Watch Secret Ballot (Director Babek Payami) (2001) -review

Rajkummar Rao in Newton

Highlights

• Newton is Republic of india'south official entry to the Oscars
• The protagonist in Secret Election is a female polling officer
• "That was very different I felt," says Newton director

New Delhi: Just a day afterward Rajkummar Rao'south Newton was announced as India'south official entry to the Oscars, NDTV.com has discovered uncanny resemblances betwixt director Amit Masurkar'south pic and a pop Iranian film chosen Cloak-and-dagger Ballot. The thought and the concept of both these films are similar. Both narrate the story of a voting day in a remote place. The protagonist is an honest polling officer, who is given the task to ensure voting happens in the area against all the odds and both the movies also have another identical character, a soldier who is in charge of election security and who demotivates the polling officer at every step.

In Amit Masurkar'south Newton, Rajkummar Rao is the polling amanuensis who is given the tough task of conducting voting in a Naxal-affected area of Chhattisgarh. He is taken to the location on a chopper where he is introduced to Aatma Singh (Pankaj Tripathi), the soldier who tells Newton that he knows the expanse ameliorate and he should be the one deciding if voting should happen or not. Newton reminds him that he is in accuse and he will brand sure voting happens anyhow.

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In Babak Payami'southward Secret Ballot, the female person protagonist, played by Nassim Abdi, is sent to a remote island on voting day by air. The soldier who is in charge of security is not interested and nor is he willing to help, She tells him, "I'yard in charge here, mister. I have orders. You must obey, or I'll see to information technology you lot remain a soldier forever." This conversation is very similar to the 1 Newton has with Aatma Singh in Amit Masurkar's film. Fifty-fifty the setting upwardly of the voting booth is similar; the young woman opens a chart and starts planning, like to what Rajkummar Rao's character does later reaching the dilapidated school. In both the films, the security officer is reluctant just accept orders grudgingly. The young adult female in Undercover Election is seen conveying the election box in many scenes, and Rajkummar Rao's character too holds the voting machine shut to his eye. Both films are satires.

Picket the trailer of Secret Ballot:

The crux of the story is the aforementioned, just a few things are different. In Newton, the polling officer is male person and is accompanied by two other officers to assistance him, and the security officer has an army with him. In Cloak-and-dagger Ballot, the polling officer is a immature woman who goes door to door to ensure locals bandage their vote - she is all by herself and so is the soldier.

NDTV.com spoke to Amit Masurkar, writer and director of Newton, and asked him about the congruence of both these subjects; he confirmed that the film is not inspired by or is a remake of Secret Ballot and denied there are similarities. He said, "I recollect after I wrote the script just before I was going to shoot, a friend told me near Secret Ballot. Since the film was on YouTube I watched $.25 and pieces just that was very unlike I felt. A lady polling officer goes door to door. Besides, in that location is some kind of romantic rail which is non in Newton." When asked about the similarities between the pb characters, Masurkar said, "I knew anytime people will describe similarities only what can one do? When you write a story at that place is a possibility that someone else must have written a similar story somewhere in the world."

In 2001, Hugger-mugger Ballot toured film festivals across the earth. The film won the FIPRESCI Prize - a Special Mention at the London Film Festival, Special Jury Laurels at Sao Paulo International Film Festival and many other awards.

What'south surprising is that Newton had its world premiere at the 67th Berlin Motion picture Festival and it won the International Federation of Art Cinemas (CICAE) award in its Forum segment, and no one spotted the similarities with some other pop film at the festivals. Information technology's likely to crusade some embarrassment to not but the team of this movie but as well those who honoured it on various prestigious platforms.

This is not the offset fourth dimension an acclaimed Hindi film is facing plagiarism allegations. Much after Udta Punjab became a striking, information technology was declared that the story was lifted from Ben Elton's novel High Society.

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Source: https://www.ndtv.com/entertainment/exclusive-is-indias-oscar-entry-newton-copied-what-the-director-says-1754113

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