The fundamental defect of Family is its story. And what really adds to the misery is that the screenplay constantly leaves you with a been-there-done-that kind of a feeling.
Amitabh Bachchan plays Viren Sahai , a ruthless don.Viren Sahai’s family consists of his wife (Shernaz Patel), notorious son (Sushant Singh), daughter-in-law and daughter – live in India, while he does all his dirty work abroad.
On the other hand is the picture-perfect Bhatia family. Shekhar (Akshay Kumar) is the elder son who works as a chef. His wife Bhumika (Bhumika Chawla) is a doctor. Aryan (Aryeman) is Shekhar’s younger brother, someone he dotes on.
A twist comes when, in one incident, trigger-happy Viren Sahai accidentally ends up killing Shekhar. Younger brother Aryeman vows revenge and, along with his friends, abducts the family of Viren Sahai.
While the first half is hardly engaging thanks to an overdose of songs – in fact, three songs follow one after the other in very quick succession – the film does show signs of improvement in the post-interval portions. But the second half is highly erratic – the pace picks up and drops at amazing regularity!Director Santoshi is handicapped by a poor story and a weak screenplay that he chose to believe in. While the viewer is actually able to guess what the next sequence will be like, it is to the credit of director Santoshi that the film does engage you in patches. Though a few sequences do keep your faith in his abilities alive, the film is simply no patch on the maker’s earlier works like Khakee and Damini.
The only factor that you carry home is the dialogues , which are simply wonderful. In fact, the dialogues elevate a couple of dramatic sequences to a major extent.Amitabh hams to the hilt. Also, he looks tired at some places . Akshay gets no scope. Bhumika is quite nice. Aryeman is wooden . Shenaaz is alright. Sushant Singh and Kader Khan have nothing worthwhile to do.What a waste