Rang De Basanti (RDB) and Newton are two of the most critically acclaimed movies of the last two decades. Newton won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film and was shortlisted as the Indian entry for Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards. On the other hand, RDB won four National Film Awards in addition to winning twenty-six other awards. The reason for their success is their character. A good story is best told with good performances. The actors who played the characters are still some of the most talented people in Indian Cinema.
The underlining moral of Newton is in tune with RDB. They both are a decade apart with RDB releasing in 2006 (currently streaming on Netflix) and Newton, in 2017 (currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video). Yet, both stories portray a nation that is not so different from each other or from ours at the present. RDB shows us students at universities, protesting the corrupt government. This is a lot like the events which took place recently in the light of NRC and CAA. Today there is a not-so-subtle promotion of a Hindu-dominated nation which has been prevailing forever now. RDB and Newton both attempt to throw light on it. There are individuals in between you and me who perform their duties regularly, follow punctuality, follow rules, and support the fundamental rights of a person, be it girl education or voting rights. While RDB has only a few characters like these, Newton’s protagonist himself resonates aloud with one.
The setup plays an important role for the characters. Their reaction to the world around them is what makes the stories interesting. We get hooked on it because the characters are relatable. Both stories use two different character graphs to show us how an ideal nation can be created. Many other films have achieved success before in creating character graphs like RDB and Newton. Even though the general audience may not always be able to analyze a good character graph, they are still able to judge it with the impact left behind by one on their conscious. Their conscience begins to pulsate because of the challenges a character faces and overcomes. Let us begin to explore a Character Arc and a Flat Character.
CHARACTER ARC – RANG DE BASANTI
The foundation of the story is the trigger to the transformation of the five characters. A British girl, Sue McKenzie wants to make a film based on a journal maintained by her grandfather who was a British officer. The journal stores all his observations on the extraordinary personalities of Indian freedom fighters. Susan visits her friend named Sonia (Soha Ali Khan) in India, who helps her in auditioning actors for the freedom fighters’ role.
Sue McKenzie ends up casting DJ, Sukhi, Aslam, Siddharth, along with Pandey, a member of an extremist group. Our focus will be on these five characters who go through a character transformation in three stages as the focus of the story changes from the completion of the film to the death of Ajay, their friend.
We are introduced to the five characters at Nahagarh Fort with the iconic soundtrack, Masti ki Paathshaala, playing in the background. The song perfectly syncs with the behavior and mindsets of our first four characters. Aslam, also the only artist among the group, is introduced to us while spray painting on the walls- “Well, the rebel has arrived!”. The second and third characters, DJ and Sukhi are introduced performing stunts which are dangerous but may appear to be as appealing and ‘cool’ to youngsters. The fourth character, Siddharth is seen lighting a cigarette with burning firewood. He is the only one who is wearing a watch, indicating his wealth rather than his punctuality. Later, we also see him taking it off as he dives into the water with Aslam to pull Sukhi out. Eventually, we find out more about his wealth when he blithely gives away chunks of cash to his RJ friend. The characters display a loose sense of responsibility which is put to contrast by the introduction of the fifth character- Pandey. Pandey is a member of a political extremist group that uses violent actions to ‘preserve the nation’s sovereignty’. While he seems to be quite mature and careful than the other characters, his hate for the Muslim community causes a disbalance in his ideals. It also creates a rivalry between him and the other four characters.
As we move ahead with the story, the four characters show a strong disbelief in the fact that India is capable of change. They show little regard for the roles they are playing and even lesser commitment to the movie. They are late for their acting workshops and even when they are present for it, they create nuance leading to laughter, chaos, and disturbance to anyone else who wishes to take it seriously.
The first step taken by the freedom fighters was unification. The British wanted to divide and rule, but the freedom fighters held the ground united. This caused every freedom fighter from a different background, religion, community, caste, culture, and creed, to accept each other. This became the sole key to pushing back and creating a strong resistance against the British.
First Stage
Hence, the first change we witness in our four characters is when they shed their rivalry and unite with Pandey. This unification, ironically, was also triggered by a British- Sue McKenzie. Pandey showed a desire to play the role that he idealized. When Sue McKenzie selects Pandey for a role, the other characters show their disapproval and even end up in a brawl with Pandey because of his hate for Aslam. Sue McKenzie’s idea of Indians is purely based upon her grandfather’s observations which expressed unity, harmony, faith, acceptance, determination, and dedication towards their duty, none of which she found in the five characters, or so she thought. Eventually, all characters shed their rivalry and come together to work for her, marking their unification as the beginning of their character arcs.
Second Stage
At this stage of transformation, we see the characters developing a sense of determination to achieve perfection in their roles. DJ, who is the most proactive among all, begins to show discipline and determination in his work. He achieves accuracy in the portrayal of his role by practicing his dialogues and parentheticals.
For Siddharth and Pandey, their portrayal began to cause inner conflicts. Siddharth is a freedom fighter who sacrifices his life for comfort, a job, and all worldly desires. This is opposite to the character of Siddharth. He always lived a resourceful life and can only imagine a life without them. On the other hand, Pandey is still seen as a non-acceptance of Muslims. While in real life he denies even sharing a table with Aslam, on reel he must share the same plate of food with a Muslim. Pandey begins to understand that the true preservation of a nation’s sovereignty lies in love and care for humanity. His ego and superiority as an extremist dissipate.
They have come closer to their freedom fighters enough to empathize with and respect them. The characters are in the process of their transformation and in between inner conflicts. Their conscious minds are constantly resisting the ideals of the freedom fighter. They still believe that a sacrifice can do no good for a nation under a blanket of corruption. However, the death of their friend Ajay led to the final transformation.
Final Stage
The character of Ajay is balanced and has a more optimistic view of the nation. He is rational in his speech, understands his duties as an Indian Air Force personnel, and has a sense of responsibility. The final transformation is triggered when the Defence Minister humiliates Ajay in death rather than accepting the corrupted deals of faulty fighter jets.
This is the first time we see our characters stand up and protest against a powerful minister. When the police force brutally beats them down to a pulp, their conscious mind no longer resists the ideals of our freedom fighters. We witness Pandey not only helping Aslam during the beatdown but also revolting against the extremist group he belonged to. We see DJ leading the plan to execute the minister and to make a confession to the world over the radio in the hope of bringing justice to Ajay and more pilots like him. All five characters now strongly believe in a movement and hope to be the stone that creates a ripple in the water. Their character arcs finally reach full potential when their pessimistic view of the nation turns into a positive one.
FLAT CHARACTER – NEWTON
The protagonist Newton, is a flat character. A flat character refers to one whose beliefs or values remain unchanged throughout the duration of the film. While the mentioned characters of RDB start off with negative values or beliefs, Newton does it with a positive one. He is a government employee who is responsible, dutiful, punctual, and disciplined. In this titular we see the supporting characters reacting to Newton’s behavior, beliefs, and values.
In the story of Newton, the nation is corrupt because of its ministers or the ones in power. The story is set during the elections and our lead character is a presiding officer at voting polls. One of the districts named Konda is under the influence of Naxalites, which causes fear. The presiding officer assigned to Konda makes silly excuses and backs out, creating an opportunity for Newton to step in.
Protagonist’s Full Potential
On reaching the Konda, Newton, and his team are provided escort by a CRPF force whose commanding officer is against the curation of voting polls in the district. Newton is a straightforward person and does not hold back any thoughts. He is a law-abiding citizen and understands the difference between right and wrong. He rejects a girl for marriage because she is underage and has yet to finish school. When he arrives at the location, the CRPF commanding officer attempts to cancel the voting polls at various points of the story and even goes to the extent of creating a false alarm of Naxal's attack to dismiss the voting polls. However, Newton does not stop at any point and continues to conduct the voting polls. Even though other characters are not as honest as him, he maintains the decorum at the place and strictly follows the procedure. He also shows a strong distaste for voters being forced into voting, which is also constitutionally incorrect.
Reaction of Characters
Being a flat character, the challenges Newton faced were different from the ones faced by the five characters in RDB. Here, Newton must keep himself unchanged throughout election day and in life, while the rest of the supporting characters try to change his methods and values. His father is in favor of dowry and child marriage. The commanding officer believes that the government is corrupt and does not provide enough/proper equipment to fight the Naxals. The government employees are unpunctual, irregular, and shirky.
The ideals of the supporting characters match with the initial disbeliefs of DJ, SUKHI, ASLAM, and SIDHHARTH from RDB. The story focuses less on whether the supporting characters change their beliefs, but more on Newton’s ability to stay uniform. Humorously, he succeeds in blocking their influences on the duties he is expected/entitled to perform.
Set in Stone
If the change is temporary, then the story fails to create a character arc. The change in the character’s ideas, beliefs, and values must be permanent. For instance, Pandey cannot be seen hating Muslims after showing his concern for them. On the other hand, for a flat character, the values are permanent, and hence showing them undergoing a change would defy the purpose of the character. Newton cannot be seen arriving at the office late because his sense of punctuality is already established at the beginning of the story.
All the characters of a story are inspired by the experiences of the writer. So, in the real world, we are the protagonist of our lives. Our choices and beliefs change as we encounter different situations in life. Every mistake turns out as a lesson later in the duration of our lifetime. Our maturity can reflect on tragic events that befell us.
In both the stories the characters show their duties towards the condition of the nation. They teach us two distinctive solutions to survive in our nation.
The first is -There are two ways to live life. First, let things be the way they are, keep tolerating them. Or, take on the responsibility to bring change. -Rang De Basanti
Second - Keep up the probity and the nation shall witness progress. -Newton
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