Review: Taaza Khabar is not so Taaza

YouTuber-turned-actor Bhuvan Bam plays a guy who can predict events accurately.

Hyderabad: Contrary to Bhuvan Bam’s BB Ki Vines which has top-notch fresh content, his maiden OTT venture Taaza Khabar on Disney plus Hotstar is anything but. In the series, Bhuvan plays Vasya, a guy from the slums who is blessed with the ability many would kill for, especially journalists. He can predict events that are going to happen in future.

Bhuvan’s Vasya is a public toilet manager who is keen to make a better life for himself and his mother, a domestic help who is burdened with work to make ends meet. He finds solace in the arms of his neighbour, a prostitute called Madhu played by Shriya Pilgaonkar who is lusted after by a local political heavyweight (JD Chakravarthy of Satya). His sidekick is Peter who runs a fast food stall, while Deven Bhojani makes an appearance as the friendly bakery guy.

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One fine day, Vasya helps an old lady who collapses in the toilet. She blesses him and tells him, “he will come to know everything in advance”. Since then, his life changes as he goes about averting tragedies helped by his friends and soon his uncanny ability helps him turn his fortune around. In turn, he also helps his friends improve their circumstances over the course of episodes.

His meteoric rise to riches goes to his head and soon morals take a backseat as Vasya aka Vardhan starts to think only about making money. Taaza Khabar has a great plot and is an underdog story at heart. But the writing is poor and direction timid, so despite a solid cast the focus only seems to be on Vasya’s escapades. JD Chakravarthy is just wasted as is Deven Bhojani in their respective roles. Even Shriya is underutilised and only serves to show Vasya’s downturn into a corruption of mind and soul. Bhuvan tries hard to imbibe his character’s roots, but the attempt is half-hearted. It’s sad as his humble beginnings on YouTube are the opposite of what this series has become.