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Women can’t have enough of bad boys. An educated woman must park her dreams to transform one of these lions into a kitty that roars only when his dear ones get hurt. Indian cinema makes these dated presumptions, the society whistles from the aisles, and the makers rake in big moolah. Like numerous films from the past, Anand Tiwari’s Bad Newz celebrates the hackneyed Bollywood bad boy. The man isn’t Animal-bad but he is flawed, impulsive, inconsiderate, and can easily be provoked.
Tiwari’s love triangle – from its marketing – is not one with surprises. We know who she would choose. All I expected was a trigger point that would justify a focused career woman picking the dumb, rowdy boy over someone enterprising and compatible who is on the other side of the masculinity spectrum.
If you are not aware yet, Bad Newz is about a chef named Saloni (Triptii Dimri) who gets impregnated by two men at the same time owing to a rare medical condition. The men in her life are her ex-husband Akhil (Vicky Kaushal) and her boss-turned-suitor Gurbir (Ammy Virk). Saloni needs to decide whether she should abort the twin children or pick one among the two men to father her babies.
It is one thing to offer a woman the gift of agency in a love triangle. It is another to leave her with no choice. Neither of the men is ready for fatherhood. Akhil is a proven offender and Gurbir is too new to be considered. Saloni quotes Rachel from Friends, “No uterus, no opinion,” but there ends the fun. She doesn’t have much of an opinion in Bad Newz.
When the film appears to be having fun with a peculiar situation, it also does a façade of being progressive. The producer Karan Johar’s marital drama Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna which premiered in 2006 is infinitely more honest wherein the protagonists make love while still married to other people. In Bad Newz, the writers stretch the plot like elastic – so that it is legally and morally okay for Saloni to have sex with another man. She gets the signed divorce papers from Akhil besides spotting him with another woman on Instagram. Tiwari’s film legitimately allows its independent heroine to enjoy a one night stand without being judged. Easily, pretense is only the second core issue in Bad Newz.
Its familiar thread of career-minded women marrying man-children to fix them is archaic in 2024. Successful women of today neither have the time to tame nor to get tamed. It doesn’t matter if their partners become unexpected messiahs like Akhil does in the pre-climax.
ALSO READ: ‘Good Newwz’ review – A lively comedy with a hollow emotional side
Speaking of Akhil, the characters in Bad Newz aren’t that bad by principle. The mother (Sheeba Chaddha) is not ready to accept the two babies as her grandchildren. She cares about what the society would say. Gurbir’s wealthy grandfather offers to fund “his” grandchild’s education. These are all real and relatable people. The effect dies when the film leaves them with no option but to reconsider their values overnight.
Bad Newz also made me realize (again) how wonderful an actor Vicky Kaushal is. To take a dig, he steals the Rocky Randhawa template from Ranveer Singh (Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani) and makes it better – sans the theatrics and sleaze. Akhil is as Delhi as any Delhi guy would ever get and I nearly bought his problematic ways – for all the effort Kaushal puts in. Tiwari’s film, however, gives him no respite. Akhil is annoying when the film wants him to be, and is seen breaking character to serve words of wisdom on motherhood because this nonsense must end at some point. The affable Ammy Virk is wasted as the customary good boy who never gets a chance. The film runs two laps ahead of Gurbir carrying Akhil’s flag, shoes, napkin, and water bottle. Triptii Dimri gets a better deal out of the three. She has one job – which is to look stunning – and she does a great job at it. Atta girl. Although in a listless part, Guneet Singh Sodhi as Harman Satija stands out as the only unconditional lover in the film. No wonder they marked his appearances with a Dil To Pagal Hai signature tune.
The songs and the original score of Bad Newz are perhaps its only redeemable element with every song including the viral ‘Tauba Tauba’ making an impact. The Anu Malik banger from the ’90s ‘Mere Mehboob Mere Sanam’ gets a decent remix and the song is seamlessly laced into the narrative along with other hits from the era. Coming from the Dharma stable, Bad Newz is also a nattily dressed film although the female actors appear overly whitened in several sequences. Puffy skin in cold weather or just poor makeup? Someone needs to dissect. Neha Dhupia’s Ma Corona is dressed as a clairvoyant and none of us (including the writers) know what she is doing in the film. The dialogues contain meta-humor so basic that a content creator on TikTok might finally feel a sense of belonging.
It is as if an unseen force wants Anand Tiwari’s film to be 2024’s Dostana. They insert homoeroticism in a key scene when the plot doesn’t need it one bit. Even Kal Ho Naa Ho – a 21-year-old film from the same production house – had context behind its famous subplot, not Bad Newz. The less said the better about the drunken scene where Saloni forces Gurbir his way to ‘the climax’. In the era of Me Too and Greta Gerwig, none of what we see in Bad Newz represents our times. If all women out there were to fall in love with irresponsible brats, where would all the nice, eligible, and empowering men find love?
Rating: ★★
