Before I get started, I'd like to get a few things out of the way. 

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I think The Family Man 2 is way better than season 1. It's in an entirely different league altogether. It's more in the Raj and DK's "Shor in the city" league rather than it's in "A Gentleman" or "99" league. If you have watched all these movies then you know what I'm talking about. I have generally liked their movies... I love "Shor in the city". And I love "The Family Man 2".

Also, I'd like to limit the discussion of the political side of the story in this post to an absolute minimum. I think there are better people to do that. 

Also, with Family Man 2, I think I have found the replacement of the cinema I have been yearning for, from makers like Vishal Bharadwaj and Dibakar Banerjee, who have not delivered in a while. Vishal Bharadwaj has been making movies consistently, but not to the level I'd want him to. And Dibakar hasn't been able to release his films. I love his shorts in Bombay Talkies and Ghost Stories, but he has not delivered a feature length in a while that's as punchy as "Love, Sex aur Dhokha". "Sandeep aur pinky faraar" is good, but not at the level at which Banerjee generally operates.

So yes. With Family Man 2, I got what I want from a certain type of cinema.

Also, this post contains [SPOILERS] for Family Man 2.

Alright, now that I'm through with these things, let's go.

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It's a tad tough for me to nail down on the exact topic with which I should to start this post. Because there are a few topics that I want to delve on, and some of them are directly related to Raji's story. 

Let me start with a simple one. 

When Sajid and Raji are going to Veeraranyam, Sajid mentions that Kashmir is beautiful. He's heard that Sri Lanka is very beautiful too. That's also a point where we see Raji talk to someone comfortably. 

Sure, Sajid is a man that her handler has introduced her with. It's also mentioned that Bhaskaran has sent this man so he can be trusted. Despite the fact that Sajid is the one who killed Subbu, but that's something that we as audience know and not Raji.

So Raji can somehow judge that Sajid is trustworthy. It's even suggested that they share admiration (or even affection?) for each other. It has to be the agony. Agony of the people who are fighting for their freedom. Even though Raji is a far tortured individual than Sajid is. Which also makes her vulnerable to mistakes that Sajid isn't. But that's not the point. They like each other. And it's because they both carry a pain that probably only they can truly understand. And that's all that's needed to bring people close. Isn't it?

In the Veeraranyam mission when Raji is captured, we get to know Raji's entire story. She was 15 when her (school teacher) father was killed. Her brother was 9 when he was killed and then she was brutalized by the Sri Lankan army. 

A child, a teenager, brutalized dramatically and left with tremendous trauma. Any humanity Raji had retained; was driven out when her colleague surrendered and got immediately killed.  

Later in the show, a teenager, a 15 year old girl is kidnapped and brutalized. When Dhriti is kidnapped, she's not aware that her father is an intelligence officer. In her mind, he's just a normal man. She's kidnapped, betrayed, and beaten. 

Sure, Dhriti's trauma is nowhere even close to Raji's. Sure, Dhriti even has her younger brother, her father, and her mother alongside. And, eventually, she's even saved. She's even (somewhat) saved of the trauma that she killed a human. 

Yet, at some level, Dhriti was traumatized enough to kill Salman. 

I don't think that Dhriti will grow up to be Raji. But Dhriti will grow up to be a colder person. I cannot say Dhriti has lost all the faith in humanity at this point. But Dhriti will grow up to be a sceptic. 

Dhriti, unlike Raji, may not grow up to be a cold blooded soldier whose emotions comes to surface only when she encounters someone who either triggers her trauma (harasser in the bus/rapist boss) or shares her pain (Sajid). All of the torture that Raji endured, drove out any faith she had in anyone except the faith she had in her savior. Everything else that Raji does is directed towards a single point objective: her mission.  

Dhriti, to some extent like Srikant's other kid, has inherited -- in this season -- few qualities of her (intelligence officer) father and (to some extent; her psychology major) mother. When she's kidnapped, Srikant is talking some life-centric bullshit to Salman and the other kidnapper so that his partner gets enough time to track their location. However, in that stupid monologue that Srikant delivers, Dhriti senses that Salman can be manipulated. So she manipulates him and reaches where she wants to reach. Salman does get a fair chance at life, though. His fault he didn't take it. 

Early on in the show, when Umayal walks into Raji's apartment to investigate, Raji plays the victim card to manipulate Umayal into not inspecting her place (something that Umayal mentions later as well...that the victim card will no longer work with her). That was also the time when different body parts of dead people (bus harasser/boss) were kept in garbage bags and Raji was going out to drop one of those bags. So Raji manipulates Umayal and reaches where she wants to reach. 

This season warns that childhood trauma can lead to a dangerous grown up (woman, especially). 

When Raji is captured in Veeraranyam, Srikant cooks up a another story to try to manipulate Raji into revealing her plan. Raji, instead, tells him her own story and calls out it his bullshit. Dhriti, in season 1, calls out Srikant's bullshit and tells him that Srikant and Suchi are getting a divorce. She could predict the impending divorce almost an year ago (in terms of the story). 

I'm not saying Dhriti will grow up to be some kind of a Raji of the future. Nope. I'm not.

What I am saying, however, is Raji is one of the biggest characters (and stories) that I have come across in a web series 7 hour film. She's as significant in Indian pop culture as Manoj Bajpayee's Bhikhu Matrey. Raji to Family Man 2 is what Heath Ledger's joker is to The Dark Knight.

When she receives the news that Sajid failed his mission but didn't get arrested, a plethora of emotions cross her mind. 

Agony, for losing a friend and a beacon of some kind of a hope beyond her mission. 
Relief, for knowing that the vulnerability that Sajid's arrest would bring is nipped. 
Loneliness, that comes with the fact that her mission is the only thing that's alive. 
Determination, to complete her mission. That's why she starts eating. To gain strength. To prepare.

And that's why she walks alone into her plane. She finds solace and peace in it. 

Samantha embodied all of that. Without ever saying a single word. I don't think I'll ever forget Raji. 

In the very first episode Srikant tells Sujoy’s story to Milind. Sujoy, in that story, was an agent with Srikant in Nagaland who was shot dead on a mission. We never get to know if Sujoy’s story is made up or real. Milind, however, is motivated to go back to work after listening to the story. Later on, in Veeraranyam, Milind is shot dead. Milind says earlier in the show that Zoya saved a lot of people. Zoya saved Milind's life. Then, Milind saves Srikant's life. Srikant breaks down after Milind’s death. Pasha was shot dead in Srikant’s last mission. Maybe Sujoy’s story is real, after all. And with each mission in which Srikant succeeds, he loses a bit of his soul. And a bit of his family. 

I think Family Man 2 has leaped the threshold of pop culture entertainment. It has a strange beauty to it. It's a piece of work, a piece of art.

It's poetry.

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salil