Nupur Agrawal
First thing’s first. I know for a fact that I wouldn’t have gone to watch Newton if it wasn’t chosen as India’s official entry to Oscars. But is it really good enough to have jumped on the Oscar Bandwagon? Let’s see.
Highlights
1. The subject of Naxalite menace in Chattisgarh in connection with Elections & I-dont-give-a-flying-hoot attitude of Govt. towards getting the minorities to vote. – Dry and daring topic to pick.
2. Fearless direction by Amit Masurkar, long pauses that give you time to read the faces of actors, uninterrupted by trivial words/dialogues
3. Rajkummar Rao as Nutan aka Newton – Sincere, Patient, Knows damn well what he’s doing. A real hero without trying to be one.
4. Supporting cast – Anjali Patil as Adivasi girl, Pankaj Tripathi as Chief of Security, Raghubir Yadav as a typical Govt. employee and a self proclaimed story teller
5. Comic moments – Being a political satire, almost theatre material, comic moments are too subtle and too many.
But what’s amiss ?
The wow factor. Perhaps that’s the line between a great movie and brilliant cinema. So that’s ignorable. The only hitch was the way too simplistic character of Newton which carried an underlying message that one is never too small to make a difference in this big bad world. But are innocence and sincerity enough virtues for a (any) person to carry the weight of a country on their shoulders ? I think that’s the question the movie left me with.
Video effects have been experimented with the selective blur, also noticed earlier in Anurag Basu’s Jagga Jasoos. Music is forgettable but suits the situation and adds a little spark to the monotone.
Rating by Palette of Life – 4/5 Shades
