Movie Review : Midnight's Children

                 On 9th September 2018, we had film screening of the two films first was "Midnight's Children"(Novel written by Salman Rushdie) directed by Deepa Mehta and second was "The Reluctant Fundamentalist"(A Novel written by Mohsin Hamid) directed by Mira Nair. So, our task is  to give review of these films with the perspectives of The Postcolonial Studies, so I will try to connect films with postcolonial approaches.

  Midnight’sChildren

               

                      "Midnight's Children"a novel written by British-Indian Novelist Salman Rushdie and filmed by Deepa Mehta. The film was very popular in foreign countries and well criticized in India also. The film didn't cover up all the things written deeply in the novel due to time period of the movie so it's looks like the collage of many things like history, culture, Colonialism. freedom movement, etc. 

                      The story of the film begun with the year of 1917, the birth year of Indira Gandhi and end with the emergency or we can say that the last stage of Indira Gandhi's Life. The story about the Children who were born in the stroke of the midnight 15th august 1947 with the magical power, in which two major character like Saleem Sinai, the protagonist belong to reach family while the Shiva who was born in poor family later joined the Army and fought in the battle with Pakistan to free Bangladesh.

               The main idea of hybridity in culture and identity we can see in the movie, as per the quote 'Let reach to be poor and poor to be reach' Saleem, actually, the son of British man William Methwold and poor Marathian lady and the Shiva was the son of Ahemad Sinai and Amina, but, Mary, a nurse in the hospital changed these both baby boy with each other because her lover was a Marxist and pursued mary to protest against elite class. Furthemore, Saleem went to pakistan and Shiva Joined Indian Army, so here we can see the partition of India and pakistan. later on, After the war, Saleem came to India, his mother land and marry with Parvati, beloved of Shiva and she gave birth to baby boy who was the son of Shiva so, we again see the hybridity. And also we can see the culture of India like snake Charmer. So this way movie ended through various perspectives. 

Postcolonial Point of View

Hybridity     

              Hybridity means Something that is formed by combining two or more things. Here, in the movie we can see the hybridity in the identity, Saleem is the perfect example of hybrid man, who was the son of colonizer and poor Indian lady and also the other character, Shiva was another example of hybrid man who was the son of Muslim parents. If we see the hybridity in culture then we can give the example of west(Methwold) and east(Poor Indian lady) .

Feminism  

             Postcolonial theorist also studies the culture and literature with the feminist perspective. In the beginning of the movie Doctor did not allow to examine Naseem's illness to see her body, there was a curtain between doctor and Naseem and her father said that ,

                      " You Europe returned chappies forget certain things. Doctor sahib, my daughter is a decent girl, it goes without saying. She does not flaunt her body under the noses of strange men. You will never understand that you can not be permitted to see her, no, no, not in any circumstances; accordingly. I have required her to be positioned behind that sheet. She stands there, like a good girl(Rushdie 2011)."

                  
                    Another example  is when Mumtaz, Saleem's mother got married with Ahemad Sinai, that time Ahemad gave her new name Amina. So, we can see the power of patriarchy in the movie and also a exploitation of poor Indian lady by Britisher Methwold.

   

Magic Realism

                 Magic realism also a part of postcolonial studies. Magic Realism is a narrative style which adds beauty to the historical representation in the movie otherwise it is boring to watch. The Midnight's Children were not ordinary kids but they have power, like, Saleem has power of sense of smell to feeling the different things and people where as Parvati also has power like Abrakadabra to hide people and  things in the basket.