‘Bad Newz’ (2024) Movie Review - A Showreel for Vicky Kaushal

In 2019, Raj Mehta attempted to normalize In vitro fertilization (IVF) with a heavy dose of humor in Good Newwz. Forget normalization; the screenplay by Jyoti Kapoor took things to an insane level by swapping the sperm of the fathers. Something insane once again happens in Anand Tiwari's Bad Newz, and it again has something to do with eggs and sperm. Writers Ishita Moitra and Tarun Dudeja talk about heteropaternal superfecundation, which is an extremely rare event where "two eggs released in the same menstrual cycle are fertilized by sperm from two different males through separate sexual encounters." In simple words: One mother, two fathers. The way in which Bad Newz revolves around this incident makes you wonder if the writers merely stumbled upon this condition while browsing the Internet and found it so fascinating that they rammed it into their script. Let's not mince words and come directly to the point: Bad Newz is bad. It's a perfect example of a film that takes a complex issue, reduces it to cool-sounding jargon, and then undermines its intention by focusing on something else altogether. To defend this film by calling it "mainstream" is to admit that we deserve lousy jokes like two men doing pushups or solving the Rubik's Cube to prove their superiority. And if all you can do is hit us with lame scenes like the one where one man mentions a virgin drink and the person standing next to him thinks about his virginity, then why even bother including something as serious as heteropaternal superfecundation in the story? Just make a dumb film like the Housefull franchise. Due to this medical plot point, Bad Newz feels equivalent to a person who learns a big, complicated word just to impress everybody. Its (emotional) intelligence doesn't seem very different from that of those blonde cheerleaders who die first in horror films. Making bad, stupid decisions is in the DNA of this film, which is why it isn't able to commit to the complications of a situation like this.

Forget psychological dimensions (you can ignore them in a comedy); Bad Newz fails to pay equal attention to the three leads. Ammy Virk's Gurbir is a bland, good boy whose biggest strength is how innocent he looks even when he is scheming. Tripti Dimri is the weakest link in this movie. She is presented with a mixture of sexiness and purity. As Saloni, when she first looks at Akhil (Vicky Kaushal), we feel as if a wide-eyed girl is falling into the depths of indecency. Dimri, however, is mostly relegated to the role of an eye candy. She smiles, seduces, and gets angry, which means she comes on the screen, makes some faces, and exits. For all the talk about heteropaternal superfecundation, Bad Newz mostly plays like a tweaked version of all those films where a girl has to choose between two boys. Call it Saloni's Choice. Yet, Saloni herself comes across as nothing more than a springboard for Gurbir vs Akhil. The boys take center stage while the girl screams criticisms from the sidelines. When we narrow things down to these two boys, only one of them appears in the spotlight. I am talking about Kaushal. He dances, does comedy, expresses sad sentiments, and walks away with the film. Kaushal's scenes are as feeble as that of Virk's and Dimri's, but he somewhat elevates them through the wide range of emotions in his acting. Bad Newz proves to be good for him - the movie can be considered Kaushal's showreel.

As a director, Tiwari takes the script and infuses it with a tone that constantly shifts between being extremely happy and extremely unhappy. At one moment, Bad Newz will be busy tickling your funny bone, and then suddenly, it will order you to cry or take things seriously. Tiwari forcefully commits himself to a futile cause because no matter how hard he tries, he cannot overcome the hurdles created by terrible writing. As a result, the filmmaking, too, appears inept and directionless as Tiwari struggles to decide what mood, and message he wants to give to the audience. Watching Bad Newz is like listening to someone excitedly shouting gibberish. You are able to pass your time, though you end up wondering what was even the point. The framing device here involves Ananya Panday listening to Saloni's story to prepare herself for her biopic. Given Bollywood's tendency to give us biopics like Srikanth and Chandu Champion, I am sure Panday's film within this film will turn out to be as awful as Saloni's narrative.

Final Score- [3/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times