Hamilton Mehta Productions

Synopsis

A complete history of post-colonial India… well, at least most of the juicy bits.

Midnight’s Children is a gloriously rich, sprawling story, told by a persuasive narrator, who has magical powers and a most inventive grasp of the truth. Our hero Saleem Sinai was born to a wealthy Indian family in Bombay, or so we are led to believe. The story he tells has many sleights of hand along the way!

Saleem, and his changeling twin Shiva, are both born right at midnight on August 15, 1947 just as India gained its independence from the British Raj. These intertwined fateful births bring surprises, humour, terror, and finally great anguish, to Saleem and to India.

We learn about other children born close to Independence Midnight who, like Saleem, possess special powers and can communicate with each other telepathically. He is not alone. The lives of all the Midnightʼs Children are magically tied to the fate of Mother India, where the fantastic always exists right alongside the mundane.

Saleem grows up in the shadow of the Raj, in a former British compound – a small pocket of Victorian England. The rest of his gloriously vivid and far-flung family lives throughout India and Pakistan, and is buffeted by every imaginable religious and political upheaval.

There is a breeziness to Saleemʼs early life; even though his fate and his evil twin- nemesis are hovering just off stage. His cheerfulness and his romantic nature (and his ability to “dial up” his Midnightʼs Children comrades telepathically…as he says, rather like “All-India Radio”) keep him afloat. Then shattering revelations about his true identity, and a forbidden love, send him spinning. Wars and terrible hardships overwhelm Saleem and the other Midnightʼs Children, and almost extinguish Saleemʼs humanity.

The movie Midnightʼs Children will weave together this riveting personal story (and mystery), which is often wildly amusing and playful, alongside historical events of great power and tragedy… building towards a political expose fueled by scathing anger.

It is a rich and generous canvas – full of many echoes for todayʼs larger world. When the movie ends, a bruised and very hard-earned sense of hope and renewal is restored: to Saleem, and to India, in all its gorgeous, raw, fullness and grandeur.