Newton

A young man of principle is the presiding officer of a polling booth deep in naxal controlled area in Chhattisgarh. He crosses swords with the chief of military staff posted in the area. Both have orders to follow and doing their job.

This film is a critique on the state of democracy in India and how it's not all black and white. The good part is that the writer and director are neutral and don't have a point to make. The audience is left to draw his own conclusion.

A must watch.

Movies like these rarely come in Bollywood and I really applaud their marketing tactics. They released the film on the day of announcement of the film being sent for Oscars, which was a good gamble. There's no way a lot of people who have seen this movie, and made it a success, would have watched it otherwise.

There is a much needed class and subtlety in this movie. I specially like the suggestion they made with the shopping mall scene. Nothing was said but a lot was done! Something that is a big rarity in Bollywood. The movie tackles a serious, controversial and conversation-sparking topic with extreme good care. They managed to make people laugh while making them aware about a lot of things going on in the country.

The director needs to be applauded for this one. He has a very firm grasp on Indian culture and it's nuances. He chooses to portray it really well. No unnecessary dramatization was done. Minimalistic approach of the director makes the movie appealing. The cinematography is brilliant and refreshing.

The screenplay is smooth and never feels abrupt nor slows down to boring at any point. The film has been edited well enough to make it an engaging 1-hour-46-minutes experience.

When you have Rajkummar Rao in the movie, you do not doubt the acting skills but even he has bested himself with this one! The typical character nuances, speech, diction, blinking of eye, he perfected literally everything!

Final verdict: A MUST WATCH. I really hope people would make this a bigger success (chances are scarce) so that the producers would start shifting their focus from unbearably stupid movies like Judwa 2 to classy satirical movies like this!

Newton is simply the most relevant film to have come out this year. India is the world largest democracy but what actually it takes to make a democracy? A subtle and fervent exploration of the aforementioned question...

It raises some very serious questions about the working of our system. There are various themes running under the surface like discrimination of minorities, paranoia, prejudice, power abuse etc.

What does it take to do your duty sincerely? The film contains some very dark facts about our system. How ironical is the fact that nobody is working anything in the right manner but when somebody tries to do it right they start to oppose him/her? The fact that the whole film is a despair against our flawed system is a brilliance to revere.

The inner and outer conflicts of the characters are portrayed brilliantly. The main character of the film is in constant conflict with his morality and the working of officialdom. The election is the most important thing in a democracy and election officers who are trying to conduct a fair election are no less than army officers.

The film is full of dark humour and glum sarcasm. Dialogues are extremely hard-hitting. An excellent screenplay is complemented by a great direction. The use of milieu and colloquialism is a masterstroke and intensifies the raw and real atmosphere of the film. The cinematography is splendid. The camera captures the mood of the film in a blazing manner.

While the notion of democracy sounds pretty simple it becomes fairly intricate and complex when our lead character tries to explain it to the native people. It is ironical that the army which is there for the natives are the one who terrorises them. The film is full of such beautiful and intense scenes.

Rajkumar Rao is stunning in the role of an honest election clerk and gives another ravishing performance. Pankaj Tripathi is excellent in the role of an army officer who continually tries to persuade Newton to abandon his duty for the sake of safety. Anjali Patil and Raghubhir Yadav are superlative in their respective roles.

Newton is a rare film in Indian cinema. It's a must watch for everybody who loves to think cinema as a powerful medium. The movie addresses the issue which has rarely been covered in our industry. A brilliant depiction of tribulations faced by an honest individual. A sharp and witty political satire....

Newton (2017): Most of the people are unaware of a film named Newton until it was selected as an official entry to 90th Academy Awards from India.This low-profile film has attracted audience after its Oscar-entry buzz and even the reviews are highly positive.Starring Rajkumar Rao (2017's surprise star of Bollywood) and limited cast,Newton is directed by Amit Masurkar,who earlier directed Sulemani Keeda.SO how is Newton?

Plot:

Nutan Kumar alias Newton (Raj Kumar Rao),a government clerk on election duty in the conflict ridden jungle of Central India tries his best to conduct free and fair voting despite the apathy of security forces and the looming fear of guerrilla attacks by communist rebels.

My Review: Newton is one such message-oriented film which will equally impress both art and commercial audience alike.It is brilliantly funny poignant film which every Indian must watch.

"Do you know what your problem is?" a veteran election instructor asks a newbie.

The youngster replies: "My honesty?"

"No," says the older gentleman, "your problem is your pride in your honesty."

This conversation between Rajkumar Rao and Sanjay Mishra is one of the best scenes I have seen this year.In the same scene,Sanjay Mishra compares Newton's view is similar to Isaac Newton's view.Director masterfully wrote such strong scenes in the beginning of the movie which really created strong impact throughout the movie and even after coming out after watching it.

Writer-director Amit Masurkar and Mayank Tewari have painfully captured the bittersweet essence of the people of an obscure jungle that's far-flung from civilization.Masurkar razes multiple Hindi film clichés to the ground in Newton by resorting to low-key black comedy to tell a tale of Adivasis being pulled in different directions by the police and Naxalites on election day, by making an Adivasi - that too a woman - one of the agents of change in the film, and by conceiving Newton as a man of indeterminate caste, even if clearly not an Adivasi himself.

Newton is a dark comedy that gives you equal measures of dread and disillusionment and hope and hilarity. It makes you see the pitfalls of the democratic system but also tells you that it's the only one capable of positive change. This is reality at its finest, with credible performances and backdrops that immerse viewers into the world and where even the faces of the background characters leave a heartbreaking impression. The script is full of humorous touches and intricate visual details.

Once again Rajkumar Rao proved that he is the upcoming gem of Bollywood.He gave a powerful innocent performance with perfection.Pankaj Tripathi is the show-stealer with his career best performance.Rest of the cast also impressed a lot with their natural acting skills.

So,Newton is one of the best political satires I had seen from Indian Cinema.A Must Watch..

My Rating 8/10

I saw this fabulous Indian film called "Newton" last night which by the way is the only Indian film to be screened at this year's New Zealand International Film Festival. This film was screened at Cannes and I guess this is the second festival after the Festival de Cannes where it is being showcased. In a nutshell, this film is about an election officer who takes the responsibility of going into a forest ridden with armed revolutionaries in order to collect votes from the local residents.

I had read somewhere that Isaac Newton, the genius scientist, was actually a very complicated man. His namesake in this film seemed no different. While his intentions were good, his method of executing them was questionable. Which is why when you see this film, you will wonder if the protagonist is actually the antagonist. Everything in cinema is a matter of perspective. The film is infused with dark humour from start to finish and Rajkumar Rao is nothing short of a brilliant actor.

Because this was a festival film, I saw this film with a primarily Kiwi audience which is always a great thing. I want Indian films to have a global audience. If main-stream Bollywood films don't attract a foreign fan-following, art-house festival circuit low-budget films certainly will. It is so ironic that I saw this film at a time when New Zealand is preparing for the upcoming elections This film appeared so minimalist yet was nothing short of a funny edge-of-the-seat thriller.