OTT Round Up - The Family Man 2 Succeeds In Meeting Sky High Expectations, Sunflower And Indori Ishq Bring Thrills And Romance Next Week

Manoj Bajpayee has shown that he is such a fine actor that you need to write newer roles to justify his presence on screen.

OTT Round Up - The Family Man 2 Succeeds In Meeting Sky High Expectations

By Joginder Tuteja

'With great power comes great responsibility' - This is indeed true when it comes to web series that carries immense expectations. By all means, The Family Man is one of the biggest OTT offerings to come out of India and hence its second season was much awaited. Moreover, Raj & DK (along with Suparn Verma) had clearly made the while geopolitical conflict all the more deep-rooted with Tamil rebels from Sri Lanka and ISI coming together to attack the Indian Prime Minister. In the middle of this all, it was time for 'the family man' Manoj Bajpayee to return.

There was such immense build-up for the web series right through the beginning of the year that one expected nothing less than something terrific from it. In the past, this was the case with Sacred Games too, and unfortunately, the second season had disappointed big time. On the other hand, Mirzapur, which is again an Amazon Prime offering, the outcome was far better for the second season. The same holds true for their Inside Edge 2. Now thankfully same is the case with The Family Man 2 as well where the sky-high expectations have been met quite well.

Yet again, Manoj Bajpayee has shown that he is such a fine actor that you need to write newer roles to justify his presence on screen. The man has made such a strong place for himself in commercial as well as offbeat cinema, and now even in the OTT world, he is making sure that there is a huge impression made each time around. Earlier this year it was Silence... Can You Hear It on ZEE5 and while that was a movie, in the web series The Family Man 2 he has gone ahead and rocked the show all over again with his trademark humor and drama.

On the other hand Samantha Akkineni has been a name to reckon with in South cinema for over a decade now and hence her web series debut was much awaited. As is the case though, she is playing a Tamilian in the action drama and while she has very minimal dialogues to mouth, almost all of them are in Tamil. That doesn't deter the audience though as Samantha has come up with a superb performance and what has turned out to be a surprise for all is the way she has performed in her action scenes. One just hopes that one gets to see more of her.

The second season of The Family Man is working well too amongst the audiences and rest assured, the third season would be all the more spectacular with the geo-political saga exploring newer frontiers.

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Coming soon

This week sees the arrival of two more web series, Sunflower and Indori Ishq. Sunflower is a biggie with Sunil Grover leading the show and Vikas Behl [of Queen and Super 30 fame] calling the shots as a director. This one is a murder mystery and the good part is that it is laced with humor, something that should make the proceedings light hearted. Moreover, Ranvir Shorey would be seen as an investigating officer and the promo indicates that the battle of wits between him and Sunil would be the highlight of the web series which arrives on ZEE5.

There is in fact a good ensemble cast supporting the key protagonists here with Mukul Chadha, Girish Kulkarni, Shonali Nagrani and Ashish Vidyarthi coming together. By the look of things, Sunflower boasts of some good production values that give it a good appeal. Moreover, with Vikas stepping into the OTT arena before he moves on to directing Ganapath: Chapter One with Tiger Shroff and Disha Patani, this one is much awaited.

On the other hand for those in look out for romance and drama with unrequited love in the midst of it all, there is Indori Ishq which premieres on MX Player soon. Ritwik Sahore, who has been seen in Bollywood hits like Dangal, Super 30 and Ferrari Ki Swaari, and is also a known face now in the OTT circuits, courtesy Flames and Laakhon Mein Ek, is the central protagonist in Indori Ishq. This time around, he goes through heartbreak as the love of his life Vedika Bhandari (seen earlier in Dream Girl), moves away from him.

MX Player has been bringing out different kind of content week after week. In the recent past they have delivered hit shows like Aashram, Hello Mini franchise and Chakravyuh while Ramyug and Runaway Lugaai have catered to diverse segment of audiences. Now Indori Ishq is for the young adults/college students who would be able to relate to the pain that accompanies love.

Release dates

Indori Ishq - MX Player - 10th June

Sunflower - ZEE5 - 11th June

(Joginder Tuteja is a trade expert and film critic, and loves to talk and write about anything that is related to films. Views are personal)