Bad Newz Movie Review — Sucharita Tyagi
I know tumhaari expectation hai ki Sucharita ko film achi nahi lagegi, aur kaafi mazaa aayega review padh kar.
Toh dekho, mazaa toh waise bhi aayega, my work is really fun. But otherwise, mereko bhi mazaa aya y’all I kinda sorta quite enjoyed Bad Newz?
BUT I have notes.
Like most people, then one thing I knew about Bad Newz going in was….Vicky Kaushal apna pelvis dislocate karke naach sakta hai agar uska mann karey toh. Uske aage, 3 sunder log hain, kuch paternity ka issue hai.
As the film opened with a giant “Thank you Ananya Panday”, I felt a weird dual sensation — on one hand my heart sank just a bit, on the other, reminding myself that one of the writers is Ishita Moitra, perhaps this is just a sign of how this film will go above and beyond to talk about what it wants to, with a light touch, toh maybe an Ananya Panday cameo might not be the worst thing.
Phir Bad Newz takes you on a ride jahaan cringe aur unserious aur progressive comedy ke beech mein itne jawar bhaate hain, ki end tak thoda thakk jaane ke liye taiyyar rahein.
Vicky Kaushal hain Akhil Chadda who likes to say he is Sabto Vadda, means bigger than everone. The actor is doing the Karol Bagh Delhi boy schtick, but despite it being Rocky Randhawa lite, Vicky is just so immensely watchable and talented, all comparisons to “such a heart throb ji” lay forgotten by the way side soon.
Agle painful lambe 30 minute, jahaan conflict ki development ka intezaar karti rahi main are an exercise in patience not gonna lie. However, I think Anand Tiwari aur writers Ishita + Tarun Dudeja are exclusively speaking to a generation jisko sunder cheezein dekhni hai apni screens par for dopamine kicks but are also primed to have discussions about issues joh unhe kabhi samjhaaye hi nahi gaye. The spoon full of sugar that makes this medicine go down is the OTHER language this audience now speak — cringe. A methodology the marketing team has also leaned into if you’ve followed promotions on Instagram.
Akhil Chadda seemingly suffers from No-Mo-Phobia, a fear of not having hi mobile phone because once his mother had tried to reach him during an emergency. In the sequence where this phobia is realized though, and Akhil runs around town looking for a new phone, the gag is tremendously unfunny and shallow, like a joke you would share with friends at a house party when you are drunk jahaan punchline sun kar aadhe log ek doosre ka mooh dekhenge aur aadhe bolenge bhai tu drink banaa na ek aur.
Tripti aur Vicky lekin watchable itne hain ki nazar unpar se hat-ti nahi, even when they’re jumping around during a largely unwatchable suhaag-raat sequence. What the wince-inducing narrative though is building up to, is part of the message of the film, ki aajkal 30 second ke video ke zamaane mein apni chhoti hoti attention span ko itna shrink na kar do ki logon ki shinaakht bhi 30 second mein kar ke chhor do.
Amid squeaky clean and shiny sets, Vicky as Rocky, I mean as Akhil and Tripti as Saloni roll around from one simplistically written scene to the next, and means meticulous designing khojiyega matt nahi milegi. Leading lady hamaari leading chef hain Dilli ki, the head chef rather at a swanky restaurant, yet when a man comes into her life she says “meri ordinary si life ko extraordinary bana diya”, babe tumhe 25 ki umar mein poora kitchen mil hai chalaane ko The Bear ka ek toh episode dekh leti. But wait, maybe yehi film keh rahi hai, ki aurtaon ki conditioning yehi hai ki jab tak shaadi hoti nahi, tab tak “oridinary” rehti ho, par agar yeh point hai toh isko establish karne ka tareeka thoda casual hai.
Things get rapidly interesting when Ammy Virk shows up, and the actual conflict, that fo establishing who the father of Saloni’s unborn child is. Through Ammy’s Gurbir Pannu, kahaani apne asli mudde par aati hai — female agency. I will mention here, the sequence where Saloni convinces Gurbir to sleep with her, comes a little to close to skeevy, but again because it’s dealt with with a light touch, the film gets away with it.
Coming back to my earlier point, Instagram watchers ke liye tailor made yeh film mein do Vicky Kaushal self-referential jokes hain, Tripti Dimri is called Bhabhi right up front, her parents also warn her about Kabir and Preeti’s abusive relationship invoking he who must not be named, aur Mere Mehboob Mere Sanam ka continuous refrain, is all well and good. Par it also feels like these moments are manufactured to keep bringing your attention back to how much fun you’re SUPPOSED to be having. Its DESIGNED to be and easy and non-challenging like simply scrolling through videos on your phone
However, Bad Newz, as the title loosely suggests, imagines a world where things potentially can be different. A traditionally masculine boy CAN run around at a party looking for a safety-pin for his mother’s blouse, the strongly held old fashioned opinions of the elders of families can be dismissed with a smile and a hug. The story doesn’t allow its characters to conflate morals with the act of sex, and even when the insinuation is slightly brought up, it’s by older parents, and is quickly and firmly shut down, without devolving into a lesson in loyalty and faithfulness in a relationship.
The resulting anarchy when small revolutions are actualized will be momentary in the larger scheme of things and society can be built back up, with no one casualties.
Look close and Bad Newz might present itself for what it is. An attempted treatise on the direction in which modern masculinity could head. It’s a man’s world, despite Katy Perry’s brand of feminism claiming otherwise, and for the scales to tip toward equal rights and choices, weird and drastic things will inadvertently happen. The incident that makes Akhil Chadda realise ki who sab-to vadda nahi hai and he needs to take himself less seriously as a person in this world, will have to be as dramatic as his delusions of grandeur.
Perhaps why I left the theatre feeling mostly “yeh I didn’t mind that”, was thanks to Vicky’s scene stealing performance and the eventual dance to Karan Aujla’s Tauba Tauba blasted at me from a gigantic screen. Fully not mad at it, movie lagi hui hai theatres mein.
So, on a scale of 1 to 10, Bad Newz is……1 little tomfoolery which I enjoyed most was the hindi translations of English text explaining kuch scenes mein chal kya raha hai. Meraki Review Day becomes “Aa gaye Meraki waale” and “Phir se aa gaye Meraki waale”. There was also one “aaj hoga sach ka saamna” I think when the paternity test results are being disclosed, means its all rather shit-postingly unserious, and if you’re willing to look at it like that, fun will come.
