September 22, 2017
Newton—a satire on the dance of democracy.
Starring: Rajkummar Rao, Pankaj Tripathi, Anjali Patil
Director: Amit Masurkar
India release date: Sep 22, 2017
Genre: Comedy, drama
Language: Hindi
Duration: 1 hour, 46 mins
Breaking news—Newton declared India’s official entry for the Oscar nominations for Best Foreign Language Film
A common factor stands out in the list of films nominated for the Oscar for the Best Foreign Language Film in the last 60 years: they are strong personal films and didn’t usually do good business till their nomination was declared. The other jury members and I felt that Newton, a technically sleek film with a strong topic of democracy and its election process will appeal to the Oscar members. The other top contenders, Mukti Bhavan and Dangal, too were very much appreciated for their honesty.
Bijaya Jena, jury member
“It takes all kinds to make the world, it takes just one you, me or Newton to be the change we want to see in that world.”
Rating: 4 stars | Full review
Anna MM Vetticad, First Post
“Like PK, Newton too has an unvoluntary “eye” tic of sorts; his blinks are forceful and sleep-deprived, as if he were alertly trying to process the vagaries of this world every time he opens them.”
Rating: 4 stars | Full review
Rahul Desai, Film Companion
“Masurkar opts for accretion rather than rug-pulling revelations, an approach that matches the movie’s leitmotif. Bitter truths are steadily built up one scene after the next.”
Nandini Ramnath, The Reel
“Could also, just as easily, have been called A Day In The Life Of The World’s Largest, Most Complex Democracy. Or, The Great Indian Electoral Circus.”
Rating: 4 stars | Full review
Shubhra Gupta, Indian Express
“I can say with confidence that Newton thrilled me like no other Hindi film this year.”
Uday Bhatia, Live Mint
“An idea that should make you rethink the notion that Indians have been gloating over for years—the fact that we’re a liberal democracy.”
Rating: 3.5 stars | Full review
Mayank Shekhar, Mid Day
“Newton, like so many of us, is an outsider in his own country. He, at best, can be a saviour. But a more important question, almost always hanging in the air, is: do the people of the village even want to be saved?… It looks less like an election and more like a lottery. The line separating democracy and farce is both slender and shrinking, and the end result, flitting between absurd and poignant, not altogether unexpected.”
Tanul Thakur, The Wire
More film reviews by Anna MM Vetticad | Baradwaj Rangan | Batul Mukhtiar | Johnson Thomas | Karan Bali | Mayank Shekhar | Nandini Ramnath | Piyasree Dasgupta | Rahul Desai | Raja Sen | Rajeev Masand | Rajesh Kumar Singh | Saibal Chatterjee | Saumil Gandhi | Shoma Chatterjee | Shubhra Gupta | Stutee Ghosh | Sukanya Verma | Suparna Sharma | Sweta Kaushal | Tanul Thakur | Uday Bhatia | Udita Jhunjhunwala
Newton on IMDB
Categories
Top Film Reviews
No comment
