Bad Newz Movie Cast/ Actors: Vicky Kaushal as Akhil Chadha, Triptii Dimri as Saloni Bagga, Ammy Virk as Gurbir Pannu, Ananya Panday as Cameo & Neha Dhupia as Malini Sharma
Bad Newz Movie Movie Director: Anand Tiwari
Bad Newz Movie Movie Release Date: July 19, 2024
Bad Newz Movie Available On: Theatrical Release and (likely to be released on Amazon Prime Video OTT Platform)
Bad Newz Movie Movie Released/ Available In Languages: Hindi
Bad Newz Movie Runtime: 142 Minutes
Bad Newz Movie Critic Review:
The good comes at you like a gush of invigorating air when Akhil Chadha (Vicky Kaushal) swaggers in with Punjabi robustness, his moves matching his flamboyance. ‘Raula raula..’ is an energetic entry.
The wooing, the wedding and the honeymooning of Akhil with chef Saloni Bagga (Triptii Dimri) that follow soon after are spirited and witty, dotted with interruptions from Mumma (Sheeba Chadha). ‘Jaanam’ designed for Saloni’s sensuous wardrobe and much smooching has already been in the public digital space for quite a while. But there’s ruckus around the corner too as Akhil can’t understand Saloni’s workspace or her ambition to get a Meraki Rating, his brawny ways coming in the way of marital bliss. A nice point is raised when Saloni ticks him off that her Meraki-goal is not a ‘shauq’ but her ‘sapna’. Note the difference, guys.
Substitute Punjabi male Akshay Kumar with Vicky Kaushal and Paaji Daljeet Dosanjh with Ammy Virk for the stepsibling of Good Newwz (2019) to carry forward the series with the hope of fun times again.
Amiable Gurbir Singh Pannu (Ammy Virk), owner of the Savoy in Mussoorie, who resolves a sticky situation with calm pragmatism, is the antithesis of Akhil. The fun continues like the sequence where Saloni nurses Gurbir, the hotelier doing what men do best to hold on to the attention of a pretty woman.
Director Anand Tiwari and writers Tarun Dudeja and Ishita Moitra take the unique one-in-a-billion concept of heteropaternal superfecundation and by half-time, Saloni is pregnant with twins, Akhil and Gurbir fathering one each.
Lightness walks along with the tension when Akhil meets Gurbir for the first time, both at the hospital for a paternity test. The munda and the paaji are a delight. “Tie hai?” asks Akhil. “Superover nahi ho sakta?”
But the bad and the kiddish also come along.
With no sizzle between Saloni and the antiseptic Gurbir, you know where it will end. But Tiwari takes a long and kiddish route to get there. The one upmanship between Akhil and Gurbir is schoolboy-level silly, requiring the new term ‘one upchildship’. Stretching a good premise are extraneous characters and situations, a mix of the bad and the kiddish. 1) Something inexplicable called Ma Corona (Neha Dhupia) who’s hanging around Saloni and the maternity hospital all the time 2) A nondescript sleuth hired in turns by Akhil and Gurbir to thwart each other 3) A rich sidey whose standard line is, “Har haal mein Saloni ko apnane mein taiyar hoon” 4) The predictable sob scene of Akhil Chadha telling Mumma that he’s not sabse vadda 5) The irksome background score that’s constantly making noises, hammering the head to shout, ‘Laugh, this is a comedy’. There’s even one that goes ‘Phone gaya, phone gaya’ when Akhil loses his mobile 6) The overuse of Dharma Productions’ own tune ‘Mere mehboob mere sanam’ from their 1998 SRK-Juhi film Duplicate. When you can put together a new foot-tapper like ‘Tauba tauba’ which comes with the end credits, why exhaust an old chartbuster? 7) The strong reminder that the munda from Delhi is a Dharma favourite. We just saw him in Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani.
But Vicky Kaushal owns the show. This is perhaps his most unabashedly commercial outing and he does the heavy-lifting with engaging energy, touching the heart at certain moments. Ammy Virk has a naivete that works and cast in a substantial role, Triptii Dimri tries to go beyond being just a pretty face.
However, after many a laugh, some moments of zzzz and going awwww at Akhil’s heart-appeal (like the divorce scene or when he says, “My mind gets the technical and logical but the emotional…”), you go home feeling empty-happy.
If only the ridiculously kiddish had been written with pep and some depth, it would’ve been another round of Good Newwz all the way.
Bad Newz Movie – Watch Or Not?: Watch it for bits of unobjectionable fun, for Vicky Kaushal and for ‘Tauba tauba’. But it is a long route home.
Bad Newz Movie Review Score Rating: 2.5 out of 5 (i.e. 2.5/5)
Bad Newz Movie Official Trailer:
Also Read: Hindustani 2 Movie Review: Point Of No Return
