Film Review: Midnight's Children - Mixed Bag

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Street singer (Samrat Chakrabarti)

Adversaries Saleem Sinai (Satya Bhabha) and Shiva (Siddharth)

Saleem with Parvati (Shriya Saran) 

By Raj S. Rangarajan *

India’s independence on August 15, 1947 is revisited by Man Booker Prize winning novelist Salman Rushdie’s story, Midnight’s Children that is now a movie. Directed by Toronto-based Deepa Mehta, and adapted and narrated by Rushdie, the film has received mixed reviews in North America and in other parts of the world.

Thanks to the names associated with the film and the buildup, one expected more from the film. Sometimes, filming fiction by an erudite writer could be frustrating. The film starts loftily but soon, in predictably formulaic pattern deteriorates into the mediocre, while being surprisingly spectacular. After Water and Fire one expected more out of Mehta. 

As India declares independence from Great Britain on August 15, 1947 (Rushie calls it India’s remake of American independence), two male babies are switched at birth at midnight in a hospital in Bombay by Mary the midwife (Seema Biswas, Patang, Water directed by Deepa Mehta) with questionable loyalties toward the wealthy.  The boys are Saleem and Shiva and, born seven seconds after midnight was Parvati (Shriya Saran,Sivaji: The Boss). 

Saleem Sinai (Satya Bhabha, debutant in a feature film) and Shiva (Siddharth Rang de Basanti) are destined to live in differing worlds – one in a fancy home with an automobile and the other forced to earn a living as a street performer.  Female lead Parvati, who is friendly with both the boys, displays magical abilities and the word “abracadabra” is a staple in the film.

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MIDNIGHT CHILDREN’s GREEN CHUTNEY

Mary’s bright “grasshopper green” chutney is a Proustian unifying memory for Saleem and the trigger for his exploration of the past, “The taste of the chutney was more than just an echo of that long-ago taste – it was the old taste itself, the very same, with the power of bringing back the past as if it had never been away...Once again an abracadabra, an open-sesame: words printed on a chutney-jar, opening the last door of my life.”

The “chutnification of history” is a way to retrieve and interpret memory. On the last pages of the novel Saleem describes this, with the same words as the movie’s ending, “One day, perhaps, the world may taste the pickles of history. They may be too strong for some palates, their smell may be overpowering, tears may rise to eyes; I hope nevertheless that it will be possible to say of them that they possess the authentic taste of truth...that they are despite everything, acts of love.”

Saleem’s memories of his childhood and of home are wrapped up in his ayah Mary’s green chutney throughout Midnight’s Children. The bright green condiment is always on the table, and served with every meal, including breakfast. When Mary consoles the young Saleem in the hospital after the startling revelations of his “bad blood”, she promises him “all the chutney in the world”. On Saleem’s lonely first night in his aunt Emerald’s household, he has a photo of Mary and a jar of her chutney on his bedside table: his only comforts. And when Mary meets teenage Saleem at the Karachi train station when he returns from exile, the first thing Mary offers to do for him is to make his favourite chutney. And of course the discovery of Mrs. Braganza’s bottled chutney is...well, momentous.  As Saleem says in his voiceover, narrated by Salman Rushdie, “Sometimes emotions are stirred into food and become what you feel. And sometimes people leak into each other, like flavours when you cook.”

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Because of a bronchial condition that is not explained, Saleem is able to see and talk with all the other 500 odd surviving children that were born in India (August 15) on that fateful night. In the assemblage are hot-tempered Shiva and the pretty witch Parvati.

Over a 30-year period, the connection between Saleem’s and Shiva’s lives unravel with class divisions about the privileged and the poor, jealousy and rage, heartbreak and hope, about intrigue and the emotion of feeling entitled. Saleem, a victim of amnesia, acts genuinely confused and is as complex as the movie.

Shiva, now a ruthless military commander meets Saleem in a confrontation while Parvati tries to seduce Shiva. Wee Willie Winkie (Samrat Chakrabarti Viswaroopam), as a street singer, adds comedic elements to his musical repertoire. Cameraman Giles Nuttgens has a field day capturing the kaleidoscope aspects of the theme. Rushdie’s screenplay carries passion with his story vividly bringing home the historic event that was attendant with societal problems of the day whatever one’s station in life.

Saleem’s favorite chutney -- a specialty that Mary, the former nurse -- now a maid with the Sinai household -- used to prepare comes up as a reminiscent detail. (See separate box on Midnight Children’s Green Chutney.)  

Commenting on the novel, written decades ago, film director Deepa Mehta says: “It is a coming-of-age story, full of the trials and tribulations of growing up, and of the terrible weight of expectations. What separates it from other thematically similar films is that the story is not only about a boy but also about his country, both born at the very same time at a pivotal point in Indian history. Saleem’s journey as our vulnerable, misguided hero is always intertwined with the struggles of the newly independent India, as it finds its own voice in the world.”

For the stats-minded, the film (running time: 140 minutes) covers four generations over five distinct time periods and three wars. It was shot in 65 locations in India and Sri Lanka in 70 days, and has 127 speaking parts.

Appearing on John Stewart’s Daily Show recently Rushdie said, considering that Bombay has been more far-reaching than Hollywood in terms of numbers of films made, instead of Bollywood, the place should be called “Hombay” as Mumbai’s film headquarters. 

Mehta adds: “collaborating with Rushdie on this film project was pure delight and we were in sync since Salman and I were both from the Indian diaspora with intertwined roots in India?”

* Raj S. Rangarajan is a New York based freelance writer. He covers trend stories on art, reviews books and films for media based in New York; Toronto, Canada; and India. He can be reached atraj.rangarajan@gmail.com

My Name is Khan and “I am not a Terrorist"

Raj S. Rangarajan

A regular Bollywood film with a 9/11 flavor thrown in – My Name is Khan – will perhaps be more popular in North America than in India. After that fateful day in 2001, more movies seem to sell better here. Remember New York starring John Abraham and Katrina Kaif and Kurbaan 2009 with Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor, to name merely two.

While screening of the film ran into problems last month in Mumbai following boycotts, it has virtually been running to packed cinema houses in North America over weekends. According to Gitesh Pandya, who monitors all film billings for Hollywood and Bollywood movies, 17 days following release, this was Shah Rukh Khan’s top-grossing film in North America with total sales of $3,636,000 that surpassed SRK's old record of $3,597,372 for 2007's Om Shanti Om. It continues to play in 119 theaters across the U.S. and Canada in its third week of screening. This is reportedly Karan Johar’s biggest film ever.

Shah Rukh Khan (Rizvan Khan) and Kajol Devgan (Mandira Rathore) are the main characters in Khan and their chemistry on the screen is a subject of many a speculative, albeit favorable story in the film press, and that aspect is just one of the reasons why director Karan Johar had no hesitation in casting this pair.

As a child Rizvan (SRK) suffers from Asperger Syndrome, a kind of autism disorder that makes the patient behave clumsily sometimes in social interactions. In Khan, Rizvan tends to repeat his behavior patterns just as Raymond (Dustin Hoffman) constantly did in the 1988 Hollywood hit movie, Rain Main, that also starred Tom Cruise.

A story of love between a man and a woman and of that between mother and son – something many a Hindi-movie fan can relate to – is the basic theme that writers, Shibani Bathija and Karan Johar (who is also the director) have captured admirably. Rizvan, who happens to be a Muslim woos Mandira who happens to be a Hindu in spite of handicaps in his life. She is a single mother with a son.

After their mother’s passing in India, Rizvan’s younger brother, portrayed by Jimmy Shergill invites Rizvan to move to San Francisco. When Rizvan wants to marry Mandira who runs a successful hairdressing outfit, Jimmy’s character objects but never explains why. The story faces its major twist when Mandira’s son is beaten up in a playground by boys of Caucasian origin. Motives are attributed to the incident since the post-9/11 scenario in America is an easy excuse.

No investigation is conducted by anyone and soon the boy’s death is a closed chapter for the authorities. But, not for Mandira who has been personally affected. The racial profiling mindset in the movie is telling in that when Mandira declares, if my son’s name was Rathore – not Khan – he would have been alive. In a sense that reality is constantly faced and thought of by residents in North America though perhaps not articulated in public for obvious reasons.

People who constantly experience overt discrimination in some degree or other can relate to this movie directly. Each parent and child in North America has his or her own defence mechanism to deal with such real-life situations and this movie drives close to home. After all its just a movie is the normal rationalization of mature adults.

In another scene, in a mosque some Muslims are seen praying and plotting. In a dramatic exchange when the Muslim doctor who preaches revenge against white folk in the confines of a place of worship, Rizvan boldly lays out his understanding of what the Prophet really said and meant.

In small measure, that verbal exchange in the movie epitomizes conflicts one sees in schools, colleges or in communities in North America and perhaps in other countries as well. One is often concerned about how to behave in a social situation – whether at a movie, among friends and peers or even on a playground. What is politically correct these days?

In the movie, however, one cannot judge whether the incident was racially-motivated or whether it was the effect of a smaller boy – a South Asian kid – taking on a bigger boy, who happened to be Caucasian.

Traditional Southern hospitality gets a shot in the arm when a black family welcomes in to their fold a drifting Rizvan who is temporarily confused and lost after his wife throws him out. To prove himself, he single-handedly helps a community suffering in a flood (though he is sometimes spaced out) and attempts to win back his beau.

While Rizvan Khan is constantly muttering that he is not a terrorist but wants to meet the American president it is never explained why he wishes to meet the leader. Is it because his mother had inculcated in him a desire to do so? Or is it because Mandira, in a fit of pique, challenges him to do so.

In happy scenes a fetching Kajol sparkles, but SRK tends to overact specially when he overdoes the autistic bit -- which is perhaps difficult -- specially since the movie is not about the disease but about relationships.

One is impressed with subtle nuances the director and cameramen have accomplished in terms of capturing emotions on the playing ground where a boy is beaten up mercilessly or after the emotional suffixes that help the boys confess. Niranjan Iyengar’s dialogue is pithy and cinematographer, Ravi K. Chandran has proven once again that he is a classy performer. Mostly shot in San Francisco, the 2-1/2 hour Fox Searchlight film moves fast and doesn’t follow any formula – a lofty tribute to director Karan.
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[Raj S. Rangarajan is a New York based freelance writer. He covers trend stories on art, reviews books and films for media based in New York, Toronto, Republic of Korea and India.]