Newton
Admittedly, I have no penchant for movies in general. The Jurassic franchise, Mission Impossible series, Marvel Cinematic Universe (in which I have no interest now) — such are the movies I would rather watch. The last exemplar movie I had watched was The Shawshank Redemption in May 2018. A friend once recommended to me a few movies premised on events of significance set in the Cold War, which I would certainly be interested in viewing. In eighth grade, I would have marvelled at Ajay Devgn’s portrayal of Prithivraj Raghuvanshi in Bol Bachchan, or as Singham, but I soon lost interest in Indian movies in general. Section 375 was the last movie I had watched (prior to which, for over a year, the only movies I had watched were The Tashkent Files by Vivek Agnihotri and Gumnaami by Srijit Mukherji) until day before yesterday, when I watched the impressive movie Newton — not out of interest or any fervid search for good Indian movies, but because we had to write a movie appreciation as part of a subject’s internal assessment. Strangely, it was to be graded out of ten marks. I therefore employed the best skill I had: weaving unnecessary literary yarns, which, of course, meant that writing the story itself in impressive lexicon was of great importance.
As must a lotus bloom in the seeming muck of soil, there must allegorically arise on occasion a novel story from the profusion of cliched commercial cinema that the entertainment industry ever so often presents. Often simple in its essence, such a novel story resonates deeply with the naturalness of its visuals, the relatability of its characters and the familiarity of their lexicon. Newton exemplifies such traits, and tells a story that, alas, while successfully rankling our inner conscience, cannot penetrate the shell of the average Indian’s cynicism.
It is a consummately dispassionate satire on that crucial engine which permits the eagle of Indian democracy to soar, against all odds — election. While the description may appear needless and unimaginative, it is more or less vindicated in a cameo appearance of Sanjay Mishra, essaying the role of a wise election instructor. For young election officers in general, he has the lesson of integrity and the impeccable record of the Election Commission of India to impart. But for the eponymous protagonist, who has named himself as such after having been made fun of at school for the seemingly strange name ‘Nutan Kumar’, the election instructor has a yet more crucial lesson to impart: one does no favour to the country through one’s honesty, and the fact that one is honest ought not to lead one to develop hubris. One must work, with humility and honesty in harmony, and the country shall progress along.
Throughout the movie, ‘Newton’ is seen to abide by this lesson. At no point does his unwavering integrity lead him to treat his fellow election officers with condescension. There is no trace of pontification; just an almost innocent straightforwardness and adherence to election rules, both of which symbolically reflect in his rather conspicuous eye-blinks. Impressively, there is no visible sense of apprehension, despite the knowledge that the region assigned to him as a presiding officer is almost a stone’s throw away from Naxalist bastions. Needless to say, security would be of paramount essence, and the movie does justice to the relationship that civilian government officers enjoy with the paramilitary forces mandated to protect the national interest in the region: the Central Reserved Police Force (CRPF).
Assistant Commandant Aatma Singh, portrayed by the versatile Pankaj Tripathi, is in charge of the security that is to be provided to the team assigned for conducting free and fair voting in the region. An evidently experienced man, but having embraced the permanence of the way things are, Newton’s integrity seems to amuse him. The sly inclusion of Singh’s question as to why Newton was not a civil servant, to which Newton responds that he could not clear the selection procedure, to which Singh further responds “I thought so”, fits in neatly with the plot as Singh attempts to understand the dedicated man that Newton is.
Singh informs Newton that not only would most civilians probably not vote in light of the Naxal call for a boycott of the elections, there were also many amongst the paltry seventy-six voters in the town who did not know what voting was supposed to mean. But Newton must discharge his duty, as is expected of him, and a CRPF team accompanies the election officers. On their way to the voting booth — a dilapidated hut that purportedly once served as a school — a foreshadowing of the differences between Newton and Singh is witnessed as a flummoxed Newton stands staring at the charred remains of a burnt hut, and Newton’s question as to the responsibility of the same invites only a polite prod to set up the requisite paraphernalia in the school building. In the meantime, Newton gets to know his staff better: one, a sleepyhead; another, alert but a bored pessimist; and the third, a local woman, serving as the BLO, who, while hopeful of a better future for the region, is not nearly as optimistic as Newton.
Increasingly, the differences between Newton and Singh manifest themselves. At first, the differences are polite, in view of their recognition of one another as employees in service of the same government. Subsequently, however, the differences become more pronounced. Newton chances upon Singh and his unit using village children as spies, and expresses firm disapproval of the same, as is his prerogative as the presiding officer. He cannot come to terms with the fact that children were being dragged into the invidious battle between the government and the Naxalists. Singh asserts that children far younger than those were recruits for the Naxalists, and that while being in uniform conveyed the impression that he was threatening them, what he made was a genuine request that they convey to the villagers to come and vote.
Situations change when the Deputy Inspector General of Police announces that he is on the way with a foreign news correspondent. The CRPF troops have no choice but to compel villagers to cast their vote for favourable coverage. Driven to desperation at the lack of knowledge of elections amongst the villagers, and the failure of Newton to raise awareness amongst them, Singh concocts a most absurd story, likening the voting machines to toys in which they could press any symbol they chose. To Newton, it is a scandalous travesty of what he regards as the very soul of a democracy. But Singh has no choice; the DIG is insistent, and the villagers clueless about the significance of elections. Thus, as the gullible villagers cast their votes oblivious of what the symbols denote, the foreign correspondent declares that “India’s democracy is very deep.”
Notwithstanding his apparent deviation from formal norms, Singh is not an unalloyed antagonist. While Newton awaits the arrival of more voters, and his staff wanders away for lunch, Singh brings lunch for Newton, reiterating that he feels no personal animosity against the presiding officer; that he was constrained by his duty; and that he would feel guilty should the presiding officer go without food while the others have a feast. Instantly, gunfire is heard; presumably a Naxalite attack, and the unit instructs the election officers to rapidly pack their paraphernalia so that they could proceed to safety. As they walk, Newton ponders upon the events and realizes that the CRPF had staged the attack. Things get physical, as Singh forcibly pins Newton to the ground, preventing him from going back to the polling booth.
He attempts to chase away the other voters who in his view had arrived late, although the actual duration was to last a little more. Newton manages to break free and holds Singh at gunpoint as the other election officers rapidly have the votes of the remaining few villagers registered. Newton questions Singh as to the motivation behind staging the attack. Singh makes a poignant point, noting how insistent he had been on his warnings that the area was unsafe; that bright young CRPF soldiers were periodically lost to the battle with the Naxalites; that the government had not been heeding his requests for night vision goggles and more equipment; and that he was not prepared to sacrifice more men for what he regards as nothing short of a party. Newton finds the likening of an election to a party scandalous, but we as viewers are compelled to regard Singh’s argument with gravity. Service in the military and the paramilitary create a camaraderie that few civilians truly discern, and no senior officer could possibly bear to see his subordinates attain martyrdom. When the duration officially ends, Newton surrenders, and Singh’s irate unit beats Newton up.
The movie ends with Singh shopping at a mall with his family, in a civilian attire, six months later, implying that the region was perhaps finally at peace; and Newton working elsewhere after having successfully conducted elections at the town he had been assigned to, largely recovered from his injuries.
“Newton” explores a myriad of themes: the problems of scarcity of equipment as well as loss of men faced by the paramilitary forces, the dilemma faced by election officers, but also very crucially, the unfortunately perilous environment that the region is to the villagers, who want nothing better than the termination of the conflict and to go on with their lives peacefully. The movie, well punctuated with light moments in its overall poignancy, may well leave viewers with the question, “What meaning do elections, whose significance we in the cities express in highfalutin terms and rightly so, hold for penurious villagers caught amidst the seemingly interminable conflict between the government and the Naxalites, each side espousing the purest of intentions and adding to their confusion?”
Realistic as the problems depicted in these two hours of reel life are, we as citizens can only await that answer in our real lives.
