Movie No. 5 (2018): NEWTON

Newton (2017)
Director: Amit V. Masurkar
Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Anjali Patil, Pankaj Tripathi
In Hindi, with English subtitles

Newton is a movie from Bollywood. Good thing about it, in my opinion, is that it avoids the excesses of Bollywood. 

The central character is Nutan who renamed himself Newton. He is a civil servant with strict morals and ethics that will get challenged in the jungle during election day. He leads a team that was sent to a remote village in the jungle to administer the votes of 76 people. The village is a conflict area, where both the military and Maoist terrorists are present. There's always the danger of being ambushed and the village people are indifferent. The conflict arises when Newton insists about implementing the democratic process in the election while the military that escort them turn out to be pragmatic in getting the process done as soon as possible.

The movie has serious theme, which may resonate around the globe. There's some hint of comedy that is easily eclipsed by the morality play. The narrative is perfect for a literary novel.

I really enjoyed the movie. I'm so glad that the Bollywood signature is conspicuously avoided.

Newton competed at the Berlinale last year and was submitted to Academy Awards to compete in the Best Foreign Language Film for this year's ceremony.

Rating: 3.5/4.0

Date seen: February 3, 2018