Bad Newz review: Vicky, Triptii, Ammy's dramedy sadly justifies its title; makes you wonder whether to laugh or cry

Director: Anand Tiwari 

Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Triptii Dimri, Ammy Virk

Where to watch: In theatres 

Rating: 2 Stars 

Ambitious and vulnerable Saloni Bagga (Triptii Dimri) gets pregnant with twins in a rare medical condition of heteropaternal superfecundation. Saloni's twin pregnancy is fathered by both the men in her life - Akhil Chadha (Vicky Kaushal) and Gurbir Pannu (Ammy Virk). What follows is a predictable series of events that neither make you laugh out loud nor leave you teary-eyed. 

In 2019, Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Diljit Dosanjh and Kiara Advani's Good Newwz was a unique film that touched upon a mix-up during in-vitro fertilization and presented the unfortunate situation with a comical narrative. Bad Newz, backed by the same producer (Karan Johar), is the spiritual successor of the film. But, unlike the previous movie, it ends up as a wasted opportunity because of lazy writing. 

The movie has an entertaining first half, with funny situations, perfectly-timed one-liners, and engaging dramatic moments. In the pre-interval, the film focuses on how new-gen couples easily give up on relationships and long-term commitments. The potshots taken at Kabir Singh and Karan Johar are well-timed. The big bomb of Saloni's medical condition is dropped during the interval, and we expect the film will just go high on drama and comedy, but the second half sadly turns into a snoozefest. 

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The biggest drawback of Bad Newz is the boring, predictable, and uninteresting second half. Even the buffoonery done by Akhil and Gurbir will hardly make you chuckle. The dialogues and drama seem repetitive, and it ends on a note, where I was neither emotional about how the characters go through the tragedy-turn-comedy situation, nor did I chuckle at Akhil's childish antics, or Gurbir's too-sweet-too-good persona. Barring four dramatic moments, I wasn't emotionally invested in Akhil-Saloni-Gurbir's life, and that's where the problems lie. Even the popular song, Tauba Tauba, played during the credits could not save the disappointing second half. Sadly writers Tarun Dudeja, Ishita Moitra, and director Anand Tiwari failed to balance drama with comedy.

The film rests on the shoulders of Vicky-Triptii-Ammy, of which Vicky does the heavy lifting. He was good at comedy, but excellent at dramatic moments. Vicky perfectly depicts the loud Punjabi, mumma's blue-eyed boy. Triptii also justifies her part of emotionally vulnerable Saloni, who becomes a stronger individual after getting pregnant. Ammy does make a notable entry and soon becomes the lovable munda. However, in the second half, his character is reduced to a puzzled guy, who tries hard to fit in. Neha Dhupia is completely wasted while Sheeba Chaddha remains dependable as usual. The cameos by Neha Sharma and Ananya Panday were hardly impactful.  

Bad Newz could have been the next big dramedy movie from Dharma, but neither does this movie make you laugh, nor does it evoke any emotions, failing in both drama and comedy badly.

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