A Masterclass on Simple Film-making: Newton

I know I am a little late to the party, but I happened to catch up on this much-acclaimed Rajkumar Rao starrer, Newton, today. Directed by Amit V Masurkar, Newton throws light on the daunting task of carrying out election duties in the problematic Naxal belt of our country.

A couple of days back, Merly Streep in an interview said that the most important quality that a good film-maker should possess is his vision to connect all the links and make the story-telling more nuanced and cohesive. While she said these for Steven Spielberg, I was constantly reminded of this statement and the need for a good scriptwriter to link all the loose ends and a good director to be able to rightly execute it.

While the plot feels way too simple - a principled officer has been posted to a Naxal prone village to preside at the Lok Sabha Elections voting. How he fights to get things done his way, with honesty and might. It may appear to be a rather simple concept, (just like another Rajkumar Rao starrer , Trapped) but has such well-written and intertwined plots, that it can definitely serve as a masterclass for any connoisseur of good cinema. I am listing a few of them that I thought were well thought and well connected:

1. Newton's attitude of calling a spade, a spade: In the beginning itself, Newton ask the Election Inspector (Sanjay Mishra) a really obvious question, for which he is ridiculed. This forms the base for his attitude to not bow down to authority or seniors or his parents, and question everything that does not make sense to him.
2. Newton's physical fitness: A regular plain joe, working in a 'sarkari-daftar' can seldom be assumed to be fit enough to sprint like a horse. The writers show a glimpse of his morning routine of jogging, to substantiate his fitness in the climax of the movie
3. Newton's staunch adherence to his principles: Multiple instances - his unwillingness to agree to his parent's wish of getting married to the last scene, where he asks Malko (played by the lovely Anjali Patil) to wait for 5-minutes as it still was not his lunch time. It is clearly established that no matter how big or small the issue is, he sticks to his principles, come what may!
4. Grim-reality, shown subtly: While the cops pressurize the tribal folks to come and vote, it also shows the grim reality the poor and ill-informed tribal folks face even today. On one hand they are forced to provide free local liquor to the cops, they also see the arrival of the cops as an opportunity to make money by selling chicken!
5. Stanford-prison experiment, shown beautifully: Do people in authority misconstrue it for a free reign of power? This is shown through subtle nudges and powerful yet, understated dialogues by the villagers and Malko. One such beautiful moment is when Malko conveys to Newton to use his sixth sense - a gem of a moment where so much is conveyed with so little!
6. Mean cops are not necessarily Mean: While the entire movie builds Asst Commandant Aatma Singh (Pankaj Tripathi in a show-stealing role) as the mean cop, who has given up all hopes, there are scenes towards the end which make you melt your stance towards him. Their inadequate armory and under-payed salaries force them to become the way they are. 
7. Subtle show of discrimination: The movie never openly mentions that Malko belongs to a backward caste, but beautifully portrays the bitter reality of discrimination and suspicion that they face. Malko puts it beautifully as she says - 'Aap jo ek din mein badalna chaah rahe hai, yehi dekhte hue hum badhe hue hai...'
8. To each, his own: Honestly, I have not seen or spoken to anyone who belongs to a land marred by Naxal turmoil, but the movie hints at their helplessness in escaping both the cops and the naxals, in a nuanced way. And this is never directly conveyed, but put across through expressions and body language of the village folks. 

I am sure there might have been more such under-stated or finely nuanced sequences, which do not directly convey the message, but make one ponder about it to get the real meaning. It's so good to see a filmmaker use this style of story-telling to address the elephant in the room.

P.S: I know Rajkumar Rao has garnered a lot of praise for this one and was really good, but for me, Pankaj Tripathi takes the cake!