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Midnight's Children

Play trailer Poster for Midnight's Children 2013 2h 28m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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40% Tomatometer 62 Reviews 40% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Ratings
Children born on the brink of India's independence grow up in a country that is vastly different from their parent's generation.
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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Critics Reviews

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Shubhra Gupta The Indian Express 03/21/2019
2.5/5
Deepa Mehta's film is only intermittently engaging: it is limited in scope and imagination, and in parts it becomes plodding and stagey. Go to Full Review
Deborah Ross The Spectator 09/04/2018
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. Go to Full Review
Kaleem Aftab Independent (UK) 05/15/2018
Never complex enough to work as an allegory of the complex relationship between India and Pakistan. Go to Full Review
Nicholas Bell IONCINEMA.com 08/12/2019
Midnight's Children is simply too long, too glossy, and too safe to reach the epic level it seems to be attempting. Go to Full Review
Brian D. Johnson Maclean's Magazine 07/31/2019
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. Go to Full Review
C.J. Prince Way Too Indie 06/21/2019
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. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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May 13 Salman Rushdie proved once again he is filled with hatred and arrogance against the Muslims, no real story and just fairy tales, lol. So many unnecessary scenes in the movie. Horrible movie... See more georgan g 09/05/2022 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. See more dave s 02/12/2021 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. See more 05/22/2018 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. See more 06/08/2016 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. See more 10/31/2015 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. See more Read all reviews
Midnight's Children

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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
Producer
David Hamilton
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
Runtime
2h 28m