overweening ambition.
Darshan Kumaar in The Family Man season 3 (2025). Courtesy D2R Films/Prime Video.
The returning cast polishes established character arcs, rather than offering drastically different. Compelled to be a family once again, the Tiwaris assume familiar positions. Their squabbling feels forced, their mutual exasperation threatens to curdle into sentimentality.
While it’s hard to imagine anyone but Manoj Bajpayee as Srikant, or Priyamani as Suchitra, or even Sharib Hashmi as Talpade, other actors both old and new have more to offer.
Jaideep Ahlawat is a crude and yet smooth operator, affable despite being dastardly, charming in a seedy kind of way. Ahlawat’s Rukma has a neat dynamic with Nimrat Kaur’s Meera, their pairing offering strong potential for the upcoming fourth season.
Among the older characters, Darshan Kumaar’s Sameer and Seema Biswas’s Basu evolve in interesting ways. The show’s treatment of politics continues to be balanced between nation-protecting and freedom-loving.
A beloved actor from another Raj & DK series has a cameo that’s dazzling as well as worrying. Is The Family Man going to become a multiverse? That’s one more thing to worry about in the latest season, whose “vibe check”, to quote the permanently disaffected Atharv, is of treading water.
The Family Man season 3 (2025).
