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      Midnight's Children

      Released Apr 26, 2013 2 hr. 28 min. Drama List
      41% 63 Reviews Tomatometer 40% 1,000+ Ratings Audience Score Children born on the brink of India's independence grow up in a country that is vastly different from their parent's generation. Read More Read Less
      Midnight's Children

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      Critics Consensus

      Though Midnight's Children is beautiful to look at and poignant in spots, its script is too indulgent and Deepa Mehta's direction, though ambitious, fails to bring the story together cohesively.

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      Audience Reviews

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      georgan g This imperfect movie gives life to Rushdie's novel. My main criticism is that there are no subtitles and even the spoken English is hard to hear/understand. But having just finished listening to the audio book of the novel I was impressed by the movie. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review dave s Sadly, due to the complexity of plots and the depth of the themes, many great and expansive novels are virtually impossible to make into great films. Examples: The Magus, The Bonfire of the Vanities, Atlas Shrugged, etc. Add Midnight's Children to the list. Salman Rushdie's novel is brilliant, but the mystical, magical qualities of his masterpiece don't transfer well to the screen adaptation. Deepa Mehta's film is lovely to look at, but the movie introduces too many characters over too many years with too many different ideas and, as a result, the movie feels interminably long but, in a strange way, not long enough. In the novel, the children feel otherworldly, but when seen in the film they are bathed in milky light and speak in echoes, making them laughable instead of impactful. Maybe just read the book and forget that this film was ever made. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Eine wirklich kongeniale Adaption des ersten Romans von Salman Rushdie. Die Geschichte, nein, die Familiensaga, beschreibt die Geschichte des indischen Subkontinents vom Ende der Kolonialherrschaft bis zur Abspaltung Pakistans und Bangladeshs, beinhaltet kriegerische Auseinandersetzungen ebenso wie die brutalen Säuberungen der Slums von Bombay durch Indira Ghandis, am Bespiel einer Familie. Das Spannende ist jedoch, dass die Geschichte und die Schicksale der Protagonisten im parallel zu der Geschichte des Subkontinents laufen, kein Wunder, sind die "Mitternachtskinder" doch um Mitternacht des 15. Augusts 1947 geboren, die Stunde der indischen Unabhängigkeit. Die kindliche Distanz der realen Ereignisse könnte man dem Film vorwerfen, allerdings fesselt der so erzeugte Zauber und die zum Teil komische Surrealität den Zuschauer. Es war von Vorteil, dass Salman Rushdie selbst das Drehbuch verfasste und so die Essenz seiner Romanvorlage einfangen konnte. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/28/23 Full Review Serge L Beautiful, good idea, but maybe much too long for a single film. Interesting take on the evolution of India but the drama did not take. Some events seems coming out of a magician hat. Something is missing for the film to glue together. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/15/18 Full Review Audience Member I loved this movie. Great story and albeit a bit long, it was a beautiful narrative. We must not take any of our moments for granted, for it is all in love, we are love. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/16/23 Full Review Audience Member This has got poor reviews but was perfect for a wet afternoon on holiday. It's lush, complex and ultimately redemptive. It covers a lot of ground and has some very harsh scenes. Magical realism at the service of history. Love overcomes all. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/14/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Midnight's Children

      Satya Bhabha as Saleem Sinai and Shriya Saran as Parvati in "Midnight's Children." (L-R) Satya Bhabha as Saleem Sinai and Siddharth as Shiva in "Midnight's Children." Satya Bhabha (right) as Saleem Sinai in "Midnight's Children." A scene from "Midnight's Children." (L-R) Kulbhushan Kharbanda as Picture Singh and Satya Bhabha as Saleem Sinai in "Midnight's Children." Zaib Shaikh as Nadir and Shahana Goswami as Amina in "Midnight's Children." Shriya Saran as Parvati and Satya Bhabha as Saleem Sinai in "Midnight's Children." A scene from "Midnight's Children." Anita Majumdar as Emerald and Rahul Bose as Zulfikar in "Midnight's Children." Charles Dance as William Methwold in "Midnight's Children." View more photos

      Critics Reviews

      View All (63) Critics Reviews
      Shubhra Gupta The Indian Express Deepa Mehta's film is only intermittently engaging: it is limited in scope and imagination, and in parts it becomes plodding and stagey. Rated: 2.5/5 Mar 21, 2019 Full Review Deborah Ross The Spectator The trouble with... Midnight's Children, aside from the fact it is a mess and a muddle, is that it goes on and on and on and on. And on. And on. And then, just when you think it has to be over, it goes on some more. Sep 4, 2018 Full Review Kaleem Aftab Independent (UK) Never complex enough to work as an allegory of the complex relationship between India and Pakistan. May 15, 2018 Full Review Nicholas Bell IONCINEMA.com Midnight's Children is simply too long, too glossy, and too safe to reach the epic level it seems to be attempting. Aug 12, 2019 Full Review Brian D. Johnson Maclean's Magazine Deepa Mehta deserves kudos for directing the magisterial Midnight's Children, although it's a shame screenwriter Salman Rushdie wasn't more ruthless with his own novel. Jul 31, 2019 Full Review C.J. Prince Way Too Indie Particularly thanks to Rushdie's involvement as a co-screenwriter, it is easy to feel not only the characters of his novel coming to life, but indeed, the mystical quality of its history. Jun 21, 2019 Full Review Read all reviews

      Movie Info

      Synopsis Children born on the brink of India's independence grow up in a country that is vastly different from their parent's generation.
      Director
      Deepa Mehta
      Executive Producer
      Elizabeth Karlsen, Doug Mankoff, Dilip Mehta, Salman Rushdie
      Screenwriter
      Salman Rushdie
      Distributor
      Paladin
      Production Co
      Number 9 Films
      Genre
      Drama
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Theaters)
      Apr 26, 2013, Limited
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Mar 11, 2017
      Box Office (Gross USA)
      $139.6K