They say education is perhaps the only recession-free business in India. Indian parents will go frugal on everything but the cost of a good schooling as they educate their children in hope for a better future. Sudhir Mishra’s Serious Men banks on this aspiration for upward mobility via their children.

The Netflix original stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Ayyan Mani, a lower middle-class man who wants his son to stand on the same pedestal as the ‘serious men’ who sit in big offices and lord over the likes of him. The trailer begins with his satirical take on nepotism and how it takes four generations to improve your lot. He comes up with an elaborate con that sells his son as a child genius, a mix between Ambedkar and APJ Abdul Kalam.

Watch Serious Men trailer

Based on Manu Joseph’s book by the same name, Nawazuddin is portrayed as “just another man in Mumbai, stranded in the rot of a good marriage, an unremarkable life and a dead-end job as personal assistant to an insufferable astronomer”.

Netflix’s official synopsis for the original read, “When a slum dweller spins a web of lies in pursuit of the upward mobility he has long craved, his ruse could be especially dangerous for his young son.”

“I am very excited to be a part of Netflix’s Serious Men and work with a creative mind like Sudhir Mishra. This is my second stint with Netflix after Sacred Games, and I hope that people give Ayyan Mani from Serious Men the same love that they extended to Ganesh Gaitonde from Sacred Games,” the actor said earlier in a statement.

Produced by Bombay Fables and Cine Raas Entertainment, he film will release on October 2. It also stars Indira Tiwari, M. Nasser and Shweta Basu Prasad.