Newton’s Chhattisgarh Is Authentic but Has Some False Notes Too

The Rajkummar Rao film is a brave but not a brilliant effort.

Rajkumar Rao in Newton. 

(Photo courtesy: Twitter)

*Spoilers ahead*

Chhattisgarh is not a state, but a state of mind. Depending on what hour of the day it is, you can think of it as a house of mirrors, an idyll in Eden, a purgatory for the damned, a lab for revolutionaries, a treasure trove for the greedy, or a squalid backwater which represents everything that is wrong with the country.

Since Chaplin’s lovable tramp, the ‘fool’ has been an oft-used artifice of filmmakers to hold a mirror to the easily accepted, though bizarre, realities of our world. Amit Masurkar’s Newton, played with his usual competence by Rajkummar Rao, is a fool in this tradition set amid the surreal processes of ‘democracy’ in ‘Maoist-controlled’ areas of Chhattisgarh.

The film centres around the conduct of an election in Kondnar, a booth in the Sukma district, held shortly after the murder of a local politician, ostensibly by the Maoists. There are 76 registered voters and Newton Kumar (who changed his name from the easily lampooned Nutan Kumar when registering for his class 10 board exams), the presiding officer of the booth, is determined to do his duty by each one of them - even after it becomes clear that they have no idea who any of the candidates are or even what an election is.

Indeed, they rightfully ask what good voting has ever brought them and, if they have to make a choice, can their ‘patel’ (headman) represent them in Delhi, please?

Also watch: ‘Newton’ Movie Review: Never Cynical Despite Its Tough Questions

Besides Newton, the polling officers include Loknath, a loquacious middle aged aspiring author played with consummate ease by Raghubir Yadav. Loknath is working on a novel featuring zombies in the adivasi areas of Chhattisgarh, but is equally and quite unashamedly pre-occupied with the state of his bladder and with his diabetes.

There is also Anjali Patil as Malko, a young adivasi woman whose sure grasp of ground realities is an interesting counterpoint to Newton’s naiveté. Another quiet companion sleeps his way through his boss’s zealous admonitions.

Newton has several telling scenes that reflect the realities of the area. When no one turns up at the voting booth on election day, a call comes from a DIG informing the paramilitary commander that an American reporter is on her way to the booth. Miraculously 39 villagers show up, cast votes, and the reporter files a breathless dispatch on India’s democracy.

In another scene the paramilitary commander suggests that the booth be closed after lunch. But Newton is determined to stick to official working hours. We admire the commandant’s gesture of bringing food for Newton, who has refused to leave his table to eat as it is against the rules. Just when we have forgotten about the Maoists, a burst of fire signals that an ambush is underway. The booth is hastily abandoned.

On the way back Newton realises that the commandant has tricked him. He had the power to rustle up villagers all along, a power he exercised only when he had to showcase ‘India’s democracy’ to the western press, and he staged an ambush to scare the officials into leaving early.

With Newton, Amit Masurkar has made an authentic film that portrays many of the complexities of the situation in left-wing-extremism-affected areas - a significant achievement in an age of fake news and juvenile attempts like Buddha in a Traffic Jam. The burning of villages by security forces, the bundling of villagers into camps, the curious phenomenon of Broadway plays being discussed with an American reporter in the middle of an insurgency affected jungle – all give us a glimpse of the strangeness and sordidness of southern Chhattisgarh.

The entire film is about the Maoists and yet, not a single Maoist is shown on screen. The insurgents are as much a rumour, a ruse, and a pretext, as they are an obstacle to the processes of democracy. Many failures of the Maoist movement apart, their movement has to some extent been hijacked by the entrenched power blocks of the existing order who carry out their own machinations against rival power centres while blaming it on the rebels.

However there are some false notes as well. When the Maoists call for an election boycott, they regard security forces and candidates as legitimate targets, but do not attack poll officers.

As a result poll officers always travel unescorted to polling booths and may be joined later by a following party of paramilitary forces.

One moves from affection to a certain level of impatience with the duty-obsessed character of Newton. Idealism shorn of an appreciation of the context within which duty is defined and demanded does not seem like a sufficient amount of virtue in Chhattisgarh. Six months after the election when Malko visits Newton, he says he has not changed a bit and continues to ‘do his duty’.

If profound knowledge can’t find a way through the bewildering maze, are we to believe that only perfect innocence offers a ray of hope?

Also read: I’ll Do My Best to Ensure ‘Newton’ Wins the Oscar: Rajkummar Rao

The film ends with the sweet prospect of a romance between Newton and Malko. This is a dynamic that could have been more central to the drama and, in my book, counts as one of the missed opportunities of the film. The relationship between Newton and Aatma Singh, one the petty head of the civilian administration and the other a small time commandant of the paramilitary forces, is nuanced, layered and engaging.

The commandant of the paramilitary forces, brilliantly essayed by Pankaj Tripathi, has to deal with a zealous polling officer in the midst of a potentially life threatening situation. He is the epitome of a fairly reasonable man being asked to do a duty he should not be tasked with, making the best of his situation with a sense of the absurd firmly in place. In my book the charming Malko and he, each in their own way, represent the possibilities of human transcendence in this film.

On the whole, the character of Newton needed to be given a depth beyond simple idealism to give this film a peg that would draw a wider audience. If the aim was to create a character akin to Guido Orefice in Life is Beautiful, then the film has not gone far enough. Newton is a brave but not a brilliant effort.

Also watch: Talking Rules With ‘Newton’ Stars Rajkummar Rao & Pankaj Tripathi

(Rohit Prasad is a Professor of Economics at the Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon. He is also the Author of ‘Blood Red River’, a book that focuses on tribal Chattisgarh and India’s development conflict.)