The Broken News 2 is worth watching because of Jaideep Ahlawat and Shriya Pilgaonkar's fabulous acting, recommends Namrata Thakker.
Unlike season 1, season 2 of The Broken News mostly revolves around Radha Bhargava (Shriya Pilgaonkar) and Dipankar Sanyal's (Jaideep Ahlawat) personal fight, as the former wants revenge for branding her a terrorist, and sending her behind bars for exposing Operation Umbrella.
Since Radha is mentally tortured and humiliated in jail, she is angry, hurt and desperately wants revenge, not just from Dipankar but the entire system that failed her.
So when Radha resumes work, her only motto is to destroy Dipankar's TRP-hungry news channel and his reputation.
Dipankar, on the other hand, continues to sensationalise news and doesn't worry about ethical journalism as the government is on his side, funding his propaganda channel.
Ameena Qureshi (Sonali Bendre), the editor-in-chief of Awaaz Bharti, is worried about Radha as the latter drags her personal fight with Dipankar on national television.
Both Radha and Dipankar take potshots at each other using their respective news channels.
In her quest for revenge, Radha loses her journalistic perspective which creates a rift between her and her mentor Ameena.
When Awaaz Bharti is taken over by a new IT giant company, Radha ends up becoming the head of Awaaz Bharti's digital vertical. With that, she gets more power and responsibility but she misuses it to fight Dipankar and the system.
As the story progresses, Shriya's character becomes unlikable whereas you start to sympathise with Ahlawat's character and slowly understand where he is coming from.
Season 2 of The Broken News deals with relevant topics like trolling, propaganda news and how politics and corporates play a part in influencing media coverage.
Both Shriya Pilgaonkar and Jaideep Ahlawat deliver fine performances.
Sonali Bendre's character, in comparison, doesn't have an exciting story arc in season 2.
As Ameena, an ethical and responsible journalist, Sonali is pretty good. But her character is one-dimensional and you don't get to see her rise above the occasion when needed.
Indraneil Sengupta, Akshay Oberoi and the supporting cast are decent in the acting department.
Geetika Vidya Ohlyan, who joins season 2, definitely stands out as a 'sansani' reporter who loves being dramatic while doing her job. Something we see pretty much every day on news channels.
Story wise, season 2 is engaging, more ruthless and has many twists and turns.
At the same time, it's ridiculous how rival news channels openly call each other 'anti-national' while reporting live.
Then there's an episode which has Radha Bhargava going live despite being drunk. And there are no consequences because she is the editor-in-chief. Again, that's something that doesn't happen in real life and unbelievable.
Even the climax is hard to digest but then you realise it's a fictional show and the makers are bound to take liberty in their storytelling.
Despite these loopholes, season 2 of The Broken News is worth watching because of Jaideep and Shriya's fabulous acting.
The show is well-paced, well-edited and the runtime for the episodes isn't too long which works. As a newsroom drama and a thriller, the show doesn't disappoint and that's reason enough for the audience to binge watch The Broken News 2.
The Broken News 2 streams on ZEE5.
- MOVIE REVIEWS
