Newton Kumar (Rajkummar Rao) is a stickler for the rules. And though he may have managed to walk a straight line for most of his young life—content in the knowledge that his principles and actions have been more or less in alignment—no sooner has he entered adulthood than it becomes clear that it’s not going to be easy to keep things this way. His new job, to start with, is proving somewhat disillusioning.

Newton has landed that always-coveted position in government service following graduation, but is immediately put off by the laxity on display at the office, where tea-breaks abound and little respect shown for punctuality or commitment. 

But there’s an even ruder awakening in store for our young idealist. When an official appointed to hold elections in a small 76-person village in the densely-forested—and Maoist ridden—Dandakaranya region in Chhatisgarh cops out at the last minute citing a conveniently-timed illness, Newton takes his place without hesitation, eager to finally do his part, to do something. Not long after he choppers into the designated spot, however, it becomes very apparent that these are wholly different circumstances from what his classes and textbooks have prepared him for.

Nothing goes smoothly: The Naxalites have boycotted the elections, and the villagers are either too scared to defy them, or don’t know or care enough about voting to make the long trip to the booth. And serving to deepen Newton’s sense of disorientation is the battle/life-hardened Aatma Singh (Pankaj Tripathi), a Central Reserve Police Force officer assigned to guide and guard Newton and his team during their stay, and who makes no secret of his belief in the futility of the polling exercise, in his mind a bureaucratic formality to be gotten over with as quickly and painlessly as possible, even if it means bending the rules a little—or a lot. 

These are the bare bones of Newton, written and directed by relative newbie Amit V Masurkar, who had debuted with 2014’s indie comedy Sulemani Keeda.

In his second film, Masurkar offers us a sharp look at some of the ironies and absurdities corroding the machinery of the world’s largest democracy, and preventing the system’s wheels from turning as they are meant to.

A wonderful blend of the personal and the political, of social drama and dark comedy—complete with first-rate performances—Newton makes for a high-impact watch, the kind you’re not likely to soon forget or shut up about. 

Most admirable about Masurkar’s script is how it refuses to set up the central conflict as a simplistic match between hero and villain but instead takes a far more nuanced, and ultimately more rewarding, approach to the matter.

The tussle, rather, involves Newton’s idealism and Aatma’s pragmatism—the rest of the characters falling somewhere along the spectrum between them—and the film is keen to show that there are no obvious sides here.

In fact, while Rao does brilliantly as the rigid, righteous Newton, it’s actually Tripathi’s character that proves the more interesting out of the two. He, much like Newton, is doing what he perceives to be his duty, except for him, unlike Newton, that duty has more to do with the practical considerations of keeping the officials he has been tasked to guide, and his own men, safe.

From Aatma’s point of view, then, having witnessed many an ineffectual election over the years, his weariness with Newton’s insistence on following protocol makes a lot of sense. And Tripathi—a terrific actor who has long been stealing scenes across films—is pitch-perfect in the role. 

Also warranting a mention is the character essayed by Anjali Patil, who creates a compelling portrait of a local woman who wants better things for her people while at the same time being cognizant of the harsh reality that change might not come so easy and that compromise is key to self-preservation in the meantime.

Malko is at once part of Newton’s team as well as representing the Adivasis caught up in the tug-of-war between the security forces and the insurgents—and there’s an atmosphere of quiet resignation about her that is heartbreaking.

The film might be a touch heavy-handed in its attempt to convey the manipulation suffered by these downtrodden groups, forced, sometimes literally, to become chess pieces in a game they don’t fully understand or ever truly benefit from, but Patil’s beautifully modulated performance—and the fact that most of the villagers are played by actual, real-life locals from the region—ensures a degree of authenticity throughout. 

All that might make Newton sound like a right downer, but I assure you, that’s nowhere near the case. The script, and the dialogues by Masurkar and Mayank Tewari, are packed with deadpan wit—even the clashes between Newton and Aatma—with the result that despite broaching a solemn subject, the film isn’t marked by pessimism or hopelessness overall.

Sure, it raises a lot of questions about the true accessibility and inclusivity of the electoral process in place in countries like ours, and doesn’t offer up a great deal by way of solutions to the problems, but what it does manage to leave you with is a sense of wanting to be better, do better, as a citizen. You’re never told to aspire to be as strong of morals as Newton—if anything, he’s framed as something of an obsessive, closed off to reality—but rather to take things one step at a time, to persevere. “It takes years to grow a jungle,” a character reminds our hero at one point. 

You’re probably aware that the film has run into some controversy of late, owing to alleged similarities in premise between it and the 2001 Iranian film Secret Ballot (Ra’yemakhfi). While I can’t comment on whether the charges of plagiarism are justified, not having seen the other film, even if makers had admitted to Newton being a remake of that story, I feel as though there is enough localisation and contextual details infused into Masurkar’s version for me to have felt much the same about it regardless. In any case, you really don’t want to miss out on this one.