'Newton' does not belittle cine-goers' sensibilities: Tripathi

New Delhi: Many films break into cinema halls with the promise of being the “game-changer”, but only few are able to drive the message home.”Newton” star Pankaj Tripathi says his latest film exactly does that without being pretentious and looking down upon the audience.

The actor plays a hardened, cynical CRPF officer, Aatma Singh, to main lead Rajkummar Rao’s earnest young government clerk, Newton Kumar. In an interview with PTI, Tripathi says, “The film is not trying to be intellectual. It is not even proposing that look we are trying to say something so great that you won’t understand.

It doesn’t belittle the sensibility of cinema- goers. It is made with a view to tell the story in a simple and humorous manner.” The movie, which will represent India at the Oscars next year in the Best Foreign Language Film category, has been co- written by film’s director Amit Masurkar and Mayank Tewari.

Tripathi says the writer-director have not tried to project their political agenda through “Newton”. “There is no political orientation in the film. It wasn’t even needed in the story. It is a truthful and original story. It didn’t need any external equipment or tools to support it.”

For an actor who has played a variety of roles ranging from the ruthless Sultan in “Gangs of Wasseypur” to the sweet father in “Bareilly Ki Barfi”, Tripathi says he had more fun playing Bitti’s doting daddy.

“I had to bring a certain kind of brutality to Sultan, which I know nothing of personally. I’m not dangerous or violent like him. I’m more like the father in ‘Bareilly’. I have fun doing lighter roles as I don’t have to do anything against my emotions.

“Having said that, I had a great time doing ‘GOW’ too as I’m an artiste. When the audience will see ‘Newton’, they won’t be able to figure out that I’m the same person who played Bitti’s papa.” The actor says his aim is to surprise the audience with his choice of characters.

“We don’t create anything, we only recreate and for that you need craft. Otherwise the audience will call your bluff. Like the magician whose bag of tricks has been overturned. “We bring out the magic through our emotions. We don’t have a handkerchief and a bag that we’ll shake and get the rabbit out. We are the bag and the hanky,” he says.

“Newton”, which released on September 22, also features Raghubir Yadav, Anjali Patil and Sanjay Mishra. Tripathi will next be seen in “Fukrey Returns”.