A book can’t be judged by its cover similarly a movie too can’t be judged by its trailer. Over the years there had been many movies whose trailer were great but the movies turned out to be completely opposite of what it promised when the trailer came out. The trailer of NEWTON came out roughly a month ago, and it managed to create a quiet buzz too. But for most of the movie without any mainstream leading actor or actress, the viewership stays limited to the trailer itself and one would expect Newton to suffer the same faith as the likes of Masaan, Udaan or more recently A death in the Gunj or Gurgaon.Newton released without the hype created by its trailer but it was the only afternoon it started trending all over the social media and news channels for all the right reason, Raj Kumar Rao the lead of the movie confirmed that NEWTON has been selected as India's official entry to the Foreign film section of The OSCARS.
Newton is the story of Nutan Kumar aka Newton (Rao), a government clerk who tries to run a free and fair election in a conflict area in central India. Newton along with his team is packed off to the jungles of Chhattisgarh to conduct polls for the 76 eligible voters in that area. Because he’s idealistic to a fault, he immediately locks horns with Aatma Singh(Pankaj Tripathi), a cynical military officer assigned to protect the booth against the insurgents who’re likely to disrupt the voting process and whose sole motive is the safety of his team and the people he is responsible for.The whole story takes place within a time frame of a single day and explores the different aspects of the democracy we live in. From the plight of the Adivasi villagers whose villages had been burn down and are in constant fear of both the Indian military and the Naxals to the India soldiers and their problem with the shortage of ammunition, other amenities. The movie doesn’t provide any answers or solutions on how to tackle or come out of the situations like this but what it does, more importantly, is that it asks a question to its audience at every aspect and in the end, leaves everyone with some serious thought to take back home.
What makes a movie work? A good story is a must but more importantly the cast who can justify the script with their work. Both Rajkumar Rao and Pankaj Tripathi are splendid in their roles with no room for a single error. Raghuvir Yadav as Newton election member does what he does best and gives a lively touch to the movie.Anjali Patil as the Adivasi school teacher fits perfect and give the movie a humane touch. For those who have watched a movie called Sulemani keeda must admit it was a gem of a movie and the duo of Amit V Masurkar and Mayank Tewari exceeds all the expectation with Newton.
Newton is one of the few movies one should not miss this year and is arguably one of the best movies India have sent for Oscar in recent years.Only time will decide whether Newton makes the cut when the nomination for Oscars are announced early next year but until then Happy watching.
For some lost soul here is the trailer:
