Dinesh Kamath's column on film 'Midnight's Children' that was published in Newsband

Midnight's Children is a 2012 Canadian-American 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, Anupam Kher, Shabana Azmi, Seema Biswas, Shahana Goswami, Samrat Chakrabarti, Rahul Bose, Soha Ali Khan, Anita Majumdar and Darsheel Safary. The film is written and directed by Deepa Mehta. The film has cinematography by Giles Nuttgens and editing done by Colin Monie.

Shooting was kept a secret as Mehta feared protests by Islamic fundamentalist groups.

The film has shown at the Toronto International Film Festival, the Vancouver International Film Festival, and the BFI London Film Festival. The film is also a nominee for Best Picture, and seven other categories, at the 2013 Canadian Screen Awards.

Midnight’s Children tells the story of Saleem Sinai, played as a boy by Darsheel Safary and as a young man by Satya Bhabha. Saleem is born in Bombay to a pauper family at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947: the day India became an independent nation. He and Shiva (Purav Bhandare), a child born to wealthier parents, are switched at birth by a nurse whose interpretation of the maxim “let the rich be poor and the poor rich” is slightly over-literal.

Over two and a half hours we watch Saleem grow up, from a boyhood of post-colonial comfort to more troubled teenage years in Pakistan, Bangladesh and New Delhi. Saleem’s path to maturity intertwines with Shiva’s, and his growing pains mirror those of his country. And here is where the magic comes in: Saleem discovers he is telepathically connected to the other children born in the first hour of India’s independence, and in late-night séances their spirits descend on his bedroom.

The film has Satya Bhabha as Saleem Sinai, Siddharth Narayan as Shiva, Shriya Saran as Parvati, Darsheel Safary as Saleem Sinai (as a child), Anupam Kher as Ghani, Shabana Azmi as Naseem, Seema Biswas as Mary, Samrat Chakrabarti as Wee Willie Winkie, Rajat Kapoor as Aadam Aziz, Soha Ali Khan as Jamila, Rahul Bose as Zulfikar, Anita Majumdar as Emerald, Shahana Goswami as Amina, Chandan Roy Sanyal as Joseph D'Costa, Ronit Roy as Ahmed Sinai, Kulbhushan Kharbanda as Picture Singh, Shikha Talsania as Alia, Zaib Shaikh as Nadir Khan, Sarita Choudhury as The Lady, Vinay Pathak as Hardy, Kapila Jeyawardena as Governor, Ranvir Shorey as Laurel, Suresh Menon as Field Marshall and Rajesh Khera.

In 2008, Mehta and Salman Rushdie decided to collaborate on a film together. At first Mehta wanted to adapt his novel Shalimar the Clown, but she eventually decided on Midnight's Children instead. Rushdie spent the next two years paring down the 600-page book into a 130-page script. Rushdie told the BBC in an interview that he sold the rights to the film for $1.

Principal shooting began in February 2011 in Colombo, Sri Lanka as Mehta feared protests by Muslim fundamentalists if the film was shot in Pakistan and by Hindu fundamentalists if it was made in Mumbai. Cast members had secrecy clauses added to their contracts to help keep the production quiet. Production design was handled by Mehta's brother Dilip Mehta. Under his direction, authentic Delhi-style furniture, props and costumes were shipped in from India. Shooting was briefly interrupted when Iran complained to the Sri Lanka government about the film and the crew was ordered to halt production. Mehta appealed to President Mahinda Rajapaksa who agreed to let filming continue. Winds of Change was the working title of the film during the shooting. Filming lasted a total of 69 days from February to May 2011. In all, 800 extras were used. The film features Sri Lanka's most original vintage cars and the best colonial type residencies in Colombo.

The film premiered in September 2012 at the Toronto International Film Festival (2012-09-09) with repeat screenings on 2012-09-10 and 2012-09-27. The film had its Indian premiere on 10 December 2012 at the 17th International Film Festival of Kerala. After the premiere show, Indian National Congress leaders came against the movie alleging that the film portrays former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and some other leaders in a negative manner. Following the allegations, any further screening of the film in the festival was stopped, an act which drew heavy criticism.

After initial fears that the movie would not find a distributor in India, the distribution rights were acquired by the Mumbai-based company PVR Pictures. In India, the movie got released on February 1, 2013.

Midnight’s Children is a film that Rushdie has spent two years faithfully adapting from his own 1981 Booker Prize-winning magic-realist novel.

As well as acting as scriptwriter, he also served as executive producer and selected the director, Deepa Mehta, an Indian filmmaker best known for her Elements trilogy (1996-2005). He was heavily involved in the casting process too, and performs the role of narrator, who may well have more lines of dialogue than any other character.

Rushdie is an accomplished and experienced writer – of books. This, however, is his first screenplay, and his novelistic approach to storytelling becomes evident while watching the film.

India is a voguish destination for English and American directors, and Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited (2007), Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire (2008) and John Madden’s The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012) are three recent films with a rapturous outsider’s-eye-view of the subcontinent.

To an extent Mehta apes them all, but Midnight’s Children and its visual engagement with India is something special.

Do watch the film Midnight’s Children. You might like it.