Midnight's Children (2012)

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

Deepa Mehta, alluring 63 year old Canadian based Indian director has been married four times and is still going strong (at getting married). The 2012 edition of the Los Angeles festival of Indian Film closed shop on Sunday. April 14 with a brace of films on successive evenings by two of the best known Indian woman directors, Mira Nair and Deepa Mehta, both living outside of India. The films in question were respectively Nair's recent "Reluctant Fundamentalist" and Mehta's newly minted "Midnight's Children" based on Salman Rushdie's latest novel of the same name. The former is a treatise on Terrorism Paranoia leading to the unwitting (i.e.,"reluctant") creation of a terrorist in the wake of 9/11 hysteria, while the Mehta opus, shown here as a Sneak Preview, is a somewhat mystical tale of two boys, one from a rich family, the other from a poor one, born at midnight, on the very eve of Indian independence in August 1947, but consciously switched as an act of protest by a hospital nurse (Seema Biswas). Because this was a sneak preview full reviews are held in abeyance until the end of the month. For the moment what can be said is that the film rambles through the main events of Indian history since Partition with lots of metaphysical spin. Being a prestige film both from the point of view of director and writer the predominantly Indian audience viewed it with proper respect giving it a round of subdued applause that was more polite than appreciative at the end. Director Mehta introduced the film personally but did not stick around for a Q and A afterward. (PS: The film was a mishmosh that went nowhere -- a disappointment considering the expectations going in ...) Deepa Mehta is known for handling touchy subjects and the references in this film to Indira Gandhi, focusing on her suspension of democratic institutions during the State of Emergency (June '75 to March '77) were particularly objectionable to certain elements of India's majority Congress party. Ms. Mehta is best known for her Fire, Earth and Water trilogy all of which addressed controversial aspects of Indian society such as child marriage, prohibition of widow remarriage, and lesbianism, and were critically acclaimed world wide. The current film, however, can only be seen as a major letdown from a major Indian director. Hopefully this resourceful lady will soon have more cinematic ammunition in the folds of her colorful saris.

I have been to India. I am moderately familiar with Indian history. I had never heard of the book. I found the film very entertaining, emotionally gripping, and altogether a very interesting perspective of what the lives of children born at the stroke of independence could have been like. Of particular interest, almost a shock is a scathing assessment of Indira Gandhi, at least of a portion of her period holding power. Never mind the book, I think the film is abundant food for thought or perhaps "rethought" on how freedom and post-colonialism works and human destiny in a broader sense. One thing the story definitely confirms: Most revolutions, whatever their justification and ultimate vindication, have meant mostly disaster and misery for the first generation.

Went into the theaters not knowing what the film was about. Came out pretty satisfied with midnight's children. Movie was about India gaining independence, and the children born at midnight. Movie had a dash, of drama, suspense, romance , and comedy. The only minus was the length. A well made film with great actors out of the whole i really enjoyed siddarths and shriya sarans performance.. Recommenced for people who want to watch something that is different then the regular mill of film, this film is very different and touches on many subjects that have occurred in India in there past and present history. A highly recommended watch!!!!

Midnight's Children, that mammoth book written by Salman Rushdie which all English Literature Undergraduates are forced to read and marvel at, finally gets a long-awaited film adaptation. Having read the book many years ago, I never imagined anybody would be bold enough to actually film the text, with all it's magical realism and grand sweeps through the course of history, so let's see how this goes...Telling the story of Saleem, born on the stroke of Midnight on August 15th 1947 i.e when India finally became an independent nation, whose life is altered from the minute he is born, as he is given to the wrong parents, rich parents, and thus afforded a life of luxury that he was not destined to have. On top of that, he has magical powers (that aren't that great to be honest), and finds that every child born at Midnight on August 15th also has magic powers, it's like the Power Rangers: India. What thus follows is a story narrated by Rushdie himself, as Saleem's life links and progresses with the historical and political turmoil taking part in India throughout the century, ( Partitions, Civil Wars, States of Emergency), and Saleem, much like India at the time, struggles and battles to find out his own identity.The film does well in scaling down the content of the novel, it's more of a drama with bits of comedy, than a grand epic or fantasy, and parts do feel rushed as the viewer is transported from year to year without any sense of anything really linking together, despite the valiant attempts of Rushdie narrating the whole story. However, it is still a film that does manage to vividly depict a fascinating period in history with lots of very visual scenes that leave a lasting impression, and more importantly, it links it all together with individual plights, to add that emotional intensity. So overall I'd still recommend it.7/10