MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN (PART-2)
Writer:
Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British-American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Western civilizations, typically set on the Indian Subcontinent.
Recently, Salman Rushdie was attacked in New York on 12 August 2022, based on a fatwa issued on Feb. 12, 1989, for his work ‘The Satanic Verses’ (1988). Read the news in detail CLICK HERE
Novel:
Midnight’s Children is the Second novel by Salman Rushdie. Midnight's Children sold over one million copies in the UK alone and won the Booker Prize and James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1981. It was awarded the "Booker of Booker" Prize and the best all-time prize winner in 1993 and 2008 to celebrate the Booker Prize's 25th and 40th anniversaries. In 2003 the novel appeared at number 100 on the BBC's The Big Read poll which determined the UK's "best-loved novels" of all time.
The novel basically is from Kashmir in 1917 to Bombay in 1977, it brings us through the ending of British rule, the birth of a nation, the Partition of India and Pakistan, later the war of independence of Bangladesh, and finally, the Emergency under the government of Indira Gandhi.
Amidst the torrents of history emerges the main character Saleem Sinai. The film begins with his grandfather Dr. Aziz (Rajat Kapoor) in Kashmir, examining his patient and future wife Naseem (Shabana Azmi) through a perforated sheet. Then comes the next generation of Saleem’s parents Amina (Shahana Goswami) and her husband Ahmed Sinai (Ronit Roy), moving to Bombay, giving birth to a baby boy at the stroke of midnight, the dawn of India’s independence on August 14, 1947. But baby Saleem is a changeling with another baby born at the same time, Shiva, by the hands of Mary (Seema Biswas) the nurse.
Themes and Symbols (if film adaptation is able to capture themes and symbols?)
Perforated sheet
The perforated sheet has symbolized the fragmented life of the characters throughout the novel. It symbolized not a whole view, a fragmented view, and also a material used to preserve the chastity and purity of female characters. Aziz falls in love with a perforated sheet and The perforated sheet makes one final appearance with Jamila Singer: in an attempt to preserve her purity.
Silver spittoon
Spittoon is a symbol of memory and memory loss. It was given to Amina as part of her dowry by the Rani of Cooch Naheen which was the only memory of the family with Saleem. But later this memory, spittoon gave him a memory loss. Spittoon was responsible for Saleem’s Amnesia. The spittoon is the symbol of a vanishing era, which, in retrospect, seemed simpler and easier.
Pickles
Pickles are a symbol of preservation and destruction. Saleem tries to preserve his stories in pickles and chutney. By telling his stories he is trying to preserve the dying man. This connection between pickles and the preservation of stories endures until the very end of the book.
Knees and nose
The knees and nose are the symbols of the power of Saleem and Shiva, the two firstborn midnight’s children who got changed in the hospital. Shiva is suspected of killing a string of prostitutes with his powerful knees, while Saleem uses his nose to discover the most decrepit prostitute in the city. Knees and nose—just like Shiva and Saleem, destruction and creation, faith and humility—are inextricably related. This symbolizes both power/ strength and weakness, creator (Saleem) and destructor (Shiva).
Saleem and Shiva
Shiva and Saleem are binary to each other. They are contemporary. Complete each other. As Yin Yang. Saleem in allegorical India and India story is incomplete without Shiva.
History and Individual
Reading Midnight’s children we can read a connection made by Rushdie of Saleem Sinai with the History of India. The section that Rushdie establishes between every personal event in Saleem's life and that of his family and the political and historical events that unfold in independent India is carefully maintained throughout the novel, even though sometimes it can sound a bit forced as in the latter part of the novel. The language riots of the 1950s, Indo- Pak war of 1971, and Indira Gandhi’s ‘Emergency” in 1975 all these India stories can be read through Saleem. Also, the story begins with Kashmir which even today is a ‘hot spot’. The parallel drawn between Aziz and Jallianwala Bagh Massacre. His parents, grandparents, and an aunt me killed on 23 September 1975, the day India's Airforce bombs Rawalpindi. The book is full of such demonstrations which connect Saleem and India.
Colonialism and neo- Colonialism in India
Midnight’s Children attacks British colonization and they were symbolized through the characters like Methwold. He is used as a symbol of evil and moral degeneration rather than a fully fleshed-out character. He is used as a symbol of colonization, exploitation, and demoralization in the novel. The seduction of Vanita in absence of her husband Winkee is a metaphor for appropriating and exploiting what rightfully belongs to another. How Britishers came to India and tried to exploit India. They controlled India and also tried to be an owner not only of land but people also.
Fragmentation, Migrancy, and Memory
This is not the main theme but the novel. The novel's narrative technique which is stories inside the stories presents us with the fragmentation in the novel. The novel is all about memory and loss of memory. The novel begins with Dal lake and ends in Pickles factory. The cracks and disintegration in the novel bring newness in the novel.
These are the themes and the symbols of the novel which are aptly described and adapted in the movie also. Cinematography has also beautifully captured all the symbols with the help of long and short shots and focus. The movie has held the essence of the novel through and in which its symbols and themes played an important role.
The texture of the novel (What is the texture of the novel? Well, it is the interconnectedness of narrative technique with the theme. Is it well captured?)
The texture is a word that is used to describe the combination of word choice, mood, and what the authorial lens focuses on in a piece. Looking at Midnight’s Children we see getting introduced to this novel is getting introduced to a new texture of the book. The book does not describe anything in chronological order. It oscillated between past and present and even sometimes the future through the dreams of Salem. The novel has a unique narratological style combining both Indian and western methods, including magic realism and first-person narration also. The novel captures India from 1915 to 1978. Adding to it, the novel has a wonderful connection between symbols and narration. The symbols indicate binary, negative, and positive aspects. E.g. symbol of a pickle- destroyer and preserver.
What is your aesthetic experience after watching the screening?
We had a wonderful movie screening of Midnight’s Children 2012 film directed by Deepa Mehta and screenplay written by the Author himself. We already had a background of the novel and the changes made in the novel and film adaptation. So we knew that it's not completely what is in the novel. But overall it was great, it brought the texture of the novel, and themes and symbols were aptly used in the film. It didn't have the complete storyline of the novel but it significantly gave the ideas and themes of the novel. The movie used the same dialogue as the movie, especially in the beginning. The ending in the movie and novel is different. But we can understand the difficulty of bringing the whole thing in motion is a difficult task.
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