OTT review: Newsense season 1 Decent journalist drama

Cast: Navdeep, Bindu Madhavi, Nanda Gopal, Ramesh Konambhotla, Purna Chandra, Katta Antony, Nalla Sreedhar Reddy, Ganesh Thipparaju, Venkata Ramana Ayyagari, and others

Director: Sri Prawin Kumar

Producers: TG Vishwa Prasad, Vivek Kuchibotla

Music Director: Suresh Bobbili

Cinematography: Anantnag Kavuri, Vedaraman, Prasanna

Rating: 2.5/5

Tollywood’s happening production house People Media Factory has produced a web series named “Newsense.” The show aims to present the dark side of the media and stars Navdeep and Bindu Madhavi in the lead roles. Directed by Sri Prawin Kumar, “Newsense” is currently streaming on Aha. So let’s see how it is.

Story

Set in the 2000s, the show is about a few stringers in the Madanapalle press club. They take money from politicians and report either false information or avoid writing facts. Shiva (Navdeep), a stringer, has a philosophy that is to earn money even at the cost of others’ loss. He is head over heels for Neela (Bindu Madhavi), a local news channel reporter. While everything is going smoothly, Edwin (Nanda Gopal), the new SI of Madanapalle, becomes a pain in the neck for the stringers. What happened next forms the crux of season 1.

Advantages

The basic idea of the show itself is very interesting. It indeed is a brave move from the makers to touch upon such a sensitive yet relevant topic. There are some well-written and conceived scenes in the series that throw light on the media industry’s dark side. These few scenes will send shock waves to the audience as they depict how truth is sold and how politicians make use of a few media personnel to whitewash their wrongdoings.

Navdeep was brilliant, and it was so good to see an actor like him in a powerful character. Playing a role that is flawed isn’t an easy task, but Navdeep shows subtleness and maturity in his performance. Bindu Madhavi gets less screen time, but the actress delivered her part neatly.

With the entry of Nanda Gopal as Edwin, things become very interesting. Though his presence is less in season one, he succeeds to grab the eyeballs with his intense performance that also has a slight dosage of sarcasm. Others are okay in their respective roles.

Drawbacks

Though the show has solid potential, the narrative isn’t gripping enough to give that wow feeling. These kinds of subjects need to have a gripping screenplay, and the makers shouldn’t give breathing space to the audience. But there is too much lag in many scenes, and the pacing is slow. Hence Newsense too joins the list of those shows which seem good on paper but falter in execution.

How a few stringers who work for money without ethics has been shown in the very first episode itself. But instead of taking the story forward, many repetitive scenes keep coming, and it is only during the latter half things get a bit interesting.

Technicalities

Sri Prawin Kumar, he did just an okay job with the series. Priyadarshi Ram’s story has a spark, but his screenplay lacks the punch. Had the director and screenplay writer worked more on the narrative part, the show would have been solid. However, the dialogues are neatly written, and some are thought-provoking.

Suresh Bobbili’s background score is decent. The cinematography by Anantnag Kavuri, Vedaraman, and Prasanna is neat.

Kiran Mamidi’s artwork replicates the 2000s time period fairly well. The production values are good. The editing team should have put in more effort to remove the unnecessary lag.