‘The Broken News’ Review: A Thrilling Drama With Strong Female Characters, Impactful Performances By Sonali, Shriya, Jaideep
The inside of a newsroom and its fast-paced environment is extremely crazy. In order to deliver hard breaking news to the homes of people across the nation, all the people in a newsroom work at almost an inhumane speed. And I’ve seen what the inside of a newsroom looks like so I can vouch for it. Zee5’s show The Broken News starring Sonali Bendre, Jaideep Ahlawat, Shriya Pilgaonkar and Taaruk Raina, shows people what goes behind every single headline and breaking news that you come across. It also revolves around the concept of ethical and unethical journalism which is honestly, a conversation that we all need to get going. The Broken News is an adaption of the 2018 British show Press. Directed by Vinay Waikul and produced by Sameer Gogate, this show is all set to premiere on the OTT platform Zee5 on June 10. Ahead of its release, I thought why not drop a little review of the series. So, here goes nothing.
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The Story
The Broken News follows the rivalry between two Indian news channels Awaaz Bharati and Josh 24/7 that are starkly different from one another. While Josh 24/7 is a channel that has the highest TRP but is not known for its journalism ethics. Led by Dipankar Sanyal (played by Jaideep Ahlawat), this channel has little to no interest in fact-checking a story and gains TRPs by sensationalism. On the other hand, Awaaz Bharati, led by Amina Qureshi (played by Sonali Bendre), has its grey moments but it believes in the ethics of journalism. Despite its credibility, Awaaz Bharati is cash-strapped and bleeding to the point of shutting down. And stuck between these two extremes is journalist Radha Bhargava, who is known for her ethics and investigative skills. But what happens when one case and a shocking discovery puts everyone at risk?
Cast And Characters
TBH, the casting of The Broken News has been done with absolute perfection. I cannot even imagine someone else playing any of these roles the way that these actors have.
Amina Qureshi aka Sonali Bendre: This show is Sonali Bendre’s acting comeback after nearly a decade and it’s her OTT debut and I must say – Sonali is back with a bang. The actress managed to maintain her charm and perfect her character. She slips into her role as Amina Qureshi with absolute ease and with a never seen before poise. Apart from making you feel all the emotions of her character as she takes tough decisions for the better of the channel, Sonali will also make her screen presence felt and there’s not a single other actor or character that shone as bright as her. No matter how much I praise her acting skills, it still won’t be enough to express her strong role and her almost flawless acting skills. Having said that, I must mention that she does not look very convincing when she delivers news to the public as an anchor on The Broken News. In other words, there’s scope for more.
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Radha Bhargava aka Shriya Pilgaonkar: Known for her natural and effortless acting skills, Shriya Pilgaonkar continues to live up to our expectations while taking it a notch higher with her acting skills in the show. She’s as impressive as always. While Radha’s dedication to her job is a little tiring, I completely get it. There are not enough adjectives in my vocabulary to praise Shriya Pilgaonkar’s badass performance in The Broken News.
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Dipankar Sanyal aka Jaideep Ahlawat: Jaideep Ahlawat does what he does best and perfectly portrays the role of a ruthless, unethical Editor-in-Chief of Josh 24/7. His commanding presence and his dark avatar will make you hate him but he also has his moments of vulnerability that will make you feel for him. His acting too is extremely effortless as he proves his mettle in acting yet again. He makes his character and his acting skills kaafi unforgettable in the show.
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Also Read: Exclusive: Sonali Bendre On ‘The Broken News’: “I Wanted To Come Back With A Character That Has A Strong Voice”
The rest of the cast including Taaruk Raina and Faisal Rashid delivered powerful performances and like I said earlier, the casting could not have been done better. Kudos to the casting director. And I must say, their performances aren’t something that you’re going to forget. Every single character in this show, no matter the screen time, manages to make their way to your heart with their amazing work and their beautiful character arc.
Final Verdict
While The Broken News is not flawless, the flaws are digestible. And that’s why I’m giving this show 4 stars out of 5. To begin with, the one thing that I loved the most about this web series is the fact that they managed to portray the insides of a newsroom with perfection. It perfectly depicted the chaos, pace and prime time madness that goes on in a newsroom. Another thing to note is that while it has been denied, the fact remains that Jaideep’s character is inspired by and will remind you of a loud journalist known for sensationalizing news and spinning stories. Now, the nation knows. The show also does a great job at showcasing the contrasting ideologies in journalism and the hard realities of how things actually work in the media industry and it does so without getting preachy and shows all perspectives possible. We must give it up for the director for a job well done. And more so when it comes to the strong female presence in the show. While it did not have any seetimaar dialogues, it does have the potential.
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Also Read: ‘Code M’ Season 2 Review: Riveting Crime Drama With Stellar Performances. But Army-Sized Plot Holes Are Hard To Ignore
Coming to the storyline and the sub-plots, I love the fact that every single sub-plot is properly developed and it does more than just scratch the surface. But the main plot is what seems half-baked and kaafi zayada mainstream. With all the madness that they had going around the main mystery, it turned out to be something rather dull and done to death. Another thing to note is that while the professional lives of each character seem very streamlined and well developed, their personal lives and stories seem half-baked and in some cases, it just goes off the track and then trails off. IMHO, they could’ve just chosen to drop the parts about the personal lives of characters if that’s what they were going to do. And I must call out the LGBTQ+ representation in The Broken News. The show just gave it a little mention and then just forgot all about it. But having said all of this, it’s not something that you cannot look past. This show is definitely a must-watch but the end will leave you with mixed feelings and wondering what’s going to happen next. So, I guess it achieved what it wanted to.
FYI, in case you still haven’t figured out, The Broken News has framed the title with some wordplay. The breaking news, broken ethics and The Broken News, get it? Well, now go watch it on Zee5!
