Movie review

 Movie Review on " Midnight's Children ", " The Reluctant Fundamentalist " and " Black Prince "

♤ Midnight's Children  ♤

♧ Released on :- 1st February 2013

♧ Director  :- Deepa Mehta 

♧ Narrator  :- Salman Rushdie 

♧ Story by :- Salman Rushdie 

Midnight's children' is a novel written by British-Indian Novelist Salman Rushdie and filmed by Deepa Mehta. The film was very popular in foreign countries and well criticized in India also. The film didn't cover up all the things written deeply in the novel due to time period of the movie so it's looks like the collage of many things like history, culture, Colonialism. freedom movement, etc. 

The story of the film begun with the year of 1917, the birth year of Indira Gandhi and end with the emergency or we can say that the last stage of Indira Gandhi's Life. So, some may have question that why the protagonist of the film narrated the the history before the thirty years when he was not in her mother's womb? Well, I don't know why Rushdie connected Indira Gandhi's era throughout the film, we must read the novel to understand the connection. The story about the Children who were born in the stroke of the midnight 15th august 1947 with the magical power, in which two major character like Saleem Sinai, the protagonist belong to reach family while the Shiva who was born in poor family later joined the Army and fought in the battle with Pakistan to free Bangladesh. The main idea of hybridity in culture and identity we can see in the movie, as per the quote 'Let reach to be poor and poor to be reach' Saleem, actually, the son of British man William Methwold and poor Marathian lady and the Shiva was the son of Ahemad Sinai and Amina, but, Mary, a nurse in the hospital changed these both baby boy with each other because her lover was a Marxist and pursued mary to protest against elite class. Furthemore, Saleem went to pakistan and Shiva Joined Indian Army, so here we can see the partition of India and pakistan. later on, After the war, Saleem came to India, his mother land and marry with Parvati, beloved of Shiva and she gave birth to baby boy who was the son of shiva so, we again see the hybridity. And also we can see the culture of India like snake Charmer. SO, this way movie ended through various perspectives.

Here, also the good use of background music which symbolize many thing, the nose of Ghani family also a symbol. The narrative techniques also used in very good way to understand the story. And also a camera focus was excellent, while the Tajmahal scene came that time camera focused more on the poor conditioned house rather than Tajmahal. So, here film tried to show the real India through camera technique.

Hybridity means Something that is formed by combining two or more things. Here, in the movie we can see the hybridity in the identity, Saleem is the perfect example of hybrid man, who was the son of colonizer and poor Indian lady and also the other character, Shiva was another example of hybrid man who was the son of Muslim parents. If we see the hybridity in culture then we can give the example of west(Methwold) and east(Poor Indian lady) and also Sikh(Picturesingh) with Hindu(Parvati)culture mixed each other.

Rushdie's brilliant insight was to bring together the private and public lives of those involved by inventing a mystical bond between the children born around the midnight hour of 17 August 1947. The narrator and central character famously remarks:

 "I had been mysteriously handcuffed to history, my destinies indissolubly chained to those of my country." 

He and his peers are given special powers (prophecy, magic, metamorphosis) in exchange for terrible responsibilities, and they become the embodiment of the best hope of the two nations during a period of bad faith, violence and the betrayal of democracy. At the centre is a variation of Mark Twain's tale The Prince and the Pauper: a rich boy and the son of a street musician are swapped at birth in the early seconds of 18 August by a misguided midwife, who (following the political dictates of her communist lover) believes she is exercising benign social engineering. So the central characters have divided identities, a situation made even more complex by the concealed paternity (from a European source) of one of them. The lesser of these charismatic children suffers most through the dropping of sub-plots and the trimming of character and loss of nuance demanded by reducing the film to some 150 minutes.

♧ The Reluctant Fundamentalist  :-

The Reluctant Fundamentalist a novel written by Pakistani Writer Mohsin Hamid and then adopted in film directed by Mira Nair in 2014. The story is about the young man Changez Khan who attracted to American Business culture. He was an intellectual and respected person in American wall street business company. 

The Story Begun with the interview of American CIA  agent Bobby Lincoln for the abduction of American Professor in Pakistan. Bob was Taking interview of Changez Khan in the Coffee cafe in Lahor that he may be involved in this abduction or in the matter of 9/11. Here Mira Nair interestingly used the flashback technique which was move us from Pakistan to America in eye opening way. The title of the movie give us two different views one is that fundamentalist in terrorism and other business fundamentalist.

The film started with the interview of Changez Khan By Bobby in which Changez Khan narrated his story about the his life in America. The hero of the novel was very young, intellectual, businessman and highly reputed. There he was living a good life with his beloved Erica, a very good artist in photography. But suddenly all the things changed  with Changez after the attack on WTC tower. All people look towards him like he is terrorist, he insulted by FBI and many American fellows and abused him. Once, he loved America like his native land but after abusing and insulted her sincerity he came back to Pakistan as University professor.

Furthermore, Bobby blamed that he is teaching terrorism in the university and has connection with Fazil a Muslim activist and Mujahid but that was not truth, without any kind of proof Bobby blamed him therefore his hatred towards America was increased but he don't believe in any kind of avenge. He lost his innocent fellow by the fire of American Agent then CIA agents realized that they made mistake and killed innocent man. But at the end of the movie Changez wants to freedom from Mujahid and America's business culture and he wants to love peaceful life.

The movie also used very good narrative technique like flashback technique to make movie very interesting, and also used very good camera focus when we see the scene of attack on WTC tower when camera on the face of Changez rather on live telecast, to know the expression of Changez towards it. Also a very good meaningful background musics are there to convey the nonverbal ideas like, In the kidnapping of the white professor Rainier there was a loud Sufi Music, and in the meeting of Changez and Erica, where Changez tries to convince Erica to forget everything, the lyrics of background songs matches very well, "I want you to be..". When Changez was upset with the way he was treated in America and When he came back he had an arguments with his parents, and the background songs was "You say things to burn the heart, yet I must Smile." So, we can say that it is very intellectual movie thoroughly. 

♧ References  :-

Midnight's Children – Review. 23 Dec. 2012, www.theguardian.com/film/2012/dec/23/midnights-children-review-deepak-mehta.