Deepa Mehta’s Midnight’s Children
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Introduction
Deepa Mehta’s Midnight’s Children (2012), an adaptation of Salman Rushdie’s iconic novel, is not merely a film—it is a mirror held up to postcolonial India, reflecting its fractured identities, linguistic subversions, and the haunting legacy of colonialism.
https://youtu.be/WtoQ7W9-Hrk?si=GL-0tUx_NI3GZ4-X
1. Who Narrates History? The Marginalized vs. The Victors
History is often told as the monologue of the victors. Midnight’s Children disrupts this dominance by centering the story on Saleem Sinai, a marginalized figure whose birth coincides with India’s independence. His narration—unreliable, metafictional, and deeply personal—challenges the “official” history imposed by both colonial and postcolonial powers.
Key Scene: Saleem’s opening monologue declares, “I was born… at the precise instant of India’s arrival at independence.” His life becomes an allegory for the nation, blurring the boundaries between personal and collective memory.
Homi Bhabha’s theory of hybridity explains this duality—Saleem’s identity, like that of postcolonial India, is neither purely colonized nor fully free but exists in a “third space” of ambivalence.
2. What Makes a Nation? Geography, Memory, or Fragmentation?
Partha Chatterjee argues that the modern idea of the nation is a Eurocentric construct, forcing postcolonial societies into rigid frameworks. Midnight’s Children critiques this by presenting India as a fragmented and ever-shifting entity.
Symbolism: The switched births of Saleem (privileged) and Shiva (poor) symbolize India’s fractured identity—neither wholly elite nor entirely subaltern, but a messy hybrid..
Film’s Take: The depiction of the Emergency period (1975–77) reveals the betrayal of democracy, as Indira Gandhi’s regime sterilizes the “midnight’s children,” symbolizing the suppression of dissent and pluralism.
3. The Chutnification of English: Reclaiming the Colonizer’s Tongue
Rushdie’s brilliance lies in his linguistic rebellion—English becomes no longer the colonizer’s language, but an Indian one, infused with Hindi, Urdu, and local idioms.
Examples from the Film/Novel:
Words such as nakkoo (no), tamasha (spectacle), and Ayah (nanny) are seamlessly woven into English, asserting Indian cultural codes.
Certain dialogues are delivered in Urdu or Hindi (e.g., Tai’s prophecy), grounding the story in local realism.
In his essay “Commonwealth Literature Does Not Exist,” Rushdie rejects rigid literary categorizations, arguing that English, like chutney, is remixed and reclaimed by postcolonial voices.
B. Background Reading / Preparation
Hybridity in Colonial Discourse
Hybridity, in the context of colonial discourse, isn't a simple blending of cultures. It's a disruptive and ambivalent process that undermines colonial authority. By appropriating and distorting colonial signs, like the English language or the Bible, the colonized expose the contradictions and instability of colonial power. This process is a "strategic reversal" of domination, as it reinterprets colonial identity through the "repetition of discriminatory identity effects."
Mechanisms: Hybridity works through deformation and displacement. When the colonized appropriate colonial symbols, they distort their original meaning (deformation). This reuse of symbols in unintended ways, in turn, unsettles the colonizer's authority (displacement), leading to an unpredictable outcome.
Effects: This process exposes colonial power's claims of purity as false. The colonizer's culture cannot remain "original" when it's reinterpreted by natives, leading to a "partial presence" of colonial authority. This is described as a "metonymy of presence," where authority is fragmented and made visible only in distorted forms.
Nation as a Eurocentric Idea (Partha Chatterjee)
Partha Chatterjee argues that the idea of the nation in postcolonial contexts is deeply Eurocentric. He critiques the notion that non-Western nationalisms simply replicate European models. Instead, he asserts that anticolonial nationalism operates on a difference from these "modular" forms.
European Import: Chatterjee contends that nationalism in Asia and Africa was fundamentally shaped by European models. He suggests that postcolonial nations are "perpetual consumers of modernity," where their imaginations are "forever colonized."
Anticolonial Nationalism: To resist this, anticolonial nationalism created a sovereign domain by dividing society into the material (economy, statecraft) and the spiritual (culture, identity). The material domain was largely conceded to the West, while the spiritual domain became the site of resistance and autonomy.
The Colonial State: The colonial state, while introducing modern institutions, maintained a "rule of colonial difference," marking the colonized as inferior. The postcolonial state, inheriting these institutions, remains caught between the universalist claims of modernity and the particularities of cultural difference.
Chutnification of English
"Chutnification of English" describes the process of the language being domesticated and adapted in India. Instead of being seen as a purely colonial language, English has been reclaimed and remade to fit local contexts, becoming an Indian language.
Linguistic Adaptation: The flexibility and openness of English have allowed Indian speakers to "carve out large territories" within it. This involves incorporating local elements, expressions, and slang, creating new dialects and accents that reflect the cultural essence of the users.
Cultural Reclamation: Younger generations in India view English as an integral part of their identity. This shift from a colonial imposition to a functional, dynamic part of Indian culture is a reclamation of power. The language, like chutney, is a blend of various regional ingredients (local dialects, native languages, slang), reflecting a fusion of local and global influences.
Critique of 'Commonwealth Literature': The concept of "Chutnification" challenges the rigid categorization of "Commonwealth literature," which groups writers from former colonies based on their shared history with the British Empire. This term is seen as narrow and irrelevant in the face of a complex, hybridized cultural and linguistic reality.
4. Film Adaptation & Voice
In "Midnight's Children," the film adaptation’s most notable choice is the use of Salman Rushdie's voice as the sole narrator. This decision merges the author's voice with the protagonist Saleem Sinai's, creating a meta-textual layer that shifts the novel's dialogic narrative to a more authoritative, monologic one. This approach reshapes the audience's engagement by foregrounding authorial control over the novel's nuanced unreliability and digressions.
Authorial Voice and Narrative Authority
The film replaces the novel’s character Padma, who serves as an interlocutor and skeptic, with Rushdie's voiceover. This choice removes the narrative's internal tension and challenges, making the story more of an assertion than a dialogue. This aligns with how the film was marketed, as trailers often used Rushdie's voice as a selling point to leverage his celebrity status for a global audience. While this approach provides a clear and consistent narrative, it flattens the novel’s playful unreliability, which is central to its literary style.
Adaptation as "Translation"
The film adapts the novel by making several key structural and linguistic changes.
Linguistic Shifts: The film uses Urdu/Hindi in key scenes, contrasting with the novel's "chutnification" of English. This choice grounds the story in social realism and acts as a form of cultural translation, making the narrative more accessible to a local audience while also diverging from the novel’s unique linguistic hybridity.
Structural Changes: The film simplifies the novel’s complex, fragmented structure by telling the story in a more linear way and ending on a hopeful note focused on "acts of love." In contrast, Salman Rushdie’s original novel ends on a much darker and more ambiguous note. Saleem, now thirty-one and physically falling apart, tells his story from a pickle factory in Bombay. He believes he will die on his thirty-first birthday, literally breaking into "millions of specks of dust," symbolizing the shattered state of identity, nationhood, and legacy. While his son Aadam might represent hope or continuity, there’s still a strong sense of doom and the repetition of history. The novel ends with a mix of fatalism and myth-making, blending personal and national histories. The film’s more optimistic ending likely reflects the demands of cinematic storytelling, which often favors emotional closure and clarity over ambiguity and despair.
Padma’s Absence and Cinematic Voice
The erasure of Padma has significant consequences for the film's narrative. Her presence in the novel underscores Saleem's unreliability and provides a constant counterpoint to his storytelling. Without her, the film's narrative voice is singular and authoritative.
Loss of Dialogic Tension: Padma's role as a "sūtra-dhāra" (a guide or chorus in Sanskrit drama) is lost, which removes a layer of critical engagement with the story's events. The film's voiceover often explains events rather than allowing the visuals to speak for themselves, which some critics have noted makes the film feel "over-narrated." This highlights the tension between the novel's rich literary voice and the film's more direct cinematic voice.
Intertextuality: The film uses visual intertexts, such as historical footage and Bollywood spectacle, to echo the novel's layered storytelling. However, these elements are often accompanied by the voiceover, illustrating the film's reliance on narration to guide the audience through its complex story. This approach caters to a visual audience but sometimes undermines the very medium it is using.
2. While Watching Activities
Saleem's Birth and the Fate of a Nation
The film opens with Saleem's narration, establishing a powerful link between his birth and the birth of India. He states, "I was born in the city of Bombay once upon a time... at the precise instant of India's arrival at independence." This moment of birth, at the stroke of midnight, handcuffs Saleem to history, his destiny "forever chained to my country's."
The opening scenes also introduce key themes. Saleem’s narration about his life truly beginning "more than 30 years before I was born" and his grandfather's "magnificent nose" introduces the idea that individual lives are part of a larger historical narrative. His inability to "wipe my own nose at the time" is a playful nod to his helplessness as a new born, but it also hints at the nation's infancy and its struggles.
The Birth Switch and Social Commentary
The narrative of the birth switch between Saleem and Shiva is a central event that carries significant political and social commentary. A nurse named Mary, influenced by a man named Joe, switches the two babies. Joe expresses anger at the social and political system, complaining that everything is "messed up" and that the rich are getting richer while the poor are getting poorer. Mary, inspired by Joe's angry words, decides to switch the babies to give them a chance at a different life, believing it is an act of defiance against the rigid class structure. Saleem, born to poor street performers, is given to the wealthy Sinai family, while Shiva, the son of the wealthy family, is given to the poor family. This act suggests that post-independence India's promise of equality was an illusion and that the fight between the rich and the poor was a fundamental tension in society.
The Unreliable Narrator and Metafiction
Saleem Sinai is an unreliable narrator, a key literary device that challenges the notion of a single, objective truth. He openly admits to misremembering facts and dates, even stating that his personal version of history is more important than a factual one. This narrative style is a form of metafiction, where the story constantly reminds the audience that it is a constructed narrative.
Blurring Fact and Fiction: By blending Saleem's magical life with real historical events, the film suggests that all history is a story shaped by the teller. It encourages viewers to question official histories and consider the subjective nature of memory.
Challenging Authority: The film presents Saleem's biased memories as a counter-narrative to "official" government histories. It suggests that a nation's true story is made up of countless individual memories and perspectives.
Engaging the Audience: Since one can't fully trust Saleem, you are forced to actively engage with the story, analysing and interpreting events for yourself.
The Emergency: A Betrayal of Democracy
The film's most powerful political commentary is directed at the Emergency period (1975-1977) under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The film portrays this time as a "betrayal" of India's democratic ideals and a "continuous midnight" that silenced the nation's diverse voices.
Suppression of Freedom: The government, led by a figure called "the Widow," is depicted as authoritarian. She sees the "midnight's children" and their unique powers as a threat to her absolute rule, symbolizing the suppression of individuality and free expression.
Forced Sterilization: The government's forced sterilization campaign is used as a metaphor for crushing the "freaks" and their special powers. This act represents a systematic attack on the very spirit of the diverse and secular nation born at midnight.
Postcolonial Linguistic Identity
The film uses language to reflect India's unique postcolonial identity by blending English with Hindi and Urdu. This hybrid language, often referred to as "Hinglish," is a direct reflection of how people actually speak in India.
Words like "baba" (grandfather/father) and "badmaash" (scoundrel) are dropped into English sentences. This makes the dialogue authentic and culturally specific.
Syntactic Subversion: Phrases like "Eat na, food is spoiling" show how Hindi grammar and conversational habits are woven into English. The use of "na" adds a conversational nuance that is unique to the Indian context.
Repetition: The repetition of a word, such as "politics-politics," is a common linguistic habit in Indian languages used for emphasis. It makes the dialogue feel more natural and emotionally charged.
Post Watching Activities
Group 2: Narrating the Nation
Rewriting National History through Personal Narrative
In Midnight’s Children, national history is intertwined with Saleem’s personal life. His birth at the exact moment of India’s independence ties his fate to the nation’s struggles and transformations.
Personal and National History Intertwined: Saleem’s experiences reflect major national events like Partition, the Emergency, and the Indira Gandhi years. His life becomes a metaphor for India’s postcolonial history, showing the deep connection between personal and collective memory.
Challenge to Traditional Historical Narratives: Rushdie disrupts the linear, top-down approach to history often driven by political or military leaders. Instead, he presents history as subjective, multifaceted, and shaped by individual experiences, memories, and voices.
Critique of National Histories: Saleem’s narrative critiques the reductive, sanitized versions of national history. Official history distorts the complex lived experiences of individuals. The lives of Saleem and other Midnight’s Children represent the fragmented, chaotic nature of postcolonial India, moving away from the idea of a smooth, linear progression.
Critique of Eurocentric Nationhood
Rushdie critiques the Eurocentric model of nationhood, which is based on linear progress, territorial integrity, and binary identities (e.g., Hindu vs. Muslim, colonizer vs. colonized). These binaries oversimplify the complex, pluralistic realities of countries like India.
Identity Beyond Binaries: In Midnight’s Children, identity is not defined by oppositions. Saleem’s identity is shaped by his family’s history and diverse cultural and religious influences, challenging the simplistic Hindu/Muslim divide that emerged during Partition.
Non-linear Progress: The Eurocentric idea of linear national progress (civilization, enlightenment) is critiqued. In postcolonial India, progress is chaotic and unpredictable, marked by events like the Emergency and Partition. National development is not a smooth, straight line but a series of disjointed, sometimes regressive steps.
Fluid Territory & Identity: India’s borders and identity are fluid, reflecting its diverse cultures, languages, and religions. Rushdie critiques the idea of a territorially “pure” nation, emphasizing that India is not a fixed, monolithic entity but a patchwork of intersecting histories and identities.
Partha Chatterjee and Nationalism in India
Divergence from Western Models: Chatterjee argues that Indian nationalism rejected key Western elements like industrialization, centralized power, and territorial integrity. Instead, it focused on cultural and spiritual dimensions, reasserting indigenous practices as resistance to colonialism.
Indian Nationalism as Unique:
Indian nationalism was not about imitating the West but creating a distinct identity rooted in India’s diversity. Midnight’s Children engages with this by presenting a fragmented, contradictory national identity in constant flux, rather than a fixed, linear narrative of progress.
Negotiated National Identity: Saleem’s story reflects the tension between the desire for a unified identity and the complex realities of India’s multi-ethnic, multi-religious society. National identity in postcolonial India is always contested, fluid, and negotiated, in line with Chatterjee’s view.
Activity:
Activity 1: Timeline Juxtaposition of Historical Events and Saleem’s Personal Journey
Historical Event (Year) | Saleem’s Personal Narrative / Journey
British India, 1947 (pre-midnight)
Saleem’s Birth: Born just before midnight, signaling the end of colonial rule and tying his existence to the decline of empire.
Independence, Aug 15, 1947
Saleem’s Life Begins: His birth at the exact moment of India’s independence symbolizes the inseparable link between his personal journey and the nation’s new beginning.
Partition, 1947 (Aug–Dec)
Family and Community Disruption: Saleem’s family experiences the communal violence and dislocation of Partition, mirroring the fractured identity of the nation.
Early Years / Nehru-era State-Building (1950s)
Childhood Optimism and Complications: Saleem’s formative years are filled with optimism about India’s development, but also marked by personal struggles and familial complexities.
1965 Indo-Pak War
Personal Fracturing: The war exacerbates Saleem’s anxiety and identity crisis, echoing the larger national tensions and divisions between India and Pakistan.
1971 Creation of Bangladesh (Dec 1971)
Geopolitical and Personal Fragmentation: The creation of Bangladesh mirrors the internal fragmentation within Saleem’s family, symbolizing the collapse of the simple, unified national identity.
Emergency, 1975–1977
Loss of Agency and Repression: Saleem, like the nation, undergoes personal silencing, as the authoritarian rule during the Emergency suppresses dissent and curtails freedom, symbolizing trauma and loss of agency.
Post-Emergency / Later Life
Attempted Reconstruction: Saleem’s efforts to rebuild his life mirror the nation’s process of healing and rewriting its history after the ruptures of the Emergency.
Activity 2: Reflection on the Coherence of "India" in Midnight's Children
Is the idea of “India” coherent in the film, or is it fragmented ?
Fragmented National Identity: In Midnight's Children, the concept of India is intentionally fragmented and complex. Rather than a unified nation with a singular identity, India is depicted as a patchwork of conflicting narratives, identities, and histories. Rushdie shows that postcolonial India cannot be understood as a straightforward or cohesive entity but as a nation marked by division, instability, and multiplicity.
Tension between Unity and Division: The story emphasizes how India’s national identity is constantly being negotiated and redefined. Events like the Partition, the Emergency, and the birth of Bangladesh challenge the notion of a "pure" or unified Indian identity. India’s cultural, religious, and linguistic diversity defies the ideal of a monolithic nation-state, showing the tensions between the desire for unity and the reality of fragmentation.
Saleem as Metaphor for India: Saleem’s life, which mirrors the national upheavals, becomes a metaphor for the fractured nature of the nation. The personal dislocations he experiences—especially during critical national events—underscore the broader theme that the idea of "India" is neither static nor singular. It is constantly evolving, contested, and reconstructed.
Creative Task:
Take a paragraph from Rushdie’s prose or dialogue from the film and analyze how he “chutnifies” English. Translate it into “standard” English, and then reflect on what is lost.
Translation into Standard English I grew up in Bombay, where followers of Shiva, Vishnu, Ganesh, Ahura Mazda, Allah, and many other deities lived. I once asked, “What about the pantheon? There are three hundred and thirty million gods in Hinduism alone. And what about Islam and the Bodhisattvas?” The reply came: “Yes, indeed! My goodness, there are millions of gods — you are correct. But they are all manifestations of the same OM. You are a Muslim, so you understand what OM means? Very well. For ordinary people, our Lady is also simply a manifestation of OM.”
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