Netizens still want ban on 'The Family Man-2': Here's why
When voices erupted against an ill-portrait of Eelam Tamils in the Amazon Prime Video series The Family Man 2 upon its trailer launch, makers Raj and DK asked viewers to first watch the show and then criticize it. The show dropped on the platform recently and netizens are still unhappy, so much so that they have created a petition and want to boycott Amazon.
After watching the Manoj Bajpayee-Samantha Akkineni-starrer thriller series, a certain section of Twitter users felt that it had a "faulty story and ill portrayal of the soldiers." Stereotyping also came under the radar as one tweet read: "Through out the world, Stereotyping is condemned, but here it is praised. Is Chennai all about Sambar, Filter Coffee and Lungi?" #FamilyMan2_against_Tamils was once again trending heavily.
Other tweets highlighted how The Family Man 2 was wrong in depicting the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Twitterati claimed LTTE members did not drink or encourage gender inequality as shown in the series. Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) chief Seeman also threatened legal action.
What are the similarities between fiction and reality? Notably, makers never name-drop LTTE in the series. But the Tamil Rebels leader Bhaskaran (Mime Gopi) who plots the Indian Prime Minister's assassination seems influenced by LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. Moreover, Akkineni's character Raji is also handpicked to carry out the assassination—much like LTTE's Thenmozhi Rajaratnam, the suicide bomber in the 1991 assassination of Rajiv Gandhi.
But this is where the comparisons end. The Family Man 2 depicts the plight of the rebels and shows how the people of Tamil Nadu are respectful to their cause. In our review, we wrote how "watching the show in its entirety makes it clear that it only talked about atrocities on Sri Lankan-Tamils by the Sri Lankan army." So why all the fuss?
Notably, people are still signing a petition on Change.org, calling for a ban on the series. "The trauma stories of Tamils should NOT be used as an accessory for entertainment purposes, and that too by non-Tamils with no respect or knowledge of the Tamil genocide," the petition noted. It has raked in nearly 10,500 signs till now, very close to reaching its 15,000-sign goal.
