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In a recent interview, Jamnadas ‘JD’ Majethia recalled that they contemplated recasting the central roles while planning a theatrical feature film adaptation of the hit sitcom Khichdi. Amitabh Bachchan was considered to play the elderly patriarch of the Parekh family, as Majethia and Aatish Kapadia began building castles in the sky. But it was quickly decided that this would be a terrible idea. In the show, the character of ‘Babuji’ is often mistreated by his family, and Majethia figured that the audience wouldn’t spare him if he subjected the legendary Bachchan to such ridicule on screen. Ayan Mukerji learned this the hard way.
In India, stars are often inseparable from their on-screen personas; disrespecting Bachchan in a movie would be like disrespecting someone’s actual grandfather. A lot has obviously changed in the last decade, of course. Hindi cinema, in particular, has become cautious to the point of catatonia. Forget having the courage to release something like Mukkabaaz or Article 15 in the mainstream, even a forgettable comedy movie like Good Newwz will likely not be made in this day and age, but not for reasons that you’d imagine. For one, it has an entire scene that revolves around Akshay Kumar getting high on drugs — this is a Karan Johar production, by the way — and for another, it mocks Diljit Dosanjh in a way that nobody would dare to in 2024.
Also read – Dostana: If apologies from Karan Johar are on the table, when are we getting one for this?
While Dosanjh was already on the up and up before the pandemic, having cultivated a devoted fan-following with his Punjabi music and his acclaimed acting performances in a handful of Hindi movies, he went stratospheric not long afterwards. Now an internationally recognised artist, Dosanjh prides himself for showcasing Punjabi culture around the world. Dressed in his pug-Jordans combo, he brought bhangra power to not only the hallowed stages of Coachella, but more recently, to the historical halls of The Tonight Show.
Diljit Dosanjh and Kiara Advani in a still from Good Newwz
He isn’t the first Indian star to attempt a crossover, but unlike others in the past who invariably attempted to blend in, Dosanjh politely asks to be accepted for who he is. Far be it for him to adopt a fake accent; he barely speaks English. He retains a ‘pagdi’ — a celebration of his roots, but also a middle finger to the Americans who attacked his people following 9/11. Unlike cookie-cutter Bollywood celebrities in it only for themselves, Dosanjh stuck his neck out and raised his voice against the ruling party during the farmers’ protests some years ago. The success that he has achieved since then should instantly silence all his colleagues who fear speaking up for what is right because they have too much to lose.
In Good Newwz, Dosanjh plays a loud Punjabi man named Honey Singh, who is routinely mocked by the seemingly elite characters of Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor Khan for being an uncultured village bumpkin. Honey and his wife Monika, played by Kiara Advani, find themselves inextricably linked to an upper-class Mumbai couple after a mix-up at an IVF clinic leaves the women pregnant with the wrong man’s child. The actually uncouth Varun Batra — that’s Akshay Kumar’s character — gets a free pass by the film for apparently being ‘educated’, while Honey is called names like ‘jaahil’ and ‘baboon’. In one scene, Varun hears the boisterous Honey laugh loudly, and whispers to his wife Deepti, “Yeh aadmi jab hasta hai meri puri body mein thadthahat si ho jaati hai.” The English subtitle is inexplicably meaner: “When I hear him laugh, I feel like punching him.”
But Varun and Deepti can’t shake him off, because she’s effectively carrying his child. This is unacceptable to them, mainly because they can’t comprehend the embarrassment of being associated with somebody like him. Monika, on the other hand, has been impregnated by Varun’s sperm instead of her husband’s. Honey and Monika are mocked for being uncultured nouveau riche — an entire scene is devoted to making fun of Monika’s pronunciation of the words ‘honours’ and ‘flush’ — by characters who revel in their class superiority.
Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor Khan in a still from Good Newwz.
In addition to being anti-IVF, pro-life propaganda, Good Newwz is also sexist and classist. The movie hinges on the rather problematic premise that the men have more of an ‘ownership’ over the unborn babies than the women. The claim that the babies have been ‘exchanged’ in any way rests entirely on the presumption that they belonged to Varun and Honey in the first place. Nobody, not even the movie, appears to pause and consider that the women are more than mere vessels in this scenario. Sure, there’s a scene in which Deepti lectures the increasingly erratic Varun about the side-effects of pregnancy, but that doesn’t really address the real issue.
It’s a bit rich, wouldn’t you agree, of a movie that misspells its own title to make fun of a character for not being able to read properly? A smarter film would’ve satirised these flimsy flexes, but Good Newwz is no Bheja Fry. Instead, it’s a movie that confuses loud sound effects for background music, a movie whose green screen effects can handily be outshone by the nightly news, and whose technical abilities can be outmatched by the average teenager on Tik-Tok. For a film that is directly pandering to the Khichdi, Taarak Mehta and Kapil Sharma crowd, Good Newwz certainly can’t resist looking down on them.
Post Credits Scene is a column in which we dissect new releases every week, with particular focus on context, craft, and characters. Because there’s always something to fixate about once the dust has settled.
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