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Postcolonial Studies:- Midnight's Children



  • Midnight's children novel written by Salman Rushdie. The novel described India 's transition from British colonialism to Independence and partition of India. film based on novel Midnight's children which was  directed by Deepa Mehta. The film is narrated in many ways like, Freedom struggle, hybrid identities, magic realism.

  • The title of this movie is appropriate according to the story of this movie. Title is that "midnights children", . we can see crises between Shiva and Saleem, Shiva is Hindu and Saleem is Muslim both were born at the stroke of midnight of 14th August 1947 In the movie  later on they know that Saleem is Hindu and Shiva is Muslim. These two children have super power of communication through their thought.

  • Postcolonialism  focusing on the human consequences of the control and exploitation of colonised people and their lands. It focuses on critical analysis of history, literature and culture etc.
  • Midnight's children remain represents hybridity. The relationship between others midnight children with whom saleem was able to communicate. Film also depicts Hybridity in identity.  Marry a nurse was actually Hindu but she forced to be Christian. Saleem was son of vanita  Hindu woman and Methwold British man. He grown up in Muslim Family.  On the other hand shiva was son of Mumtaz Muslim woman and Ahemand Muslim man. He grown up in Hindu family. Adam was son of Shiva and Parvati. So we can identify hybrid entity.  Because of this different identity saleem has gone through difficulties.


  • Magic realism is a "kind of modern fiction in which fabulous and fantastical elements are included in a narrative that otherwise maintains the reliable tone of objective, realistic report". 
  • The words 'magic' and 'realism' do not seem to be compatible with each other. Realism is all about events that have happened, largely dealing with historical settings. On the contrary, magic concerns with the use of fantastic or magical elements in the narrative.  
  • In Midnight's Children, history is seen through the eyes of Saleem Sinai, thus reflected predominantly through individual experiences. For Saleem, born at the very moment of India's independence, his life becomes inextricably interlinked with the political, national, and religious events of his time. This gives him a strong desire to restore his past identity to himself. Realism plays a big role here in terms of describing the significant events that have happened.  
  • Saleem Sinai is a protagonist of Midnight's Children. born at midnight on 15th August, 1947, at the exact moment India gained its independence from British rule. . He imagines that his miraculously timed birth ties him to the fate of his country.
  • He later discovers that all children born in India between 12 AM and 1AM on 15 Saleem thus attempts to use these powers to convene the Midnight Children's He acts as a telepathic conduit, bringing hundreds of geographically disparate children In particular, those children who are bom closest to the stroke of midnight possess Shiva of the Knees, Saleem's evil nemesis, and Parvati, called Parvati-the-witch', are August, 1947, are gifted with special powers.   
  • Conference into contact while also attempting to discover the meaning of their gifts. more powerful gifts than the others. two of these children with notable gifts and roles in Saleem's story. 

  • Freedom struggle

  • Film includes the war of 1965 in Karachi, civil war in Bangladesh. In India 'The Emergency' from 1975 to 1977 when Prime minister Indira Gandhi had a state of emergency declared accross the country. 


Thank you. .... ....

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