The Broken News: The Dichotomy of Real and Faux News

Developed and Directed by Vinay Waikul, This 8 part series is a fast-paced show that reveals the truth behind news.

The remake of the popular British show Press. The show does an outstanding job at dissecting these journalists' values and ethics in the newsroom.

Quick Synopsis: The show follows the lives of two rival news channels and their struggles to stay on top and deliver raw and actual news.

The show begins with two top news channels that run in the same building. Awaaz Bharti is led by Editor and Anchor, Amina Qureshi (Sonali Bendre) who believes in delivering honest news to the viewers. Another channel is Josh 24/7 spearheaded by Dipankar Sanyal (Jaideep Ahlawat) who believes in stirring the pot and dramatizing the news. Amidst this rivalry, we have, Radha Bhargava (Shriya Pilgaonkar), a sharp rookie journalist who believes in honest journalism (like Amina) and unveiling the nasty tricks of the government.

The show gives you two sides of journalism, one that is clean and states facts, and the other is a TRP-hungry news channel that thrives on accusations and feeds the 'janta' with more stories than facts. Dipankar Sanyal works on the latter, considering himself to be the face of Josh 24/7. He is the stereotypical 'Janta ka sawal' journalist who purely considers journalism as business and disregards emotions to deliver a steaming pot of exclusives. Dipankar acts as an authoritative patriarchal figure who wants things in his own way. With his personal life being in shambles, the newsroom is the only place where he can take all the reigns. Throughout the show, he follows his own motto that he tells his team daily i.e. 'news is boring, I make stories', hence the immense dramatizing of news that the audience seemingly loves.

Whereas we have Amina Qureshi, despite their news channel going through a loss still believes that they can stay relevant in times when people don't like honesty and only want masala. She plays your typical soft yet stern editor and anchor who navigates between following the orders from her boss or exposing the mishaps of certain companies along with her trusted team of journalists. Her team believes in thorough reportage. Amidst her team is Radha who is at war with Dipankar over her principles and ethics. Awaaz Bharti might be behind their rival news channel but they are far ahead when it comes to quality news.

We get a peek into how these news channels work, how they take the same story and bytes but air it from a different angle. A fierce battle of whose ideology is more acceptable to the viewers. Another factor that comes into play is politics. How some media households are backed by politicians that often leads to a biased representation of the news. Even though it taps into various issues in every episode but it disappears into the white noise as the focus only remains on the TRPs. Radha till the end tries to prove that ethical journalism is still relevant and that what she is doing is right even though there are times when you question her morals as well. Dipankar who once was the face front of Awaaz Bharti and believed in the same philosophies as Radha eventually chooses a different path that turns him into a brash and a cynical journalist. There is a tone of narcissism in him which he never fails to show whether it is in front of his own boss or the Home Minister.

There is one episode where Josh 24/7 airs a byte of a mother who is weeping over the loss of her son who was falsely accused of raping his student. Due to Dipankar's insensitive behavior and an immense amount of negative hashtags that initially led to the suspect committing suicide, you do not see an ounce of regret on his face instead he moves forward with releasing that particular byte where they force the mother to weep and show her public support to Josh 24/7 as a way of rectifying the media house's mishap. This episode also shows how media can affect an individual especially when they deliver hyped or fake versions of stories.

In today's world, it's hard to believe whether the news is authentic or just based on assumptions. The Broken News brings out the reel version of the workings of the media houses aptly. The show is crisp and to the point when it comes to showing the harsh realities of news channels, but somehow towards the end it becomes more of a thriller than a news procedural but the show promises the latter in the first few episodes.

What makes the show worth the binge is the cast and characters. It's refreshing to see Sonali Bendre after a decade, she does her job phenomenally as Amina and brings out the emotions and doesn't disappoint. Jaideep Ahlawat makes headlines as Dipankar, the Pataal Lok actor yet again shows his versatility as an actor as he gets into the skin of his character and plays justice to Dipankar the TRP hungry journalist. Shriya Pilgaonkar stays true to her role and delivers a great performance as Radha.

The show is a definite watch for the ones who religiously follow the news, even though the show doesn't dive deeper into the emotions, it sure proves that it's not like any other newsroom drama.

You can stream the show on ZEE5

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