In the pilot episode of Newsense, you see an old couple approach a senior reporter at the Press Club of Madanapalle to share their grievances against their land getting usurped by goons. The reporter assures them that their issue will be brought to light in the papers. One immediately anticipates the following scene or the resultant pay-off to be about the old couple getting justice, thanks to the help of the just and altruistic fourth estate. But this sort of assumption, on par with most of the stories set in the world of journalism earlier, is not only quashed by the makers of Newsense but also completely turned upside down. The treatment of this one particular subplot also holds true for the series at large.
Creator – Sri Prawin Kumar
Cast – Navdeep, Bindu Madhavi, Ramesh Konambhotla, Manoj Muthyam
Streamer – Aha Telugu
Newsense actually lives up to the premise and the promise it presents its viewers with, as we witness the story’s unabashedly grey tonalities hit home and ring deep. Telugu cinema has particularly found ethical ambiguity hard to crack, with its audiences often getting shortchanged with portrayals of its grey, anti-hero protagonists. Think of Nani in Mohan Krishna Indraganti’s V, or more recently, Ravi Teja’s character in Sudheer Varma’s Ravanasura. The purportedly satanic disposition of these characters is swiftly undone by a tragic backstory to anticlimactic effect, with a thoroughly risk-averse treatment opted in order to not alienate its viewers too much.
Newsense, an OTT endeavour, is a refreshing departure on multiple levels. There are no preachy, moralising positions ever taken in the series, but its takeaways and clapbacks, on who is wrong and who is wronged, are crystal clear. One is also bound to assume that the dark portrayal of journalists in Newsense will feed to certain confirmation bias, only to receive a humbling surprise through its subversive storytelling.
Unlike most journalism stories, Newsense rarely incorporates certain newsroom-isms into its storytelling. There is no B-Roll of newspapers being printed or cameras being adjusted, so to speak. In fact, the motley bunch of journalists in the series don’t even belong to the same media organisation. A good chunk of the story takes place in the press club of Madanapalle, a small town in the Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh, their adda that also doubles up as an epicenter of their less-than-ethical activities. The story uses journalism as a lens (pun intended) to unflinchingly zoom in and out of the various power-brokers of this particular region. One is tempted to paraphrase Hamlet after watching practically every character embody a flawed personality…“Something is rotten in the town of Madanapalle.”
At the heart of Newsense lies Shiva (Navdeep), a man whose conscience rarely emerges to the fore. His traumatic past has made him internalise the tenets of adavi neethi (Law of the Jungle) into his outlook, firmly believing that one who does not prey has no choice but to get preyed upon. The victims of the series, be it a woman searching for her missing husband or a girl with a hand burned by a politician for vandalising their party’s cutout, remain as victims from start to finish, as a stark reminder of the comatose conscience of the journalists in the series, and the way they shirk their responsibilities in favour of protecting their status quo. There is a recurring visual of the series’ five reporters exchanging envelopes of money for their unethical deeds. It reminds you so much of Chiranjeevi’s “lancham, lancham, lancham” monologue from the penultimate court scene in Tagore (2003). Not remaining too far behind in its subtextualisation, we do get to see a poster of Tagore at a tea stall in Newsense, along with some other era-appropriate references to the Mega Star (the series is set in the early 2000s).
Writer Priyadarshini Ram, director Sri Prawin Kumar and cinematographers Anantnag Kavuri, Vedaraman and Prasanna jointly adopt a documentary style to tell the story of Newsense, which makes the story all the more effective. Newsense’s biggest strength is its depiction of Madanapalle, the town really comes alive as the series’ second protagonist after Shiva. Beyond the Rayalaseema setting and one off-hand reference to red sandalwood, the series brings flashbacks from Pushpa: The Rise in a big way as we see SI Edwin, a righteous cop, and an outsider to boot, enter the scene in the latter portions of the series. Unlike Pushpa, where you root for Pushparaj and not Shekawat, the entry of Edwin brings you relief, as he sets ahead to make things right, angering everybody, most of all the journalists.
The series’s biggest undoing is also one of its many smaller merits. Newsense never sticks to the format of a limited series, as we see many threads hang loose. The viewers never get the closure they are supposed to get in a series. There are too many questions, all of which are hastily tied up and shut tight in its last episode. But considering how the makers of the series have already shot most of the second season along with the first season, I am inclined to give a certain benefit of the doubt and look forward to how things shape up. Here’s me hoping that the dots Newsense has neatly etched in its first season are deftly joined in its second.
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