Midnight’s Children
(Canada/UK, 148 min.)
Dir. Deepa Mehta, Writ. Salman Rushdie
Starring: Satya Bhabha, Shahana Goswami, Rajat Kapoor, Seema
Biswas, Shriya Saran, Siddharth, Ronit Roy, Rahul Bose, Anita Majumdar, Zaib
Shaikh, Anupam Kher
Saleem Sinai was born at the stroke of midnight on August
15, 1947. His birth coincided with the exact moment that the clock signalled
the independence of India from Great Britain. A new child, a symbol of hope for
the future of all of the new India, Saleem Sinai is a special boy indeed.
Fans of the novel will surely appreciate the care that
Rushdie and Mehta take in adapting Midnight’s
Children. Rushdie wrote the screenplay himself, so the adaptation shows clearly
a refined retooling of the novel that peels straight to the pith. The film
shifts the chronology of the novel and tells the life of Saleem Sinai from
birth until the 30th anniversary India’s independence. (The novel
skips all over the place as Saleem tells his tale.) Gone, too, is the
voluptuous Padma – the most fun and loveable Padma! – who serves as the ear for
the narration as Saleem talks in the framing device and embedded narrative of
the book. The loss of Padma is one of the adaptations better strokes, for
Saleem’s narration is read by Rushdie himself; however, instead of delivering
the playful voice-over to the ample-bosomed Padma, Rushdie speaks to the
audience directly and his singsong voice intimately enlightens the audience on
the story of the Midnight’s Children.
The Midnight’s Children, or children of midnight, are a
mystic clan that Saleem (played in his adult years Satya Bhabha) conjures up
with his big runny nose. All the children born that night were endowed with
magical powers – symbolic of the dangerous hope and independence enlivened in
citizens of the new India – and Saleem assembles them during his moments of
solitude. Within the Midnight’s Children is Saleem’s nemesis Shiva (played by
Siddarth), who is very much the Veronica to Saleem’s Betty.
Shiva was born at midnight in the same hospital as Saleem.
While Saleem was born into a family of lowly beggars, Shiva was the spawn of
the upper caste. However, the dawn of independence worked its magic on Mary (a
superb Seem Biswas), the nurse on shift at the hospital that night. Wanting to
turn the promises of the new India into a reality, Mary decides to let the poor
become rich and the rich become poor. In a gesture for equality, Mary swaps the
babies and gives Saleem a chance at a better life.
In spite of his false noble birth, Saleem is jinxed for
life. A clumsy boy with a big honking nose that runs like a tap, Saleem is an
outcast among the wealthy. As such, he relies on the Midnight’s Children to
grow strong and brave. He can lead amongst this new order of Indians.
Midnight’s Children
spans the years of Saleem/India’s tumultuous history in its new beginning. The
film packs in a wealth of detail and nuance from the novel, yet it nary has to
explain the specificities of Indian history. The context always remains clear
though, since the symbolism peppered throughout the film is rich and vibrant. Midnight’s Children remains wholly
faithful to Rushdie’s dreamlike account of India’s history, yet it is a wholly
cinematic envisioning, too.
Mehta creates a world like no other. Midnight’s Children seems set in an ethereal India. It might be the
cadence of Rushdie’s narration or the playful tone of the actors (the ensemble
as a whole is excellent, particularly Biswas and leading man Satya Bhabha), but
Midnight’s Children is a glowing trip
through allergoryland that will enlighten the most discerning of viewers. The
film is meticulously crafted, too, with the lovely costumes by Dolly Ahluwalia
being particularly eye-catching and the melodic score by Nitin Sawhney
blessedly euphoric.
A magical, enchanting epic, Midnight’s Children is as powerful a reimagining of India’s history
as Rushdie’s epic novel is. Riding high on the expectations that made it one of
the hottest tickets at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, Midnight’s Children doesn’t disappoint.
Congratulations Deepa, Salman, et al: your film is
tickety-boo.
Rating: ★★★★½ (out of ★★★★★)
Midnight's Children opens in select cities on November 2nd.
It opens in Ottawa on November 9th at The ByTowne and Empire Kanata.