Midnight's Children
Midnight's Children is a 2012 film adaptation of Salman Rushdie's 1981 novel of the same name. The film features an ensemble cast of Satya Bhabha, Shriya Saran, Siddharth, Ronit Roy, Anupam Kher, Shabana Azmi, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Seema Biswas, Shahana Goswami, Samrat Chakrabarti, Rahul Bose, Soha Ali Khan, Anita Majumdar and Darsheel Safary. With a screenplay by Rushdie and directed by Deepa Mehta, the film began principal photography in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in February 2011 and wrapped in May 2011. Shooting was kept a secret as Mehta feared protests by Islamic fundamentalist groups.
Plot
The film begins with narrator Saleem Sinai describing his birth at the exact moment of Indian independence. His narrative then jumps back to 1917 Kashmir where his grandfather Dr. Aadam Aziz goes to the Ghani mansion to assess the landlord's sick daughter Nasim, whom the doctor eventually marries. Then the film jumps to Agra in 1942, where Saleem describes his grandfather as contracting a 'disease of optimism' of those times and being an ardent supporter of politician Mian Abdullah. Abdullah is assassinated returning from a party with his secretary Nadir Khan, but Nadir flees to Dr. Aziz's house where Aziz shelters him in his cellar. Aziz and Nasim have three daughters, Alia, Mumtaz and Emerald, and during Nadir's stay Mumtaz develops a bond with him resulting in their private marriage. Soon the marriage is broken up when General Zulfikar learns of his presence in the cellar.
Cast
- Anita Majumdar
- Anupam Kher
- Chandan Roy Sanyal
- Charles Dance
- Darsheel Safary
- Kulbhushan Kharbanda
- Neha Mahajan
- Rahul Bose
- Rajat Kapoor
- Rajesh Khera
- Ranvir Shorey
- Ronit Roy
- Salman Rushdie
- Samrat Chakrabarti
- Sarita Choudhury
- Satya Bhabha
- Seema Biswas
- Shabana Azmi
- Shahana Goswami
- Shriya Saran
- Siddharth Narayan
- Soha Ali Khan
- Suresh Menon
- Vinay Pathak
- Zaib Shaikh
More details
| author | Salman Rushdie |
|---|---|
| contentLocation | India |
| director | Deepa Mehta |
| editor | Colin Monie |
| genre | drama fantasy |
| keywords | agra baby bangladesh liberation war becomes bangladesh blood type bomb break cast class differences declaration of emergency eat emergency expect hearing voices impoverish independence day indo-pakistani war of 1965 injured kill loss of innocence memory loss moment of indian independence nanny only way power politics project a road accident smuggle snake charmer suffer summon three daughters voice |
| musicBy | Nitin Sawhney |
| producer | David Hamilton Doug Mankoff Steven Silver |
| publisher | BBFC Entertainment One Mongrel Media PVR Pictures |
| theme | magic realism |