What worked for Shah Rukh Khan in the 90s will not work today on OTT. If storytellers want to survive here, they need to understand that OTT was widely accepted because it didn’t have superstars like Shah Rukh, Salman, and Aamir Khan. People loved OTT because it was a storytellers’ platform.. Because the ideas were fresh, original, and unique. This is what content acquisition teams should also keep in mind when wasting money on crap. 

Both Faadu: A Love Story and Taaza Khabar remind you of Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman and all the movies that revolved around the similar ‘rags to riches’ plot. 

With Taaza Khabar, it feels like the team liked the plot but the script writers never understood what to do with it next. Not just one, this Bhuvan Bam starrer series is full of loopholes. To give you a gist of the story, Vasya belongs to the economically weaker class. He sits in a public toilet to collect money. That’s his source of income. His mother is a house-help. One day, when Vasya helps a old lady found unconscious in the public toilet, she blesses him with a ‘vardaan.’

What is Vasya’s vardaan? The lady says that from here on, Vasya will get everything before time. What a vardaan, lady! He starts getting news on the phone? Is that even a vardaan? Anyway, after she blesses him, a series of events begin where Vasya starts getting exclusive ‘taaza khabar’ on his phone before the world gets to know it. These pieces of news soon turn into reality in the real world. Based on this ‘vardaan,’ Vasya starts investing in crypto and later, also gets involved in match-fixing. And then, somehow he only gets match-related predictions on the phone. Weird!

There are many things in the story that I can list down here but all the storylines are so repetitive that I don’t even want to mention them now. Still, to give you a hint: there’s a politician villain who is in love with Vasya’s prostitute girlfriend. After Vasya realises that he can change his life, thanks to the vardaan, he takes her away with him. Now you are smart enough to weave the story ahead. But the chase and no-chase by the politician are also foolishly written. So, no thrill here as well.

I think I have said enough for you to know why you should not watch Taaza Khabar. For the same reasons, you should also skip Sony LIV’s Faadu: A Love Story. It’s a poorly written script. Again, it takes you back to ‘Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman’ times. The writers didn’t know what to do with two strong headed characters so they decided that they will only do silly things in life. Faadu is unconvincing and repetitive. It is not something you would like to waste your weekend on.