Bad Newz Review: Fresh Twist, Outdated Execution
Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Director: Anand Tiwari
Writers: Tarun Dudeja, Ishita Moitra
The rare phenomenon of a human mother giving birth to twins, each with a different father, has been referenced in Greek mythology. In fact, the protagonist Heron in Netflix’s animated series Blood of Zeus is one such twin. So, for readers and viewers already familiar with this once-in-a-million occurrence of a mother having twins by different fathers, the plot twist in the 2024 Bollywood comedy Bad Newz doesn’t feel particularly novel either.
The comedy follows chef Saloni Bagga (Triptii Dimri), who, after a drunken night, finds herself in bed with both her boss, Gurbir Pannu (Ammy Virk), and her ex-husband, Akhil Chadha (Vicky Kaushal), all within 24 hours. When she later discovers she’s pregnant with fraternal twins, a paternity test reveals that both men are the fathers, due to ‘heteropaternal superfecundation’, a condition where the fertilization of eggs that can lead to two different biological father. This sets off a whirlwind of shock, confusion, and what the creators promise to be a ‘laugh riot’—though the claim is quite far-fetched.
‘Bad Newz’ starts with Saloni recalling her romance and marriage to Akhil, and how they ended up getting a divorce. The first few minutes, spent dwelling on their history, are absolutely unfunny and worse – regressive. Saloni is a serious, ambitious chef aspiring to win an international culinary award, but her career is consistently disrupted by the obnoxious, clingy Akhil, who treats her workplace like a public garden. One day, while Saloni is receiving rudely phrased negative feedback from a customer, Akhil happens to be around. Instead of helping, he beats up the customer and creates a scene.
This incident sparks a heated argument between the two, and Akhil kicks Saloni out of their house. She tearfully goes to her parents’ place, only to find them completely ignoring her in favor of a trashy reality show. That’s the kind of ‘joke’ the writers of ‘Bad Newz’ aim for – a heartbroken, vulnerable woman being treated like an invisible fly on the wall by her own family, at her lowest moment.
“At least he loves you and beats someone else. Our neighbor loves his wife and beats her too,” Saloni’s mother casually remarks. The implication being that the bare minimum Indian women should expect from their husbands is that they aren’t wife beaters. These so-called ‘jokes’ made me want to stop watching the film. But out of curiosity, I stuck with it. While there are a few funny lines scattered here and there, but overall, ‘Bad Newz’ remains an annoying, not-so-funny movie.
Some parts of ‘Bad Newz’ is only watchable because Triptii is super cute, but even her acting in the comedic parts is lack-luster. Vicky Kaushal as the rich, arrogant Punjabi boy Akhil is supposed to be the kind of ‘bad guy’ women swoon over, but doesn’t seem like it. And while this is supposed to be Saloni’s story, the men dominate most scenes, as their rivalry over who gets to father both twins forms the crux of the comedy. Ammy Virk’s Gurbir Punnu is a stereotypical Punjabi boy with a forgettable personality, who is only slightly more mature than Akhil, and that’s not saying much. Saloni is often left tired, frazzled, exhausted, and stressed due to both Akhil and Gurbir trying to compete over her with manipulative tricks. Besides, there’s more chemistry between Akhil and Gurbir, than between Saloni and any of the men.
The background music and songs of ‘Bad Newz’ are just rehashed old numbers, including a remixed version of “mere mehboob mere sanam” from Shah Rukh Khan’s Duplicate. A significant chunk of the ambient music are all old popular Bollywood numbers that are mixed weirdly with scenes. So instead of evoking nostalgia, it only comes off as a blatant bad attempt at milking their retro or emotional value to diehard SRK fans (lots of Karan Johar movie songs in there).
As the climax approaches, we get a cliched emotional twist where one man finally gets to redeem himself and win over Saloni’s heart. Unless you’re a big fan of the actors, this comedy is probably best skipped. At least the movie lives up to its title, it’s nothing but a lot of ‘Bad Newz’.
Rating: 1.5 stars on 5. ‘Bad Newz’ is available to rent on Prime Video.
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