One of the quickest, and most effective, ways to recognize when a script is weak is when it jumps to a flashback with ‘a few weeks ago’ title. It leads to some calculative narrative brain-fog situation that never really adds anything new to the present action that the audience has not figured out already. Taaza Khabar Season 2, now streaming on Disney + Hotstar, has many such flashbacks. The jarring, almost forced cuts to the past harm the pace of the narrative, more so when the show is built on the premise that our protagonist can see the future. The present matters less when the future is so readily available on an app, so how convenient it must be to look back at the past right?

Season 2 needs taaza updates

Those who have been acquainted with what Bhuvan Bam's Vasant Gawde did in Season 1 along with that cliffhanger, can be at peace to know that far worse things happen to him and his acquaintances this season. His actions demand no sympathy because the script offers no scope to look beyond what he is doing and how he is doing these mad-ambitious-insane things. The opening episode takes off where it ended last season, but this time the taaza khabar is that he is dead. So how can he stop this happening in real life? What can he do to stop what's already predicted?

Turns out, a lot! He jumps, cries, lies, kills, yells and manipulates like only he can. We also return to his tribe; which comprises of his helpless parents (played by Atisha Naik and Vijay Nikam; who see no harm in their son's misdeeds and are happily working to save more money), his friend/sidekick Peter (Prathmesh Parab), the bakery owner Mehboob (Deven Bhojani), and Madhu (Shriya Pilgaonkar). All these characters simply exist in service of our great Vasant's whims, and will happily take a bullet or some bullying depending on his tomfoolery. But of course, the biggest crisis has not arrived yet! That's cue for Yusuf (Jaaved Jaaferi) to make his king-sized entry as the menacing antagonist who will not leave Vasant even when he is gone for good.

Final thoughts

The conceit has run its course by now but the there are still six episodes to find new taaza khabar notifications to elongate the narrative a little more. The writing is extremely derivative and seems to run in the same circles of new plan, but bigger flops in execution where someone gets killed. There are no consequences whatsoever. The police is sleeping, there is no investigation on the crimes, no one bats an eyelid, and the city of Mumbai is as non-existent in its fabric as ever.

What difference will it make if Vasant shifted to Bangalore and updated his location there? Would he be able to reach the spot after getting a taaza khabar battling the traffic? The best quality is that there is no point in asking questions or showing the slightest urge to interrogate the repercussions of greed, or the injustices meted out to the powerless. Taaza Khabar could have been so much more if it had taken the disparity between the have-s and the have-nots and designed its premise from that angle. The tail was right there.

Vasant seems to learn nothing, so it is best that his audience does not mind asking either. New taaza khabar update, new plan! Bhuvan has natural screen presence as an actor but he can barely add any impact to a scene when it demands so less from him. His actions begin to feel too repetitive and juvenile after a point. Taaza Khabar loves a new trick, a new set-piece, a new resolution. But there's nothing taaza about any of these parts. The show needs a much-needed update for its own good, just like the app.

Taaza Khabar Season 2 is available to stream on Disney + Hotstar.

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