Ashish Chandra

I had high hopes from the film Newton. The film has, after all, been selected as India’s official entry to the Oscars. That aside, the film has Rajkummar Rao starring in the lead role of Newton. Mr. Rao has already made quite a unique niche for himself in Bollywood but with Newton, he has truly arrived. As the name suggests, at the centre of this film is the character of Newton, whose self-righteousness and obsession towards doing things ‘according to the procedure’ is highlighted in the film. His character starts off as the underdog, stumbles in the middle as the striving struggler and ends as the victorious revolutionary. Amidst it all, Mr. Rao, who plays Newton, maintains authenticity to the core and delivers what is perhaps the best piece of acting performance delivered in Bollywood in 2017. The song ‘chal tu apna kaam kar’ is quite appropriately the title track of the film embodifying the importance of doing one’s job well leaving aside the cynicism that we are all so good at. You have election officers and security personnels in the film who treat the affairs of electrons with as much seriousness as playing a random game of cards. Newton is the one who stands out as the ‘honest’ man who sticks to the regulations. Towards the end of the film, Newton shows the local lady an award he has received for punctuality saying, “These guys awarded me for punctuality because I report to office at 9am sharp. For them, it’s a big deal”. Truly, values like doing one’s job well and honesty are not qualities that need sainthood, They are expected of us. It is just that Newton’s world is in such a mess; people there are so apathetic towards their responsibilities that Newton has to threaten them with their life by pointing a rifle at the security men to have people cast their votes. The film may seem sometimes a tad dull due to its being set in the middle of a nowhere and limited to the four walls of a ramshackle voting booth. The direction too seems, at times, a bit forced with moments like running the parallel scenes of the security catching the voters and the old lady of the village catching the hen, to draw an analogy. Or, the poorly shot scenes of the large walls of the voting booth making Newton seem small in comparison, to show the enormity of the challenge before him. Yet, the dialogues, the performances and the incredible climax more than adequately compensate for such minor flaws in the film. There is also delightful comedy. Some special ones are where Newton is asked to stay a Newton and not try to be an Einstein. Or, when Newton explains how his name was originally Nutan. But since it was a girlish name, he changed Nu to New and tan to ton. Whether the film gets recognised at the Oscars or not, it is certainly one of the best films to come out of Bollywood in 2017.