Be true to your own self, Be Newton!

When the end credits of Newton will roll, you will be prompted to an unusual song ‘Chal tu apna kaam kar’-roughly translating to keep doing your work. This is what pretty much sums up what this cinematic marvel tries to convey you in 2 hours. There are no long speeches imploring us to do the right thing, no theatrical background music, no redundant sadism and yet Newton scores at every point. This is a tale extremely relevant to our times.

Years ago there was Issac Newton who shook the world with his pathbreaking explanation of gravitational force, and here we are introduced to Nutan Kumar aka Newton Kumar, who wants to exercise honesty and induce sense of righteousness at every given situation.  Air dropped into the dodgy Naxal prone area in Chattisgarh, Newton and his teammates are given the task of conducting elections in a fair and smooth way. However, it is not a cakewalk as it looks like. Risks are involved, even with their lives. At one point in the film, Aatma Singh, a para-military commander, along with his subordinates arm-twists many Aadivasi’s to turn up in the polling booth. When they are overwhelmed with a huge list of party symbols, Aatma Singh absurdly asks them to assume the Electronic Voting Machine as a toy and press any symbol they like, be it “Gajar, muli, or cycle”, because as per him it doesn’t really make a difference. Yes, and then we claim we are the largest democracy in the world. If not election, it definitely looked like a trade fair.

Without divulging much about the story, I would say that Newton sets a platform to show the fierce collision with rigid sense of duty and realistic stumbling blocks. It often takes the form of a satire that asks uncomfortable, hard and courageous questions, which Hindi movies generally try to avoid.

As mentioned somewhere in the film “great change doesn’t happen overnight. This jungle took years to grow.” Since childhood we have learned about the little drops that make the ocean. Newton talks about those 1% people, the little drops, which make the difference without making hue and cry about their good deeds and honesty. We are not doing any favour to anyone if we are being honest, if we are truthful, if we are serving our country, or if we are abiding laws. This is what we are supposed to do, isn’t it? Precisely this is why Newton feels amused when he gets an award for punctuality in an office where working hours start from 9 in the morning. All he did was arrive at office daily at sharp 9 am.

Newton reaffirmed my faith in the idea that a country improves brick by brick. We do not need to go out and be a hero or wage war on Twitter. Just do your bit and the country will take care of itself.  Place your brick and you will be heard. Newton is not a hero and he doesn’t even intend to be one.  I will end this article with the same thought as the movie.

Chal tu apna kaam kar,

Akal dikha na shakal dikha na,
De na nasihat kar na fazihat,
Yun na traffic jam kar,

Chal tu apna kaam kar,

 

P.S: All pictures are a result of Google search and I have no copyright over them.