It’s bad newz when a fairytale goes awry and the night is too long
Bad Newz
Starring: Vicky Kaushal, Triptii Dimri, Ammy Virk, Neha Dhupia, Sheeba Chaddha, Vijaylakshmi Singh, Faisal Rashid
Direction: Anand Tiwari
You cringe more often than you laugh. This brand of humour supposedly reflecting a loud boisterous lifestyle of a certain collective is culturally insensitive beyond a point, and perhaps even worrisome. Assuming that mainstream cinema is not to be taken seriously and it causes no social stir, this consistent stereotyping needs to be shouted down. The challenge is that the decibel levels are a challenge to match!
When Anand Tiwari took us through a bizarre accident at an IVF clinic, the novelty and the class of the cast (a case of perfect casting) kept us engaged as long as it lasted. This time, the sperm count gets a rare medical condition of “heteroparental superfecundation” which, when diagnosed, leads a character to throw in one of the laugh-inducing one-liners: Phir se Chinese mein bol raha.
You have this spoilt-beyond-redemption Alpha male from West Delhi Akhil Chadha (Vicky Kaushal), who meets Saloni Bagga (Triptii Dimri) at some event which begins with a dance number, which in the 60s was a golden opportunity to the likes of O.P. Nayyar and Shankar-Jaikishan to belt an unforgettable chartbuster. The seven-member music team is a clear case of too many cooks.
The career-oriented Saloni who wants to win the Meraki star is swept off her feet. A fast spell of hot romance, hotter honeymoon are to establish that the hero and the heroine are in love. Their respective moms just a while ago were trying to play Cupid. His mum (Sheeba Chaddha), her mum (Vijaylakshmi Singh) are even louder in their attempts. We are expected to laugh when they are matching kundalis and backgrounds. You cannot even manage a chuckle and that is the existential challenge for the next two hours of endless counting.
The “heat honeymoon” and all-Europe tour is constantly interrupted by He Mom – this too is supposed to get you laughing. After Anand Tiwari (director) returns from West Delhi and Europe and believes that the premise is established, it is time to launch his sperm saga, the couple who seemed madly in love and literally lusting in starvation are on mode Splitsville.
Fast on the take, Saloni runs into her new employer Gurbir Singh Pannu (Ammy Virk). The twist is when she sleeps with her former husband and present employer on the same night. She conceives and cannot decide who the father is. Oh yeah, you can dig into the latest developments in science and technology but you cannot permit a lady her sexual freedom: so get the tipsy excuse for the mindset. In walks the doctor (Faisal Rashid) to announce the twin dad-twin womb extension on his sperm speculations. Here good news turns Bad Newz. The humour possibility between the contestants could have had some class. Not an iota. Loud to a fault, you often feel embarrassed when called upon to laugh at adults behaving like juveniles who have missed a finishing school by miles. It is as much a test on the viewers’ nerves as it is on the expectant mom with twins in the womb.
The film also points out how miscasting can completely mess up the party. To begin with, Triptii Dimri looks like a contrived hot version of TV actress Rukhsar Rehman. She is dazed by her own sexuality and is a product of conscious objectification. Politically sick! Ammy Virk looks lost and dazed. One is bound to compare him with Diljit Dosanjh (who was brilliant in ‘Good Newwz’).
The film has one positive factor – Vicky Kaushal. A winner from the word go. He builds the right body language (not to mention body!) for the role. From the opening episode when he gulps his pani puri, this is a top-class unabashed commercial performance and the coming of age of an actor who has worked to be there.
A character in the film says: this is no fairytale but there is faith in the nightmare. Yes, fairytale gone awry, and nightmare where the night is too long and the mare all exposed and tiring. And, for Vicky, the film is true to its title.