Bad Newz is a great title for a film about a woman who gets pregnant with twins from two different fellas (yes, heteropaternal superfecundation is real, and most of you already know that, thanks to Google suggestions when you type hetero). But it is not because of its central plot, which is perhaps the only thing original about this movie. It is because almost everything else is, well, not so good.
We say almost because Vicky Kaushal is incandescent as West Delhi munda Akhil Chaddha. Ranveer Singh might have patented the act with Band Baaja Baaraat and Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahani, but our munda is sabto vadda (his tagline in the film) and does one better than what he did in Manmarziyan. Not once did it feel like he was copying anyone, and he is the livewire that keeps the film from tipping into unwatchable. And who knew he could move like that?! When put in a scene with the other two actors —- Triptii Dimri, who plays the woman in question Saloni, and Ammy Virk, who plays the other father Gurbir — Kaushal clearly dominates the screen. Not that Dimri is too bad herself, though she seems a little stiff in the comic scenes.
The story, written by Ishita Moitra and Tarun Dudeja and directed by Anand Tiwari, is narrated by Dimri to Ananya Panday, who plays herself. It is of a superfast romance (honestly I didn’t even realise when flirting had become serious) and marriage between Akhil and Saloni and an equally fast divorce. Saloni, a chef, wants to earn a Meraki star but is constantly overwhelmed by Akhil’s over-the-top gestures that include barging into her work place with gifts and getting into fights with clients. She is also unhappy about his over/attachment to his mother who calls every hour during their honeymoon.
After the divorce she moves to Mussoorie to work at a Gujarati restaurant and meets owner Gurbir, who comes across as timid but is more mature than Akhil. One vengeful drinking session later, she is forcing Gurbir to have sex with her. While it is great to see a woman taking the lead, would it have been funny if it was a woman who kept saying, let's do this some other time, to a drunk man who insisted on having sex then and there? Just asking ‘do I have your consent’ before forcing sex on a clearly interested but reluctant person does not make one woke. Add on top of that the fact that she was having sex as a way to fight back against her ex-husband moving on (which Indian nari could have a one-night stand just because she feels lust?) makes Gurbir feel more used than equal.
Saloni ends up also having sex with Akhil, who shows up as a surprise, on the same night and it is great that the film doesn’t make any hullabaloo about it. But the fallout is a difficult-to-pronounce miracle where both Akhil and Gurbir turn out to be fathers of one twin each. What follows is a comic one-upmanship to make sure that they are the one chosen. And the film, which has a woman at the centre, becomes all about the two men. I mean they do realise at the end that the choice of not just who the father will be but also about the children’s future is up to the woman, but by then she has become the third wheel of the film. In fact, the only person who gets a whole character arc is Kaushal, who traverses the gamut from spoilt, rich mama’s boy to an adult who can be selfless, even if still a bit juvenile.
The film is not unfunny per say but most of the jokes involve so much name dropping and referencing other films and characters and settings that it is easy to forget what film you are watching. There is hardly any scope for original dialogues when every other line is a song or a reference from another movie. And why is the background score so loud and brash that one wishes there was a mute button option at the movie hall.
What’s paisa vasool is seeing Vicky Kaushal dance, not just in the Tauba tauba song before the credits but also the opening song. Basically, you can watch the first 10 minutes and last five minutes and call it a job well done, if you are a Vicky Kaushal fan. Otherwise, it’s ‘bad newz’ for you my friend.
