A political satire, black-comedy that has been widely appreciated across several international film festivals is all about a day in the lives of election officials while conducting elections in the interiors of Chattisgarh state.
Newton Kumar (Rajkummar Rao) is a presiding officer solely in charge of supervising the conduction of elections in the notorious troubled place. Newton follows the election commission manual strictly and primarily wants the electorate to come out and vote for the candidate of their choice. He has made up his mind to encourage as many voters to come out of their homes and cast their vote, one of the biggest pillars in a democracy.
Newton faces an uphill task with other officials around him who are not keen on encouraging the tribals to cast their vote. There is an armed officer (Pankaj Tripathi) who happens to be the secutiry incharge for providing security to the Election Commission officials (Newton in specific) who is bent on dissuading Newton in his task.
Written and directed by Amit V. Masurkar makes you feel and care for those tribals and others in rural India who are more so dominated by the Security Forces. On a micro level one feels is it worth to risk and spend so much for the elaborate security arrangements in small pockets which might not even make a difference in the bigger perspective. On the other hand one has to think about each individual in this country of 125 crores and his selection of the candidate and the party which could make even a minute difference in the administration.
This is a great film about a government clerk on election duty in a naxal-controlled town in Chhattisgarh, who faces the apathy of security forces and the looming fear of guerrilla attacks by extremists tries his best to conduct free and fair voting despite the odds stacked against him.
You can see the mockery of democracy in the interiors, while just a single person with a positive attitude can make a positive change, no matter howsover small it may be.
Newton is a dark-comedy film plainly depicting the drawbacks in the system and focuses on the strength of one very resolute rookie election clerk to uphold the democratic process in a rebel-threatened area. The film has an interesting subject that was handled well coupled with it being high on technical values and supported with excellent performances from the whole cast. No one can be particularly singled out for his realistic performance.
The best part is that the film just shows us a mirror about the true status of democracy, the imposition of fear in the minds of the naive tribals and its about how the process of elections are carried out in India.
Cast:
Rajkummar Rao as Newton Kumar
Pankaj Tripathi as Aatma Singh
Anjali Patil as Malko
Raghubhir Yadav as Loknath
Mukesh Prajapati as Shambhu
Krishna Singh Bisht as Krishna
Credits & Crew:
Production company: Drishyam Films
Produced by Manish Mundra
Directed by Amit V. Masurkar
Story and Screenplay by Amit V Masurkar, Mayank Tewari
Music by Naren Chandavarkar & Benedict Taylor
Cinematography – Apple
Edited by Shweta Venkat Mathew
Distributed by Eros International
Newton, hindi movie review