'Bad Newz' movie review: Desi audiences might be happy to leave their brains behind—not so much their morality/judgement
Bad Newz poster
Film: Bad Newz
Director: Anand Tiwari
Cast: Triptii Dimri, Vicky Kaushal, Ammy Virk
Rating: 1.5/5
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The heroine, here, plays a chef, vying throughout this movie, for an award named Meraki. Which is obviously a stand-in for a Michelin star—holy grail for restauranteurs/chefs, worldwide; awarded by a tyre company, signifying the best in eatery/culinary arts.
Also, making me randomly wonder, while this flick goes on about Meraki—Greek word for doing something with passion/devotion—why the actual Michelin star/guide/ratings don’t exist in India, still.
That said, if these filmmakers did meet a master-chef, here’s what they could’ve desperately ordered for, instead—a second half, for this script.
They had none. But went ahead cooking up some uninspiring, inedible crap, nonetheless. To be fair, the movie is called Bad Newz. Which is obviously not a supremely self-aware review of itself!
The title relates to another similar attempt at indoorsy, mad-cap comedy, Good Newwz (2019), by the same producer/s (Karan Johar)—involving a curious case of swapping of sperms, between two couples, going in for an IVF baby. And that I quite enjoyed, mainly for the performances.
Among others, Good Newwz starred Diljit Dosanjh in the lead. Bad Newz, likewise, gives top billing to singer-actor, Ammy Virk—making him quite possibly, still, only the second Sikh we’ve watched, with his pagdi on, as the star of a Bollywood film. While so many of them have been big-budget Punjabi regional movies, actually!
Which isn’t to suggest, even for a bit, that the genial Ammy equals Diljit, or is even close. Likewise, neither is the easily likeable, Vicky Kaushal, a notch around Ranveer Singh from Johar’s Rocky (2023)—although he plays a good-hearted, Punjabi gabru-jawan/jock, from a business family in West Delhi, all the same.
Two guys and a girl; is this a love triangle? Pleasantly, more so a movie centred on the female lead (Triptii Dimri; seeming pale), for once, to be fair.
What’s it about then? If you haven’t watched the trailer, which is all there is to the movie—it’s about pregnancy, and how “in the same cycle, two eggs have been fertilised”, hence two fathers to two potential babies, within the same womb.
Explain that, again? Well, two guys slept with the same girl—both fathering a twin, born out of the same night of lust/love.
Baap re! Is this too far out there, for a Bollywood movie that, from the first frame onwards, makes its intentions known—to reach out to mass/mainstream/multiplex audiences, through songs, dance, general entertainment, evidently tapping into the Punjabi-Gujarati NRI vibe as well, that Johar, as producer, knows a thing or two about, anyway?
Desi audiences might be happy to leave their brains behind—not so much their morality/judgement. I suppose the filmmakers know this. Societal guards are suitably in place. This ain’t some threesome stuff.
The first couple were married, then divorced. The second couple had the mild hots for each other. The night belonged to the birthday girl, who was drunk.
The medical term you learn for what’s happened is ‘heteropaternal superfecundation’. Woah, which is way rarer than lymphosarcoma of the intestine, from the film, Anand!
Actor-filmmaker Anand Tiwari being the director of this film. This is his first theatrical release. If I’m not mistaken, Love Per Square Foot (2018), on Netflix, also with Vicky, was his first feature that, as a romcom, also fell short. He created the series, Bandish Bandits (on Prime Video) that felt so genuine and original.
Taking away nothing from the originality of this movie’s idea, either. And that I’ve described to you—and what should keep the audiences going; up until the mid-point. What happens after? Good question.
Well, you know nothing does, when all that’s left are Bollywood inside jokes piled over each other (none landed; for me, at least); remixed track (Mere mehboob mere sanam; duplicated from Duplicate); ‘item song’ (Tauba tauba); guest appearance (Ananya Panday), etc.
Vicky’s character suffers nomophobia—i.e. fear of missing out on your phone. So do I. But for other reasons; namely, boredom. That’s where I went, somewhat back to my phone then.
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