'The Broken News' review: Newsroom drama made entertaining

3.5

What actually needs to be fixed in 'The Broken News' is the title. Someone's idea of a clever pun, it falls flat and puts off the more discerning viewer (that's me).

This web series on the perils and pitfalls of modern television journalism needed a pithy title like 'The Press', a BBC miniseries from 2018 from which it is adapted. If you ignore the title though, 'The Broken News' is a more-than-decent watch.

The eight-episode series goes inside the newsrooms of two rival TV channels, which conveniently enough, run from the same building — one is Josh 24/7 hemmed by the ruthless Dipankar Sanyal (if the name and character remind you of someone, we are not responsible) and the other is Awaaz Bharati, run by the upright Amina (Sonali Bendre) who believes that honest journalism is still worth everything. Her deputy and rising star Radha, played competently by Shriya Pilgaonkar, is the dogged, principled and slightly troubled pursuer of stories and the anchor of the main plot.

Pre-release publicity billed 'The Broken News' as Sonali Bendre's comeback vehicle and she does not disappoint. It is indeed a pleasure to see the beautiful actress do more than play a near dimwit repeating 'Don't Mind' to the leading man. But it is Jaideep Ahlawat (of 'Paatal Lok' fame) who steals the headlines and levels the whole series up with his superbly layered portrayal of Sanyal, the morally ambiguous, TRP hungry, desh-ka-sawaal TV anchor-boss.

Sanyal was apparently once at the forefront of ethical journalism as the character of Shriya Pilgaonkar reminds him in a scene but what the audience sees is a journalist not unhappy to wade in the feculent waters of TRP-driven farce; a professional struggling with his inner demons and a man who becomes the gentlest of fathers at the very mention of his daughter.

Every other Hindi web series wants to be a thriller nowadays and eventually, 'The Broken News' turns out to be one too, which is not a bad thing but just not what it promises its viewers in the initial episodes. Thankfully, the journalists in the series are somewhere in between the caricatures of clever alcoholics and earnest do-gooders that the entertainment industry loves to portray media persons as.