Midnight's Children Movie Review

Midnight's Children, a silver screen adaptation of the legendary work of the celebrated authour Salman Rushdie is an amazing piece of artistic excellence coupled with content.

For those who have read the novel, I tell that its not possible to fit the vast 600 pages into two and a half hours of screenplay. Deepa mehta as the director and Salman rushdie who adapted his own book into a movie screenplay have taken up a huge task and one has to say, they succeeded.

For all those who did not read the book, it is a novel written in the style of magical realism, with history of India and Pakistan during and after Independence as the background. He narrates to us the ups and downs of the nations while talking about the lives of a set of children born in the same hour of the nation's birth. It is a fusion of history and imagination, a romance of his dreams with his experiences in post colonial India.

Coming to Deepa mehta's film, it is a great attempt to bring close salman rushdie's historical fiction to many a audience who have not had the opportunity to read the book but who always yearned to do so! It is a good peek into what Rushdie wants to tell us about the countries that set out on a journey of sovereignty powered by midnight freedom.

It's precise and simple form of story telling helps it in a smooth flow of the characters over a few decades and one would not feel that they are rushed through in-spite of having been told so much.

The casting is just spot on. No one does a bit more or a bit less. The beautiful cinematography by Giles Nuttgens, makes it a visual feast. The soothing background score by Nitin Sawhney compliments the narration well. And Salman Rushdie's voice that narrates the story for us is just apt. no body else could have delivered it with that depth and volume. 

All these factors have made it a near perfect screen version of the magical tale.