Are you also snatching your child's childhood?

Not Watched Serious Men on Netflix Yet, Watch Now?

There are those rare occasions when a viewer decides to revisit a film before first watch comes to an end. ‘Serious Men’ based on novel by journalist author Manu Joseph and is one such film. An amazing movie, one of the best that We watched in recent times. Satire, a bit dark, plight of a man, his past, his ambitions, his relationship with his son are superbly filmed. Nawazuddin is as brilliant as ever. Another wonder from Sudhir Mishra. He dedicated this film to his late father.

Serious Men, at one level, is a story of Ayyan’s dream of making his son famous, affluent, and sought after. Treading the path of amorality is the easiest route to take, which he does until his ambition hits the dust with a twist in a tale. In movie, Nawazuddin is Ayyan Mani, a meek Tamil Dalit migrant working as an assistant to an arrogant Brahmin astrophysicist Arvind Acharya (Nassar) at the Indian Institute for Fundamental Research. Accustomed to humiliation from his boss whose area of research is the existence of microbes in the stratosphere, Ayyan lives in a chawl with his wife Oja (Indira Tiwari) and son Adi (Aakshath Das). Ayyan seeks a better life for his son, a slow learner. What he does to find fame for the boy and its consequence form the crux of the story. The son, a naive victim of his father's plotting, plays along until the situation spirals out of control.

Serious Men, at another level, is a reminder that casteism is a social evil that India has failed to get rid of. The issue of caste crops up during Adi’s school admission. It comes to light when a politician (Sanjay Narvekar) falls for spurious claims that Adi is a genius and tries to capitalise on it. Everybody else in the cast fits the bill in a film that has a message for the modern-day society. As we watch it, it appears to tell us that satisfaction with what we have is what keeps us happiest. And a casteless society is what we need.

What is remarkable is that the film depicts these situations without a tinge of over-the-top melodrama. Siddiqui is perfect as the Everyman protagonist whose ancestors were manual scavengers accustomed to mistreatment at the hands of upper castes. Moderately educated, his methods to ensure a great future for his son seem destined to get exposed someday. Stepping into the shoes of this nuanced character, Nawaz is fabulous.

Director: Sudhir Mishra

Writers: Abhijeet Khuman, Bhavesh Mandalia, Nikhil Nair, Niren Bhatt, Manu Joseph (based on novel by)

Stars: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Aakshath Das, Indira Tiwari, Nassar Genres Comedy, Drama