Midnight's Children

Hello everyone,

This blog is response to the task assigned by professor Dilip Barad sir, we had a movie screening of the Midnight's Children, of the same name novel Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie. 

About the movie adaptation:-

Midnight's Children is a 2012 film adaptation of Salman Rushdie's 1981 novel of the same name. The film features an ensemble cast of Satya Bhabha, Shriya Saran, Siddharth Narayan, Ronit Roy, Anupam Kher, Shabana Azmi, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Seema Biswas, Shahana Goswami, Samrat Chakrabarti, Rahul Bose, Soha Ali Khan, Anita Majumdar and Darsheel Safary. With a screenplay by Rushdie and directed by Deepa Mehta, the film began principal photography in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in February 2011 and wrapped in May 2011. Shooting was kept a secret as Mehta feared protests by Islamic fundamentalist groups.

Salman Rushdie:-

Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie is an Indian-born British-American novelist. His work often combines magical realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Western civilizations, typically set on the Indian subcontinent.

Rushdie's second novel, Midnight's Children (1981), best Novel for all the time won the Booker Prize in 1981 and was deemed to be "the best novel of all winners" on two occasions, marking the 25th and the 40th anniversary of the prize.

Midnight's Children:-

Midnight's Children is a 1981 novel by Salman Rushdie, published by Jonathan Cape with cover design by Bill Botten, about India's transition from British colonial rule to independence and partition. It is a postcolonial, postmodern and magical realist story told by its chief protagonist, Saleem Sinai, set in the context of historical events. The style of preserving history with fictional accounts is self-reflexive. The novel is about 14th August and the children born on that night in India and Pakistan. Through this novel we got an idea that Rushdie know the role of writer and how to make work immortal. Novel is all about broken mirror. The novel talked about 1918- 1977 this time- post - independence and pre-independence.

Q-1 Narrative technique (Changes made in film adaptation for example. Absence of Padma , The Nati, the listener, the conmenter - what is your interpretation? 

Rushdie's Midnight's Children introduces a new narrative technique western genre of telling story with Indian tradition. Rushdie use techniques like Russian doll -  doll within doll.  Indian way of telling a story and there were many examples of this kind of stories.

Midnight's Children is about swaping of children - kind of bollywood way of narrating story. There is many such traditional stories in which we found similar kind of narration, कथासरितसागर - story within a story -   In Midnight's Children story begin with the story and then another story in this. 

Film start as novel start but some characters are missing in film.

The film begins with narrator Saleem Sinai describing his birth at the exact moment of Indian independence. His narrative then jumps back to 1917 Kashmir where his grandfather Dr. Aadam Aziz goes to the Ghani mansion to assess the landlord's sick daughter Nasim, whom the doctor eventually marries. 

Padma is Saleem’s loving companion and caretaker, and she will become his fiancée at the end of the novel. She is the audience for Saleem’s narrative. Her role is that of the audience as Saleem tells her about his growth in conjunction with India’s growth. Whereas Saleem will follow tangents and try to explain the significance of himself and his life, Padma is more interested in the action of the tale. It is her influence that balances out Saleem’s long-winded, prosaic story-telling. She also embodies the skepticism that the audience has for Saleem’s narration. Her disbelief of Saleem’s magic powers and metaphysical connection with India mirrors that of the reader. She had important role in novel but in film she doesn't have any role.

2)Characters ( how many included , how many left-out why ? What is your interpretation)

In the novel there are many characters we can say there is three generations family members are involved.

Characters in Novel:-

Saleem:-  Narrator - story teller - protagonist.

Padma:- The listener - home worker.

Parvati:- she has an important role in film - seems almost female protagonist.Parvati-the-witch

A real witch, and, like Saleem, one of the children born at the moment of India’s independence. Parvati is Saleem’s closest friend as a child and later becomes his wife. Despite her fantastic powers, she is unable to make Saleem fall in love with her and, as a result, embarks on an affair with Shiva that results in a child. In the Hindu religion, Parvati is the consort of Shiva.

Dr.Adam Aziz -Saleem’s grandfather.

Ahmed Sinai:-

Saleem’s father. A shrewd businessman who is nonetheless destined for failure, Ahmed spends much of his marriage in  fighting hand with his wife and his alcohol addiction.

Mumtaz (Amina Sinai):- 

Saleem’s mother, and the daughter of Aadam Aziz. Born Mumtaz, she changes her name to Amina after her marriage to Ahmed. A loving, devoted mother, she inherits her father’s skepticism and her mother’s determination. Despite being married to Ahmed, she is never able to forget her first husband, Nadir Khan.

Shiva:-

Shiva is born at exactly the same moment when  Saleem born. While Saleem is raised in a loving, wealthy household, Shiva is raised in abject poverty by a single father. He is blessed with a pair of preternaturally strong knees and an amazing prowess in war. Shiva is named after the Hindu god of destruction, who is also the god associated with procreation.

William Methwold:- 

Saleem’s biological father, An Englishman. He owns Methwold’s Estate, a portion of which he sells to Ahmed Sinai. He sees his departure from India as marking the tragic end of an era.

Aadam Sinai :- 

The biological son of Shiva and Parvati-the-witch. Saleem raises Aadam as if he were his own child. Aadam is just three years old at the novel’s conclusion.

Vanita:-

Saleem’s biological mother. Vanita dies during labor.

Mary Pereira:-

Mary is Saleem’s nanny, known as an “ayah.” Saleem comes to see her as a second mother, even after he finds out that she was the person who switched Saleem and Shiva at birth. At the time, Mary wanted to do her part in an effort to impress her revolutionary lover, Joseph. After the switch, however, she felt guilty for her crime and dedicated her life to raising Saleem for free as compensation.

Indira Gandhi/"The Widow":-

The Widow is the representation of Indira Ghandi, the fourth Prime Minister of India. 

Characters in film:- 

1) Satya Bhabha as Saleem Sinai

2) Shriya Saran as Parvati-the-witch

3) Siddharth Narayan as Shiva

4) Darsheel Safary as Saleem Sinai (as a child)

5)Anupam Kher as Ghani

6)Shabana Azmi as Naseem

7)Neha Mahajan as Young Naseem

8)Seema Biswas as Mary

9)Charles Dance as William Methwold

10)Samrat Chakrabarti as Wee Willie Winkie

11)Rajat Kapoor as Aadam Aziz

12)Soha Ali Khan as Jamila

13)Rahul Bose as Zulfikar

14)Anita Majumdar as Emerald

15)Shahana Goswami as Amina

16)Chandan Roy Sanyal as Joseph D'Costa

17)Ronit Roy as Ahmed Sinai

18)Kulbhushan Kharbanda as Picture Singh

19)Shikha Talsania as Alia

20)Zaib Shaikh as Nadir Khan

21)Sarita Choudhury as Indira Gandhi

22)Vinay Pathak as Hardy

23)Kapila Jeyawardena as Governor

24)Ranvir Shorey as Laurel

25)Suresh Menon as Field Marshal

26)G.R Perera as Astrologer

Rajesh Khera

27)Salman Rushdie, narrator

Characters which are only in novel:- 

1)Padma 

2)Eyeslice Sabarmati 

3)Sonny Ibrahim

4)Lila Sabarmati

5)Rushdie

6)Jimmy Kapadia

7)Soumitra

8)Sundari

 There are many characters which are in novel but not in film. Adoption. 

3.Themes and Symbols (if film adaptation able to capture themes and symbols?)

In this novel We find many themes like,

History and the individual :-

History and individualism is the central theme of the novel as novel talked about Indian history and some events which were happened in history. 

The birth of protagonist on 15th August 1947 is the date on which India won it's independence from British rule and was divided into two countries and religion Hindu and Muslim. Another big event of history was emergency applied by Indira Gandhi from 1975 to 1977, this 21 months was the period of trauma for the Indian citizens.

In the film we clearly see idea of individualism like Saleem tried to find his individual identity over three generations and Saleem was born exactly on the strock of midnight independence of India. With him there were many other children also born who had different qualities. Like Shiva was fit in body, Saleem have capacity to called everyone with his running nose, Parvati can hide anything with mantra etc... Here Rushdie tried to put history with the help of individual experience of the characters.

2)Identity and nationality:-

In a movie we can observe that Saleem as India, and his identity metaphorically represents the identity of an entire nation, but in reality identity of Saleem is not Saleem but Shiva and his parents also not those whom he called his parents.

 

In movie we can see the direct connection of nation with the character like when Saleem born India got independence and as Saleem grow India also grow ( belief of the characters) and they put Saleem as India.

They connect the religion with the nation. Identity of the characters decide by the nation and religion they are belonging.

3)Colonialism and Neo - colonialism in India:-

Saleem born on exact the time when India got freedom from British rule and he became first free Indian child. Through Saleem, Rushdie creates an entirely new India-one that is both Eastern and Western- in which he is able to find balance between two conflicting cultures. As Saleem born in India but hai parents are not Indian but British.

Methwold, the Englishman is an extended

metaphor for British colonization. His seduction of Vanita in the absence of her

husband the street accordionist, Wee Willie Winkee is a metaphor for appropriating

and exploiting what rightfully belongs to another, which is also the meaning of

colonialism. In every colony the ruling British officers had seduced and raped the

wives of poor natives and left behind them the rflixed products of their irresponsible

union. Saleem is the son of Methwold and Vanita a child-born of just such a union

and raised by the Sinai family because of his having been exchanged at birth.

Otherwise, he too would have been left to be raised in extreme poverty, like his

"twin", Shiva . We have been conditioned to think of how fair and honorable the British were. 

In Midnight's Children Rushdie used many symbols to signify something like past and history.. in movie also we find symbols like,

 Nose - running nose :-

symbol of proud and respect but running nose is not good sign but after the operation he was able to smell abstract things like love and feelings.

Pickle jar:- 

Thirty pickle jar for thirty chapter and it's also represents the idea of history which symbolises that whenever someone open this jar they can smell and remember the history of India and Indira Gandhi.

Spittoon:- symbol of forgiveness:-

Spittoon became symbol of amnesia and memory. It's also represents the old India. During the Indo- Pakistan war only one thing survive and it's spittoon. Spittoon hits to Saleem and he lost the memory of family so symbol of spittoon changed and there we can see bollywood drama of memory loss kind of the things.

4) The texture of the novel (What is the texture of the novel? Well, it is the interconnectedness of narrative technique with the theme. Is it well captured?)

Novel is in flashback and movie also follow novel so movie is also in flashback. Novel and movie open with Saleem,

'I was born in city of Bombay once upon a time'

Saleem narrated the story and told to Padma but in movie there is no role of Padma. When story open with a once upon a time  follow the traditional method of telling a story. In which story start but you put the main story in second line and strat to tell another story and it's called post colonial way of telling story, which is not chronological. Story and movie open with 'I', Rich muslim family and Kashmiri. 

 

Movie follow the novel so it's not in chronologically but jumping from one incident to another. Movie capture many events of the history like , 

Bombay - 1947 , Karachi Pakistan - 1964, 1965 Karachi war in which entire family died, 1971 - Civil war of Pakistan and Bangladesh, 1972 - Dacca - Bangladesh, Delhi -1972, Bombay India - 1977 movie ended.

5.What is your aesthetic experience after watching the screening?

 Midnight's Children movie directed by Deepa Mehta one of the most criticized director. And the actor who played the role of Saleem has hybrid identity which is major concern of the novel. Movie is trying to follow the novel but film is not able to give justice to the novel but it's still significant and help us to understand the novel and Major theme of the novel. As novel has many characters which in movie we don't find. But it is great try by Deepa Mehta to directed such novel which is best Novel for 50 years and still. Novel has many pages but movie hasn't enough time to describe all the incidents so it is much better if it is webseries because in 3 hours it's nearly impossible to described all the incidents but in webseries one can do it in easier way.

So this is my understanding of the novel after watching movie i hope my Blog is useful to you:-)