Director Amit V Masurkar's second directorial venture "Newton" backed by Drishyam Films and Anand L Rai's Yellow Pictures is a hard hitting satirical dark comedy on the Indian election system and the plight of the backward classes in our country !! Newton Kumar( he himself got that changed from Nutan Kumar😝 ) tries his best to conduct free and fair voting despite the odds stacked against him. The difficulties and challenges that Newton faces to get 76 voters in a remote village in a jungle in Chattisgarh , in the naxal controlled areas is what the movie is all about . The first half is breezily funny and despite being a dark comedy , one enjoys every single moment of it till the interval !!
The second half is a bit slower than the first half , but with its excellent script and performances it makes for an enjoyable watch. However one may ask , why would the audience in today's time watch a movie which is based on a topic like, " free and fair elections" in a naxalite area ? What would draw them to the theatres to spend their money on such a movie ? The answer to that is undoubtedly , "Rajkumar Rao " !! One can truly feel that the audience are drawn to the theatres by , him being in the movie and is in the theatre only to watch him!! He's having a great 2017..." Trapped " , " Behen Hogi Teri ", "Bareily Ki Barfi" and now " Newton "!! All of these had amazing performances by him!! Gone are those days when people used to watch only "STARS" or "STAR KIDS"... today's audience needs to be given credit for appreciating good performances in meaningful cinema !! Rajkumar's body language is amazing in the movie... one can't miss the way he blinks his eyes often...making that very unique to watch !! Talking of performances ... the other star performer of the movie is Pankaj Tripathi who plays Aatma Singh in the movie !! He too is having a great 2017 with splendid performances in "Anarkali of Aarah" , "Gurgaon" and " Bareily Ki Barfi " !! Sanjay Mishra in a cameo also shines... Few lines that he says... stays with you... " tumhari problem tumhari imandari nahi hai... tumhari problem tumhare imandar hone par ghamand hai !! " and " apna Kaam imandaari se karte jaao... desh khud bakhud tarakki kar legi " !! Anjali Patil as Malko is an actor to watch out for... she gives a marvellous performance in her deglamorised role of an Adivasi who is there to help Newton as a BLO ( Booth level officer ) !! One actor whom we get to see after quite some time is "Raghuvir Yadav " who plays the assistant to Rajkumar "Newton" Rao . As an avid movie lover , I want to see more of him in the coming days !!
Excellent cinematography , editing and background music forms the backbone of this movie . One should not miss , in the end notes , " Raghuvir Yadav " lending his voice to a marvellous song " chal tu apna Kaam kar" !! This movie may not end up making crores in terms of setting the cash registers ringing at the box office but it will surely do well in festival circuits ... what more can one ask for , as we all know that it has also been chosen as this year's official entry for the Oscars for the Best foreign film category!! That in itself should be a feather in the cap of the entire crew and cast!! The movie ends abruptly , leaving the audience wanting a bit more , however I would surely recommend this movie!! At least watch it for , Rajkumar "Newton" Rao 😊😊👍🏻