To Sequel or Not is the Big Question!

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I can imagine a boardroom meeting (at least, I hope that brainstorming for a new project is done professionally and not impulsively in these flop-ridden times!) where a decision was taken to make a sequel to the 2019 Good Newwz, an ingenious ‘dramedy’ on mixed sperms. Both IVF couples were named Batra, hence the technician’s mix-up in which the wrong Batra’s sperm was injected into the wrong wife’s ‘eggs’ in a Fertility lab, causing all the contretemps!

Directed ably by Raj Mehta (a debutant director) and co-written by him with Jyoti Kapoor and Rishabh Sharma, the film came at a period when Akshay Kumar could do no wrong, having successively top-lined a dozen hits before it. With its healthy mix of great humor and wit and the necessary dollops of emotions and drama, it went on to be massive hit, sweeping past the Rs. 200 crore (nett) mark in India and having an overseas gross collection of Rs. 74.36 crore.

One of the treasured gems from Dharma Productions, the film remains a revisit-worthy drama that also featured Kareena Kapoor Khan as his wife and Diljit Dosanjh and Kiara Advani as the other couple. Virtually its only weak spot was the music by the usual coterie of music makers. And, of late, unless Pritam comes in, Dharma’s movies have completely stopped bothering about good music in their multiple films, whether with assorted composers or single entities.

So let’s return from this brief but necessary deviation to the boardroom.

A plan is made to choose a story that has to be about rare happenings around ‘pregnancy’ milieu. That much was certainly necessary for a sequel in “spirit”. I do not know (as I was not privy to the meetings!) whether a title was decided first or research later conducted into what is to be presented, or the reverse.

Remember the 1972 super-hit film produced by Premji and directed by Dulal Guha—Dushmun (a foe)? The next film in which they collaborated was the antithetical title, Dost (friend), but a brilliant story was chosen that fitted it and the duo got another blockbuster of the same caliber and success quantum.

A medical condition that was not too common and lent itself to some sex-based humor, Heteropaternal Superfecundation, was anyway chosen. This is where, if a woman has conjugal union with two different males in a short timeframe, and is in her fertile stage, can conceive twins with different fathers. Not a very Indian-acceptable phenomenon, right? After all, conventionally, a heroine cannot be shown as a ‘morally’ (read sexually) promiscuous or loose character.

The music, such as was to be made functionally, as not important at all. Pritam could not do every Dharma film, see? And the likes of Anu Malik are “dated”, aren’t they? But more on this later!

Ishita Moitra had co-written Dharma’s Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani with its two-generation love story—one unfulfilled and yet extramarital as there was no love in the legal unions. This writer has attained a comfortable reputation in fare that has a strong sensual yet humorous aura, having also co-written the sex-heavy dramedy series, Four More Shots Please!. She was joined by Tarun Juneja.

The casting was the key and, as per director Anand Tiwari, the leading lady was chosen by Karan Johar himself, and that too before Triptii Dimri signed for her bare-all-dare-all cameo in Animal. Vicky Kaushal, always a good, if not primary, choice for such rakish characters as Akhil Chadha, was her ex-husband, an impulsive, immature and in-your-face piece of self-overconfidence who ran his father’s Chhaap restaurant. (Chhaap is a preparation of thin slices of meat are marinated, tenderized and fried at very low temperatures over a long period of time, and apparently—as I do not know anything about this dish—there can be vegetarian chhaap as well.)

On this issue, just for humor, the script made Saloni, Triptii’s character, a vegetarian (the latest formula for lovers in a fix, check the recent Do Aur Do Pyaar). Saloni aims to win a (prestigious) Meraki cooking competition, as she is a chef in a restaurant. Food for fought, see?

The audience being capricious at best, the story also needed an element of modernity without going crass. Saloni decides to compromise with her single-minded focus (on Meraki) and decides to have a whirlwind marriage with the besotted Akhil. But things don’t pan out as expected. The girl is told by Akhil to get out of his home after a huge spat concerning Saloni’s job and ambition and Akhil’s temper. Disturbed, she also loses the contest and is fired from her job.

After due divorce proceedings, she leaves for a hill-resort, and finds a job as head chef in a hotel in Mussoorie, owned by Gurbir (Ammy Virk). Incensed at social media reels showing how her ex-husband is now seemingly having a grand time going out and dancing with other girls, she seduces Gurbir, who has his own back-story of heartbreak over a vegetarian girlfriend. But in the same night, Akhil gives her a surprise, apologizes for his behavior and they land up in bed too. And so we have the pregnancies!!

Finally, the writers, producers and director Anand Tiwari, who gets into the medical condition after a fling with lesbianism in Maja Ma, decide that the film must have humor that also has a very Punjabi flavor. There is the issue of the twins’ future. And also how societal will look at Saloni. And Lo! And behold! We have the easy-breezy 1990s Hindi film solution (Yeh Dillagi, Dillagi, Mela et al) where the ‘other man’, who is actually an unintended victim here, finds another female alternative in the climax, while both the babies will remain with the mother who will remarry her errant husband.

Unconventional and bold endings, such as in Daag (1973) or De De Pyaar De (2019 again) may be only accepted once in a way. As for the rest, we must tread the Woh 7 Din-Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam traditional path. A woman certainly can’t be depicted living with two husbands.

And so, Bad Newz is Good Newwz only as a vehicle for light, libidinous, wannabe- bold storytelling with lots of one-liners and comic situations. There is not even a superficial effort to explore the emotional psyches of at least the girl and the wrong man, or of their parents. Even the husband’s mom (Sheeba Chaddha) becomes selfish and conventional in thought, and we have a token expression of self-condemnation by her son. A childish element in the one-upmanship between Akhil and Gurbir completes the element of casualness for the vacuous entertainment seekers.

One has to keep in mind the sanctity of marriage. Giving permission to an outsider (even if the poor man has been seduced due to no fault of his and is willing to take responsibility of his child) to be a part of an (ex-) married couple’s life is not done.

And so, despite the heavyweight quirky and uncommon medical condition, it is Bad Newz if you look at how a sensitive emotional subject is handled: Anand Tiwari had not exactly shone in Maja Ma either. And the only Good Newwz is that the undemanding audience gets its value-for-money manoranjan with a share of laughs and titters, and the heroine is portrayed not shown as a woman of loose character but as a confused and traumatized soul.

And here is a subject (like Good Newwz was!) where music and moving songs could have made a huge difference in another era. But over here, as the end-credits roll in with the transiently-catchy Tauba tauba, written, composed and sung by Karan Aujla, we also have a bit of the re-creation of Mere mehboob mere sanam (which is also used within the film), the hit from the pre-Karan Johar Dharma film, Duplicate, composed by Anu Malik, written by Javed Akhtar and rendered by Udit Narayan and Alka Yagnik.

Just for the use of this song, the music rights are given to Sa Re Ga Ma and when I watched some (young) colleagues matching steps with it as I walked out of the theatre, I indeed wondered if such songs (now 26 years old!!) and their creators are dated at all? So why, oh why, are such creative souls considered Bad Newz?

And if a sequel had to be made, why could it not have the same sensitivity as the original did. After all, the ‘spirit’ should have been maintained, right?