Midnight’s Children Searching Identities in Subcontinent
View(s):By Susitha R. Fernando
Can Indian at the same time be a Pakistani or Bangaladeshi? Saleem Sinai’s search for identity at a time when his country is divided in to three different nations is the main plot of Deepa Mehta’s newest movie Midnight’s Children made based on controversial Salman Rushdi’s novel under the same title.
This magical-reality film adaptation of Booker Prize winning novel opened and narrated by the protagonist Sinai which is dubbed by Salman Rushdi himself with his iconic storytelling ability.
At the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, as India proclaims independence from Great Britain, two newborn babies are switched by a nurse in a Bombay hospital. Saleem Sinai, the illegitimate son of a poor woman, and Shiva, the offspring of a wealthy couple, are fated to live the destiny meant for each other. Their lives become mysteriously intertwined and are inextricably linked to India’s whirlwind journey of triumphs and disasters.
Covering well over 60 years in the turbulent history of India, Pakistan and birth of Bangladesh from the end of the second world war up to Indira Gandhi’s repressive “Emergency” of the late 1970s, the film shows how five generations of a well-off Muslim clan and their associates in Kashmir, Agra, Mumbai, Karachi are affected due to ethnic disturbances.
However with the continuous change of events the viewers gets lost amidst the historical incidents and among the changing characters. With a large numbers of sequence of events, starting from ethnic violence, wars, coup, love, hate, betrayal ‘Midnight’s Children’ shows how Sinai with his conferences with the rest of the ‘Midnights Chidlren ‘ tries his best to find ways to bring about unity and harmony to ethnically, racially and religiously divided nationas.
‘Midnight’s Children’ is a must watch not only for people who’ve yearned to experience Salman Rushdie’s iconic storytelling in a more accessible format but the universial lessons that teaches. Similar mistakes are continued to be made by the same countries in the subcontinent and even our own society where division over anything can take at any era.
It is also necessary to note the successful effort of Errol Kelly and his The Film Team in creating the three countries in the sub-continent with his extra-ordinary film setting in different locations in Sri Lanka. Midnight’s Children is now being screened at Majestic Cineplex, Colombo.
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