STRIKING EPIC DESPITE ITS l=LAWS

MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN

STARRING: Rajat Kapoor, Shabana Azmi, Anupam Kher, Ronit Roy, Satya Bhabha, Seema Bi swas, Shahana Goswami Siddharth, Anita Majumdar, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Darsheel Safary, Soha Ali Khan and Shriya Saran

DIRECTED BY: Deepa Mehta eepa Meh ta's Midnight} Chi/d,-m is n ot a well-c rafted film of Salman Rushdi e's Booker P rize- winning novel of the same name. Ye r it captures the esse n ce of the novel to the core

Told th rough the lives of the ch ildren born at the stro ke of mid night of Aug 1 5, 1947, especially SaJin1, Shiva and P arvati, it is a multi -layered tale of d esti n ies Ir i s a sto ry of rhe ric h , th e poor and the m isguid ed. Ir is lier.io n a n d fantasy delightfully wrapped w ith in the folds of the p oliti caJ scenario of the three cou n tries, l n d ia, Pakistan and Bangladesh

What precedes the bi rth of Salim is a comple.x i:,-,J e chat is narra ted in the fus e 45 minutes of the film. Lispired by h er rebel husband's comm unise s logan, ,cLec the rich be poor an d rhe poor, ri ch", the m i sguid ed pe adiatric nurse, Mary, de li berately switc hes the ide n tity tags of the two ba bies as a gesture of solidarity an d thereby swaps t he ir destinies.

Moving ahead , in childhood, Salim discovers th at thanks to a s neeze an d t he sniffles, he can hear and see all of the oche r 581 surviving children around t he country born at the sam e historic day and time as he Dubbin g them as Mid ni ght's C hildren , he has the power to call "co nferen ces" in h is bedroom I.ate at night, bringing th eir presen ce together fro m aJJ pa r ts to p lan the fate of the nation, including the hot -h e aded Shiva and pretty a n d mysticaJ P arvat.i, the spellweaving wi tch.

T he three are intertwi n ed again as ad ults in the fi lm's last a c r when Shiva, now a ruthless military comma nder, an d Salim, following six years of a m nes ia, b eco m e in volved w ith th e beautiful adult witch, Parva ti agains t the b ackground of I n dira Gandh i's brutal emergen cy m easures.

Rushcli e's rich c harac ters are b rough t to life b y a strong ensemble of esteemed actors whose perfor m an ces were well ex t racted by directo r Deep a Meh ta D ebutan t Satya B hab ha delivers a confident pe r for m ance as tbe g rown up Salim a nd Siddb.ar th is th e pe rfect foil fo r him as d1e embitt ered Sh iva. D arsheel Safary as the young SaJim is undoubtedly brilliant.

T he co m petent Seema B iswas is ch arming as the mi sgui ded, guilt- ridden n urse an d the cataJyst fo r the u nfo lding sequence of even ts S hahana Goswami smoothly conveys d1e po ignanr m rmo il of d1e mothe r .inadve r te ntly caugh t in the c ross- fire, while Remit Ro y is exac tin g as the fmstrared businessm an Anita Majumdar also makes ru1 impression as tl1e h ard-hearted, ambitious Emerald , alon gsid e R ahul Bose as h er military powerbroker husban d, ZuJfikar.

R aja t K apoor as D r.Aziz, Salim's putative grand.father i s runus iug Shaban a Azmi as Ra jar Kapoor's wi fe, Sr.i ya Sh aran as Pa rvati, Soha Ali K h an as Salim's sister an d Kulbhushan Kl1arbanda as Picture Sing h are wasted.

V isuaUy, d1e fil m enco m passes sce n es of wa r, liberation, celeb ratio n , corr uptio n , ro m a n ce an d mourning - all beautifully captured. by ci ne m a tographer G iles urrge n s. T h e visuals are brilliantly layered wid1 Nit.in Sawhney's ethereal score, making it a perfect backdr op wid1 the m ystical quality of the magic realism scenes; i t is like watchin g a stunning canvas g radually come to li fe.

Batman cut-outs in a multipl ex displaying forthcom i ng attractions

The gir ls Deepika and Jacquel ine try hard to pump up the steam by raising the mean quotient in th eir characters They hardly look provocative enough to be convinci ng as femme fata l es Saif plays a somewhat smirkier avat ar of Agent Vinod John alternates the scowl with the smirk sometimes interchanging the two expressions with out warning Can 't blame him, poor chap He must be as confused about the plot as we are

Does anyone associated with th i s poshlooking but vacuous caper have any clue as to what they are doing? Drowned i n a cacoph ony of one off- key song after another, wallowing in t h eir one-note wickedness and getting high on their endless bouts of drinking partying and masquerad i ng, the characters in Race 2 are a laugh Bu t shhhh Don 't tell them.

SUBHASH KJHA

Eve n with Salman R ush d ie's narration and screenplay, w hat pro b ably did nor work for Midnight} Children are the abrupt scenes. Each scene i s b rilliant, b ut in silos, cliscoru1ecced with the next, making i t difficult to capture and bring co life the essence of t he b ook that combines a type of u n explained practicality

Yer di.is is a striki ng, well-prod uced and though t fully des igned epic

Even wit h a U its flaws, Mid11ight's Childrm i s wor th a watch If n othing else, go and watch Midnight's Childm, to satia te your curiosity about tl1is much - talked about novel.

TROY RIBEIRO