Midnight's children : Film Adaptation

 This blog is a part of my academic writing...

1.) The narrative techniques.

It is remarkable that what many consider as Salman Rushdie’s landmark work in fiction, Midnight’s Children, was first adapted to film only in 2012, 31 years after its publication. It was also the first of his works to be filmed. This is noteworthy given the novel’s cinematic self-awareness and the writer’s overt interest in acting and cinema, which he has reiterated over the years. Cinema, as a subject matter and a distinctive artistic language, resurfaces time and again in the pages of Rushdie’s essays, short stories, novels, and other writings. As many critics have pointed out, the writer’s emotional connection to cinema has translated into cinema itself being put to work as a mediating device in his oeuvre, with his characters often making sense of themselves and the world and coming to terms with their own place in it  through cinema. In this article, we examine the three existing adaptations of Midnight’s Children, with particular emphasis on the 2012 film, in view of their discursively constructed audiences. We consider these adaptations from the point of view of the audience, and how they engage with the spectator/reader. Our analysis is supplemented by Rushdie’s essays on the acts of adaptation and translation from one artistic medium to another. Our purpose is not to measure the failure or success of Rushdie’s and Mehta’s adaptation we argue instead that the film adaptation is a protracted creative project that has taken into consideration, more than previous adaptations of the novel, not only new forms of representation and new ways of reading, but also new ways of engaging its constructed audiences.

2.) Characters.

Perhaps most remarkable are the telepathic powers linking him with India's 1,000 other “midnight's children,” all born in that initial hour and endowed with magical gifts. It is notable for the large number of characters, many are introduced and then reoccur much later in the narrative. Some change their names and some are referred to by nicknames.

The story is expressed through a wide range of fictional characters and is set in context by actual historical events. None of the fictional characters are based on real people, but historical events and real personages are mentioned and occasionally given a voice. This list contains only principal named characters, and may be incomplete.

O. Saleem sinai

O. Padma

O. Shiva

O. Adam Aziz

O. Mumtaz Aziz

O. Ahmed Sanai

O. Jimila sanai

O. Mary peneria

O. Indira Gandhi

• Saleem Sinai is the protagonist and narrator; a telepathwith an enormous and constantly dripping nose, who is born at the exact moment that India becomes independent and who is of complex and confusing parentage. He is referred to variously as The Nose, Snotnose, and Snifferreferring to his nose; Stainface, Mapfaceand Piece of the Moon referring to his birthmarked face; Baldy referring to the bald patch on his head where the hair was pulled out by a violent school teacher; and the buddha during the time he loses his memory. He later develops a hyper-sensitive sense of smell. He is deaf in one ear from a blow received from his father, and has lost the tip of one finger in a bullying incident at school.
• Padma Mangroli is Saleem's lover and, eventually, his fiancée. Padma plays the role of the listener in the storytelling structure of the novel. She is described as plump, muscular and hairy.

3. ) Symbols

There are very interesting symbol is given in entire novel is considered as allegory of India. So some children are born at midnight and than India is also born at midnight. Saleem Senai who is protagonist and who is born at midnight with whom India’s story also described. Ups and down everything happening we see how India is narrated. Allegory of India is connected with some character so. What we see is history narrated in fictional way. History is narrated is fictionalized or Nation is narrated in fictional way  with imagine world. Whatever happened in novel has actually happened in  India but, it is interpreted in a different way. The events are happened, it’s real events happened in India. Salman Rushdie’s Way of looking , it may be not fair and He says that when we read meta narrative of past we also have to believe.

4.) Texture of the film.

Midnight's Children" is a richly textured story about India's post-colonial era as seen through the lives of two characters who compete in a struggle to some kind of normalcy. The mammoth influence of India's colonial past and how the characters deal with it looking to the future is presented through magical realism. This technique is decidedly spiritual and creates a space where the characters can image what can be and what they are to do.

At the press day for the film, Mehta ("Water") explained many aspects of her filmmaking and the role color plays in defining emotions in the story. Red symbolizes blood and emotion; blue is the color of midnight; and green stands for fertility and hope.

"The color palate of the film is important," she said, "because color seeps into all of life, everything."

The thing that attracted Mehta to the film, she explained, is that it is about "the journey of a person trying to find a home and an identity," noting that she made the journey from India to Canada. In today's world, she said, "we are always redefining ourselves, where we are from, who our families are, and this is a universal theme."

Its about the story being again about two male characters representing human experience, and Mehta came back with, "But if you look, this is a film about women more than men. Saleem, in particular, is defined by all the females who surround him."

At the end, 

‘The happy child of the glorious hour’ the news paper is evidence but does it true??? Is central question

 (child = India) what Is Nation?

Nation is not boundary, which kills thousands innocent  life.

Thank you...