Midnight's Children

The narration is the biggest flaw in the film, next to the screenplay. It feels like I am listening to an audio version of the book. If so, I would have listened to an audio version of the book. What is the use of making a film?

I thought the narration was by Rahul Bose but IMDB told me otherwise. Narrating a book based film is much worse. As for acting, everyone's good except Rahul Bose and Siddharth. Rahul is such an over actor. He might be good for plays or theatre dramas but in movies, he just can't act and his English too felt much fake (or forced). Sahana is beautiful in terms of acting too. Siddharth is simply like he is in any other film. He was a wrong cast. He looks angry in every film no matter what the character is. He should take a break of 8-10 years and re-learn acting. Because the film never follows Sid's character, we have no idea how he became what he became eventually, so bad writing there. Suresh Menon in a serious role? Are you kidding me? Blink and miss Neha Mahajan. She is such a good actress. For a few minutes I was wondering who is Shabana Azmi in the film. Anita Majumdar was very good in her role. Satya Bhabha in the lead was good too. But in general, the casting wasn't right. So bad.

The dialogues in English makes it a very bitter watch. At places, with unnecessary BG music, forcing us to lean towards certain emotions, the film goes on like a torture.

I was fortunate enough to get tickets to watch an early screening of 'Midnight's Children' at the BFI London Film Festival. In the wake of several adaptations (Cloud Atlas, Silver linings playbook, Life of Pi) I wasn't really expecting much out of Midnoght's Children in particular.

When I first saw the trailer I wasn't thoroughly impressed. The acclaimed novel by Salman Rushdie is my favorite book of all time (Booker of Booker prize) and I had a hard time believing a film adaptation would come remotely close to the brilliance of the novel. I didn't want to watch the movie like a father that doesn't want to believe his son is doing drugs.

Thankfully, my son isn't doing drugs, and the movie isn't as bad as I expected. The cinematography is pretty good and the acting, which relied on Asian actors, is very good. I would have enjoyed a better soundtrack - sometimes the music felt eerily like b-quality Bollywood. There are also some scenes that could have been edited better - but I'm not in the movie business so what do I know? Big chunks of the novel are left out but I guess that's normal considering there always have to be some trimming here and there when transforming a novel into a film.

Overall great movie that doesn't disappoint fans of the novel. Sure, it could have been better - but hey, in this day and age, what couldn't be better?

Having read the novel a few years ago, went and watched it at the London Film Festival. As much as I wanted to love it, it didn't blow me away. The pluses: The acting was good with a good enough cast. Satya Bhabha, Rajat Kapoor, Shahana Goswami and some others (Seema Biswas, for example) were terrific. Shriya, Siddharth, Soha Ali Khan, the usual crowd that you see in many recent Hindi/Tamil films, did their best and I couldn't really find too much fault with them, though I've seen them play the same characters in other films. The story itself is quite powerful The locales were well chosen and you could sometimes feel the vibe of Partition. The minuses: The music (background score) was staid. The screenplay and adaptation to the medium seemed to be the crux of the problems, though. Deepa Mehta (and Rushdie himself) seemed to stick to the book too closely, and weren't very adventurous. At many times it was pure narration, which seems a bit lazy as an adaptation. The film was also 2.5 hours long meaning they left out nothing at the cost of making it a bit boring. Everything was so literal that they lost out on the magic of the writing. Still a normally good film it will typically be marked controversial even though it really isn't. I was just hoping for some distinctiveness and style.

Midnight's Children, that mammoth book written by Salman Rushdie which all English Literature Undergraduates are forced to read and marvel at, finally gets a long-awaited film adaptation. Having read the book many years ago, I never imagined anybody would be bold enough to actually film the text, with all it's magical realism and grand sweeps through the course of history, so let's see how this goes...

Telling the story of Saleem, born on the stroke of Midnight on August 15th 1947 i.e when India finally became an independent nation, whose life is altered from the minute he is born, as he is given to the wrong parents, rich parents, and thus afforded a life of luxury that he was not destined to have. On top of that, he has magical powers (that aren't that great to be honest), and finds that every child born at Midnight on August 15th also has magic powers, it's like the Power Rangers: India. What thus follows is a story narrated by Rushdie himself, as Saleem's life links and progresses with the historical and political turmoil taking part in India throughout the century, ( Partitions, Civil Wars, States of Emergency), and Saleem, much like India at the time, struggles and battles to find out his own identity.

The film does well in scaling down the content of the novel, it's more of a drama with bits of comedy, than a grand epic or fantasy, and parts do feel rushed as the viewer is transported from year to year without any sense of anything really linking together, despite the valiant attempts of Rushdie narrating the whole story. However, it is still a film that does manage to vividly depict a fascinating period in history with lots of very visual scenes that leave a lasting impression, and more importantly, it links it all together with individual plights, to add that emotional intensity. So overall I'd still recommend it.

7/10

An adaptation of Salman Rushdie's 1981 novel of the same name, 'Midnight's Children' is a passable film. Go in with limited expectations & your chances of being disappointed will be less.

'Midnight's Children' Synopsis: A pair of children, born within moments of India gaining independence from Britain, grow up in the country that is nothing like their parent's generation.

'Midnight's Children' is an engaging story on paper, but on celluloid, it appears clichéd. India-Pakistan conflict, is beaten to death in cinema. Sure, the novel must've been captivating, but on-screen, it looks very regular. Deepa Mehta's Direction is terrific. She makes this otherwise passable film, watchable, due to her true talent as a storyteller.

Performance-Wise: Satya Bhabha delivers a sincere performance. Shriya Saran has 2 standard expressions. Siddharth tries hard to look like a menace. Darsheel Safary is very good. Seema Biswas & Ronit Roy are excellent, as ever. Others lend support.

On the whole, 'Midnight's Children' is watchable, at best.