NEWTON

India, 2017, 106 minutes, colour.
Rajkummar Rao, Pankaj Tripathy, Anjali Patil.
Directed by Amit Masurkar.

Newton is an-over conscientious young man, living in the city in central India in the jungle area. He is a student, enthusiastic, volunteering to be part of the group administering elections on polling day.

His Indian name is Nutan but he was ridiculed and decided to change his name to Newton – with the overseer of the election team explaining that it was a democratic name, that with the theory of gravity, every person was equal as they fell to the ground. Newton is sent to a remote area with two rather older officials, then joined by a local woman to assist in the setting up of the booths as well as the voting – 476 people in the area.

They are taken by helicopter and when they arrive, the local police administrator is not enthusiastic, has been appointed there to protect locals against Maoist revolutionaries. After delaying tactics, with breakfast, Newton insists that they walk the 8 km to the ruins of the local school to set up.

They encounter some people on the way but Newton insists that everybody has to have their card as they go to vote. There is some success but the police set up a false ambush so that Newton and the workers have to flee. When Newton realises what has happened, he insists on returning despite the police chief, even pulling a gun on him. They do get some voters and Newton does everything by the book finishing right on the prescribed time.

However, the police turn on him and bash him so that six months later, conscientiously and compulsively working according to regulations in his office, he is still wearing a neck brace for protection, and the young woman comes to see him – and we have hopes for his future.

1. The story of contemporary India? 21st-century democracy, revolutionaries, Indian financial and business development, the role of the indigenous people?

2. Audience knowledge of these parts of remote India? Social issues?

3. City, offices, electoral commission, the bar, the preparation for collections, the helicopter ride, the jungle, the terrain, walking through the jungle, the school, the banks of the river? The musical score?

4. The title, Nutan and his changing his name to Newton? Memories of Isaac Newton, gravity, the explanation of the gravity making all people equal as they fall? Home, study, television, electricity, his being part of the group in preparing for the elections? His questions, the talk with the manager, the role of the volunteers?

5. Polling day, its significance, democracy, the plans, the opportunities for people to vote, the volunteers lining up, the threats of the Maoists in the jungle, the teams, the equipment, the voting machine, the helicopter ride?

6. Newton, his eagerness, the remote area, having to walk, meeting the police, their indifferent reaction, the breakfast? 76 voters? Newton as obsessive, the focus on regulations? The police and their weapons, Newton insisting ongoing, the bullet-proof vests, the local woman and no vest, the trust with people? The trek, the man needing to go to the toilet? The setting up of the booth in the school?

7. Meeting the people, the regulations, the voting cards, later going to vote?

8. The police, the interaction with Newton, with the machines, the voters, procedures?

9. The staging of the ambush, everybody running away? The commander, his motivation? Newton reviewing what it happened? The woman going back into the jungle?

10. Newton, his decision to return, the time, running, pursued, getting the rifle, holding the commander, Newton’s insisting ongoing back, setting up the situation again, the voters and pushing the tab of the machine? The exact timing?

11. The police giving in, their explanation of their behaviour?

12. Newton back at the office, wearing the brace after his being bashed by the police? The woman coming to visit?

13. Newton, a compulsive character, conscientious, in the context of Indian democracy and bureaucracy?