Hello, I am Himanshi Parmar, student of MK Bhavnagar University. This blog i have written as a response to Thinking Activity, Which is a Part of my academic Work. Which we get after each unit. In this blog, i am going to discuss about Salman Rushdie's Novel Midnight's Children. And several questions related to the novel like Symbols, narrative technique, Character, theme, texture etc.
About Novel : Midnight's Children
Midnight's children was written in 1981, by British - Indian writer Salman Rushdie. It is a novel, includes theme like India's transition from British colonial rule to independence and partition. It is magic realism anf historical fiction. Timeline in Midnight's children is 1918 to 1977.
The novel, Midnight's children written in three books.
Book one :- 1915 - 1947
Book two :- 1947 - 1965
Book three :- 1965 - 1978
Saleem is protagonist and narrator of the novel. Saleem telling story (Novel) to Padma. She came as a Listener in the novel. The story is not focussing on life of anyone but it covers generations.almost four generation are covered.The novel also received various awards, for example 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 also awarded the "Booker of Bookers" Prize and the best all-time prize winners in 1993 and 2008 to celebrate the Booker Prize 25th and 40th anniversary. Click to read further about novel.
Film Midnight's children :-
Watch the movie here,
About Salman Rushdie :-
Full name of Salman Rushdie is Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie. He is an Indian-born British-American novelist. He was born on 19 June 1947 (age 75 years), He was completed his Bachelor's degree at King's College, Cambridge.mainly his works are based on Indian concept and deals with the connection between Eastern and Western civilization. Rushdie mainly known for use of magic realism and historical fiction in his work.
He wrote many great works.Rushdie's second novel, Midnight's Children (1981), won the Booker Prize in 1981. After his fourth novel, The Satanic Verses (1988), Rushdie became the subject of several assassination attempts and death threats, including a fatwa calling for his death issued by Ruhollah Khomeini, the supreme leader of Iran. In 2022, he attacked by one young boy, just because of Fatwa that was issued before so many years. He got stabbed while giving lecture in Newyork city on 12 August 2022. This is the news about that incident.
Now let me discuss several questions related to Movie based on the novel of Rushdie. The script of the movie was also written by Salman Rushdie himself.
Question - Answers
1) Narrative technique (changes made in film adaptation - for eg. absence of Padma, the Nati, the listener, the commenter - What is your interpretation?)
Salman Rushdie is always known for his unique narrative style. In Midnight's Children also we find this uniqueness. When we analyze narrative technique, we realize that it is always better to see "How" instead of "What", it means How story is told is more important than what is told in the story. Interesting story telling style always help to capture attention of audience or readers. It doesn't mean that what to be told is not important, it is important, but it will only effect well if it told properly.
Salman Rushdie might very well aware of this, that's why he use very unique style in his Novels, he use Western Postmodern Device and Indian Oral Narratological Methods. He is also known for using Hybridity in his novels. That's what make his narration different than others.
In narrative technique we find various examples or Metaphors that are often use to differentiate texts.
Metaphors of narrative techniques :-
1) To The light House (Virginia Woolf) and Ulsyss (James Joyce) :-
This two texts are considers as a best examples of Stream of Consciousness. The technique that is describing inner thought process or flow of thoughts in the mind of writer. If we see the dictionary meaning of Stream of Consciousness, Oxford Dictionary says that, "A literary style in which a character's thoughts, feelings, and reactions are depicted in a continuous flow uninterrupted by objective description or conventional dialogue. James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and Marcel Proust are among its notable early exponents."
2) Russian Dolls :-
It is a well known metaphor for narration. This all dolls are seems very similar. Also it is like a dolls within dolls or we can say row of dolls. Russian dolls are portraying the text that has story within story, And interlinked stories. Also it is referring stories that has same and confusing concepts.
3) Chinese Box :-
Chinese Box is metaphor for Frame narrative technique. This kind of narrative is not changing the narrative but for changing the perspective.normally this narrative technique is known as a 'A Box Chinese structure'. In literature, a Chinese box structure refers to a frame narrative, where a novel or drama is told in the form of a narrative inside a narrative (and so on), giving views from different perspectives. There are lots of examples available in literature of this form of writing, for example Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Read here that how Mary Shelley used Chinese Box structure in Frankenstein.(click to read)
4) Indian Oral Narratological Methods : Panchatantra and Kathasaritasagar.
The Panchatantra is an ancient Indian collection of interrelated animal fables in Sanskrit verse and prose, arranged within a frame story. The surviving work is dated to about 200 BCE, but the fables are likely much more ancient.Panchatantra was written by Vishnu Sharma. He use animal character to tell story and to give lesson by story telling. He use animals like The Lion, The Tortoise, The Mongoose, owls, The Dove, Monkey, The Mouse, The Deer etc.
The Kathāsaritsāgara is a famous 11th-century collection of Indian legends, fairy tales and folk tales as retold in Sanskrit by the Shaivite Somadeva. The story was originally written in Sanskrit.Kathāsaritsāgara contains multiple layers of story within a story and is said to have been adopted from Guṇāḍhya's Bṛhatkathā ("the Great Narrative"), which was written in a poorly-understood language known as Paiśāchī.
In both this works we find similar narrative technique, which is story within story kind of narration.
5) Baital Pachisi :-
Vetal pachisi or Baital pachisi is also known as Vikram - Betaal. Originally it was written in Sanskrit and later translated in various languages.Vetala Panchavimshati is a collection of tales and legends within a frame story, from India.
In Vetal pachisi vetal and king Vikram is main character. Vetal is telling twenty - five stories to Vikram and says that at the end of each story vetal will ask question and king Vikram has to give answer, if he know answer then it is okay, but if he will not give answer even if he know the answer than vetal will fly away. So here in this story also we find story within story, And lots of characters are also there.
6) Sihasan Battisi :-
Sihasan Battisi is also similar like Baital Pachisi. In this, thirty two dolls telling story, and creat narration of story within a story.
7) Arabian Nights : Alif Laila :-
Originally the story was written in Arabic language. It's a folk tale and Frame story. One Thousand and One Nights is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the Arabian Nights, from the first English-language edition, which rendered the title as The Arabian Nights' Entertainment. Main characters of this story is Scheherazade, Sinbad, Shahryār, Jafar, Shah Zaman, Dunyazad, Morgiana, King Yunan etc.
In this book we find similar narration like Rushdie's Midnight's children. In Arabic night Scheherazade is telling story to Shahryār. Just like Saleem telling story to Padma.
8) Midnight's children :-
In Midnight's children we find Hybridity in narration. Complexity in plot structure. Lots of characters are there, and name and parentage of everyone is Also in doubt. For example at the end of the novel we came to know that Saleem is not saleem, but he is shiv, where shiv is saleem. So it is very confusing narration and portrayal of all characters.
In Midnight's children, Rushdie use Pickle Jars to tell story. Each Jar is one separate chapter of the novel. We also find lines in the novel that,
Thirty jars stand upon a shelf, waiting to be unleashed upon the amnesiac nation. And beside them, one jar stands empty.
We have thirty chapters in the Novel.but last Jar is empty means the novel is yet not completed, interpretation is now author leave on to readers. Here is the list of chapters.
2) Characters (how many included, how many left out - Why? What is your interpretation?)
We have lots of characters in the novel and in the movie as well. Which make story complex.most of the characters are example of Hybridity. The protagonist and narrator Saleem is himself a hybrid child. Also the characters have risky identities, for example Saleem is not Saleem but he is shiv, and shiv is Saleem that revealed at the end of the novel. All the characters are very well structured in the movie. Here is the list of characters and their performers.
Satya Bhabha as Saleem Sinai
Shriya Saran as Parvati-the-witch
Siddharth Narayan as Shiva
Darsheel Safary as Saleem Sinai (as a child)
Anupam Kher as Ghani
Shabana Azmi as Naseem
Neha Mahajan as Young Naseem
Seema Biswas as Mary
Charles Dance as William Methwold
Samrat Chakrabarti as Wee Willie Winkie
Rajat Kapoor as Aadam Aziz
Soha Ali Khan as Jamila
Rahul Bose as Zulfikar
Anita Majumdar as Emerald
Shahana Goswami as Amina
Chandan Roy Sanyal as Joseph D'Costa
Ronit Roy as Ahmed Sinai
Kulbhushan Kharbanda as Picture Singh
Shikha Talsania as Alia
Zaib Shaikh as Nadir Khan
Sarita Choudhury as Indira Gandhi
Vinay Pathak as Hardy
Kapila Jeyawardena as Governor
Ranvir Shorey as Laurel
Suresh Menon as Field Marshal
G.R Perera as Astrologer
Rajesh Khera
Salman Rushdie, narrator. The film was Directed by
Deepa Mehta and
Screenplay by
Salman Rushdie.
Movie almost cover most of the characters from novel. But still some characters are missing in the movie, where present in the novel. Here is the list of it.
1- Sonny Ibrahim
2 - Padma
3 - Nalikar Women
4 - Commander Sabarmati
5 - Lila Sabarmati
6- Ramram Sheth
7- Homy Carrack
8 -Alice Pereira
The others are Minor characters but Padma is one of the main character in the novel. She is the listener, nati in the novel, And yet missing in the movie, even if the script was written by the author himself. Here in the movie, Parvati the witch gained much importance.
3) Themes and Symbols (if film adaptation able to capture themes and symbols?)
There are many symbols and Themes are used in the movie. Here, let me discuss all line by line.
Symbols
1) The Perforated Sheet
The perforated sheet is taken as a symbolic way. First we find use of perforated sheet when Aadam Aziz saw his future wife. He is unable to see her whole but always see her in piece. That is symbolizing that their love never has that bond that hold them together, And don't have even enough understanding. The second time we see use of perforated sheet when Jamila is singing a song of victory of Pakistan, before war happened between India and Pakistan. That is also symbolizing that how people of Pakistan are not aware about reality that their nation have no chance of victory.
2) The Silver Spittoon
The Silver Spittoon is belong to Amina, given her in dowry by Rani of Cooch Naheen. The spittoon also later become reason of Saleem's loss of memory. Amina always carry spittoon with her in movie, after the burning of house, and death of all family members excepting Saleem, Saleem used to carry spittoon everywhere with him as it is the only remark of his past life. So here spittoon come as a symbol of history, along with it is also symbolizing Vanishing era.
3) Knees and Nose
Saleem sinai has a large, bulbous nose, symbolizing power, by which he is capable to connect all Midnight's children together for conference.Midnight's childrens are those,who are born on a night of Independence. Nose is also symbol of his identity or blood relations with Amina as everyone believing that Saleem inherited his nose from his Grandfather Adam Aziz. But at the end we find that Saleem don't have any Blood connection with Amina, so here Rushdie satirizing on implied identities.
Knees are also symbolizing power, but Here it is physical power that shiv has. Shiv is physically more powerful than Saleem. So by the reference of Knees and nose, it can symbolize conflict between mental and physical power.
Themes
1) History
Salman Rushdie uses strong connection of history in Midnight's children. As specially Saleem has a great connection with history, as he was born on night of India's Independence. Here Rushdie gave special powers to all the characters who were born on a night of Independence of India. Also Spittoon came as a symbol of history which is showing change is time, in generations and in living habits of people.
2) Nationality
The movie portrayed divisions of Hindustan in two parts India and Pakistan. Also the scene where India get Independence. The time wasn't easy to survive for anyone, Hindus or Muslims. Lots of migration was happened by Both the communities. People are finding safe place for them and lots of crisis happened because of nationality.
3) Identity
Identity is one of the major theme. Mary, the nurse, exchanged Saleem and Shiv. At the end audience came to know that Saleem is Shiv and Shiv is Saleem. So identity crisis are also there. Also Hybridity is main focus in the novel. Most of the important characters had hybrid identities.
4) 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 story time and again going back in flashback. Saleem is narrator, he is telling a story to Padma. And when he remembere something in between the story, he used to add it as a flashback. In the movie adaptation, padma is absent, but flashback technique is used well.In the movie we find use of timelines. It begins with 1915 and end in 1978. In between we find time stamps like 1915 – 1947, 1947 – 1965, 1965 – 1978. Also name of place were given.
5)What is your aesthetic experience after watching the screening?
The movie was directed by Deepa Mehta and screen writing happened by the author himself,by Salman Rushdie. The film was beautifully made and it is worth watching. But if we compare it with novel we find that somewhere movie is lacking. Movies have time limits for three hours so it is not possible to display everything in movie which had in novel. So it is good to make web series on Midnight's children rather than movie. One important character is missing in the movie, Padma, The nati and listener is not portrayed in the movie, so that change is quite surprising. Except that movie is going with the same flow of novel. Everything was displayed beautiful. As specially the character of picture Singh and Jamila. And the scene where Saleem lost his memory attracted me a lot.
I hope this information will be helpful to you. Thanks for visit.
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