Newton is an Indian black comedy drama film cowritten and directed by Amit V Masurkar. It is a crisp film with no drawbacks whatsoever.

The plot churned out by Mr. Masurkar is brilliant, so is the cinematography by Swapnil Sonawane. Shot in the real Dandyakaranya forest in Chattisgarh, Newton truly deserves the 2018 Oscar nomination more than any other recent Indian movie.

Moreover, the great acting by Rajkumar Rao as Newton and Pankaj Tripathi as Aatma Singh acts as a double treat for the viewers. Background music by Nayan Chandavarkar and Benedict Taylor is quite soothing to the ears.

Dialogues are inch-perfect and a very clear representative of the equally error-free plot. The movie deals with an honest and upright presiding officer Mr Nutan Kumar (Rajkumar Rao) who himself has changed his name to Newton, being a post graduate in Physics. He’s a revolting personality. Once he ended up calling off his marriage with a 16-year-old girl stating it to be against the law, the audience starts expecting more out of this weird office-goer who is alarmingly punctual and serious about his job.

He is a rookie government clerk and is sent as a reserve personnel to the conflict ridden jungle of Chhattisgarh, largely terrorised by the Naxalites. When every other single clerk refuses to be the presiding officer of this deadly jungle trap, mainly because of the naxal connection, Newton takes up the responsibility and lands up in the dreaded land.

The constituency comprising of 76 voters has always been largely ignored, naxalites and lack of education being the primary causes. When Newton lands up there he finds a pessimistic army Officer, Aatma Singh (Pankaj Tripathi) staring at him.

Next follows some exciting dialogue exchange and finally the troop ventures out in order to carry out election. Malko (Anjali Patel) is the only lady member of the group and being a local helps Newton out to understand the poor state of the uneducated local residents, hugely terrorised by the naxalites and raises a concern whether they will be able to witness a single voter.

The plot seems to take an interesting turn next. The second half portrays how eluding our democracy is. Besides that, a portion also deals with the injustice being carried out to the local ‘adivasis’. On one hand, they are being dragged by the military to forcefully cast their votes when they know nothing about the process of voting, whom to vote, and are largely unaware of the processes of democracy.

Newton brings out the irony of the faulty voting system in the Terror-ridden constituency and has a very nice ending to it. Editing by Shweta Venkat Mathew is really praise-worthy and to sum up all, it is indeed a masterpiece.

(Coordinator, Class XI, Gokhale Memorial Girls School)