Academy award-nominated filmmaker Deepa
Mehta goes on to adapt Salman Rushdie's Booker Prize-winning-novel 'Midnight's Children'
with the film 'Midnight's Children'. The film revolves around the lives of
children born 'at the stroke of the midnight hour' on August 15, 1947, which
left British India independent and divided into India and Pakistan. Two
children, Saleem and Shiva, get swapped at the hospital and their lives change
forever.
The film is a mix of different genres -
political drama, satire, romance, magical realism and much more. It could have
been an interesting watch, had it been directed more astutely and in a unidirectional
manner (too many side-plots) and made on a larger scale. However, this take is
a complete disappointment. It fails to live up to any of the aforementioned
themes and ends up beating around the bush (for close to 150 minutes!).
At midnight on August 15, 1947, as India
gains independence, two new-born babies are switched by a nurse Mary (who has
been brainwashed by her lover into believing that the rich will have to become
poor and the poor, rich!), played by Seema Biswas, in a hospital in Bombay.
Saleem Sinai (Darsheel Safary and Satya Bhabha), the illegitimate son of poor
woman, and Shiva (Siddharth), a child to a well-off couple (Amina, played by
Shahana Goswami, and Ahmed Sinai, played by Ronit Roy), are swapped and end up
leading lives meant for each other. Their life-story is set to the back-drop of
the increasing tensions amid India and Pakistan. Saleem ends up serving for the
Pakistan army and Shiva becomes an army officer for the Indian army. Shiva has
always resented Saleem for being a rich man's son, and consequently, more
fortunate. Amidst all the drama, we are introduced to other characters such as
the mysterious conjurer Parvati (Shriya Saran), her mentor Picture Singh
(Kulbhushan Kharbanda), the Pakistani major Zulfikar (Rahul Bose), his gorgeous
wife Emerald (Anita Majumdar) and in the preceding portions of the film (circa
1910s), Rajat Kapoor plays Amina's (she had a turbulent past, which came back
to haunt her, with a man named Nadir Khan, played by Zaib Shaikh) father, Aadam
Aziz.
'Midnight's Children' has many
inconsequential sub-plots within the entire plot, which kind of becomes
bearable owing to the dramatic ending. However, at large, the film is a
dampener and fails to evoke any emotion. The historic incidents are marred with
over-the-top acting and terrible dialogue writing. It is not clear whether
Indira Gandhi's character was meant to be a spoof. If it was, it shouldn't have
been. With the makers having been so gutsy to actually show the happenings of
the Emergency in the film, the least they could have done is to lend some
seriousness to the chief protagonist/antagonist of the entire saga. Our late
Prime Minister has been portrayed in terrible light in the film. Even if they
wanted to lend a dictatorial element to her character, they could have done
away with the caricaturing. Furthermore, some of the scenes in the film, which
incorporate a lot of jargons associated with India, even fail to strike a chord
with the Indian viewer. Wonder why they couldn’t let the principal characters
communicate to each other in Hindi/Urdu instead of English, albeit with
subtitles. 'Slumdog Millionaire' did that and bagged an Oscar. The film is good
in some parts, in particular, the ending. However, the film, despite having
great potential premise-wise, fails to put forward a great story. Haven't read
the book, but does it really matter? A film is a story and if it's badly told,
it's just bad. Doesn't matter if it's original or adapted!
Among the actors, Siddharth, Rahul Bose,
Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Rajat Kapoor, Anupam Kher, Shabana Azmi do a fine job. Ronit
Roy's character is strikingly similar to his disciplinarian father act in
'Udaan'. Although he does well yet again, it's nothing new. There are two
terrible CGI sequences, both involving bomb blasts. There is also one scene in
which Siddharth is shown riding a bike and the frame shakes vigorously. Wonder
why! One particular sequence that is enjoyable in the film is when Kulbhushan's
Picture Singh addresses his snake as 'Karan'! Such light-hearted moments are
too few and far in between. The scenes in which Saleem talks to his fellow
Midnight's Children are delightful. It's one of those films where there are
moments of brilliance within lots of below-par fare! Avoidable!
Shivom
Oza
a good and watchable movie... there is a nice direction and good acting...
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