Good Newwz movie review: Baap kaun? Doesn’t really matter

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor, Diljit Dosanjh, Kiara Advani, Adil Hussain, Tisca Chopra Director: Raj Mehta Kabhi-kabhi, under all the glitter and banality, wrapped in lots of silly, filmy situations and guffawing, Bollywood does something smart, significant and delightfully daring. The bigger, outer circle is made up of the society at large and the larger parivaar made up of sisters and brothers-in-law, fathers and mothers-in-law, as well as sundry nosy and sarcastic aunties whose sole purpose in life is to take a jab at married women who have not yet delivered “good news”, as if it’s a joy they owe more to the world that came bearing sagun lifafas to their wedding than to themselves. According to Good Newwz, members of this larger circle make it their life’s mission to cast aspersions on the married-but-not-a-mommy women’s marital situation — “it must not be a happy marriage”, on her intention and ability — “something must be wrong with her”, and are generally devoted to making her feel bad for making everyone wait endlessly for “good news”. In between lots of talk of “apna khoon toh apna hota hai”, that made me very uncomfortable, Good Newwz very cleverly makes us laugh and then, in a rather traditional setting, gently introduces an idea that will make patriarchy shudder for a long time. It’s all done while cracking jokes, with dialogue that make me laugh out loud, so much so that I think I peed in my pants twice, including when the film forever ruins that Sridevi song from Lamhe — Morni, bagan mein bole aadhi raat ka… Good Newwz opens with a plug, a kind of a full-length Good Newwz, written by Jyoti Kapoor, Raj Mehta and Rishabh Sharma, is smart while being very filmy.