Kincho Kincho I have read Midnight's Children many times over the years and wasn't even aware of a movie version until today. It was with trepidation I viewed it as I have always believed it would be an extremely difficult story to convey in film.My verdict is that it is a classic film done with much respect and love for the original story.The performances are almost uniformly excellent as are the locations and period set designs. A surprisingly delightful film in an age of so much dross.

ken558 If ever a movie could kill the credibility of both the author and the book its adapted from, this would be it. (Note: I do love the Malgudi Days TV series …. but not this movie)Poor acting, poor direction, bad scripting, and downright plain silliness mar this mish-mash kaleidoscope of pointlessly strung together scenes, for no other reason than there is probably a chapter in the book that says it is there. Salman Rushdie's highly amateurish scripting coupled by equally bad school-teacherly reading (yes, he was supposed to be narrating but he was just reading in a raspy-voiced poorly way) add to the woes of this atrocious adaptation.Just like to an over earnest student who tries hard but you know darn well will just not achieve much, you have no choice but remark "hard worker" ….. similarly you can tell the director, cast and crew did put in the effort (which is what the 3 stars are for), but the result is just abysmal daytime soap nonsense.Putting on a trite cartoonish caricature of Indira Gandhi just smack of childish selfish vengeance - another big big minus. I have not read the book, but the impression I HAD is that it would be one of mystical and mythical wonders …. this movie just damn killed all of that. The book I believe is driven by narration and imagination … all killed dead now and flushed down the midnight sewer.

San Toki 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

londonista With Rushdie having written the screenplay and being heavily involved, comments about faithfulness to the book are moot; also, the book is quite stylised and far too dense with detail to be easily converted.So the biggest problems are thus:* Technical atrocities * Clichés layered on thick * Terrible comedic timingFirstly, the camera work is all over the shop. Hand-held DSLRs are wonderful bits of technology, but camera shake at certain moments of action is confusing, and a bit shoddy. It doesn't help the pace of the film, which changes at strange intervals. Secondly, the compositions are banal. It's like they used iStockPhoto for storyboarding, and stuck every visual cliché about India into the shots.Thirdly, there are moments in the film ripe for black comedy where there is none, and moments where comedy is just jarring. If you're going to mess with established concepts in the audiences' minds, it had better mean something. There is far too much throwaway material in the film.And it's a long one, at 146 minutes, and could have been much shorter, with more energy, better pace, and of higher quality throughout. To the film's credit, there are production elements very well done; the use of children and animals, you'll be startled to hear, are handled brilliantly. But it's not really enough. It may be just that Salman Rushdie would have been better supervising the screenplay rather than writing it himself, and the film could use a complete re-edit, but it is what it is.