Libramedi Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

mraculeated The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Ava-Grace Willis Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Tejas Nair I haven't read the book. I have heard a lot about it, though. I got an opportunity to watch it & it was magnificent. So, this review will more connect with people who HAVEN'T READ THE "BOOKER OF BOOKERS!"Deepa Mehta's magic works once again after her Elements Trilogy. The topics were bold then. Now the topic is diverse - mostly because with a fountain of genres, Midnight's Children talks about many things... from love to superstitions, from the Partition to the Emergency, from magic to realism... narrated so wonderfully, it enthuses. The last 20 minutes are little boring & staid but the first 100 minutes makes up for a good show.Performances are brilliant with every single person working beautifully & totally carving a splendid character out of Rusdhie's imagination. Ronit Roy, Bhabha, Goswami, Darsheel Zafary & Rahul Bose are terrific. Music is amusing, screenplay is good and the locations are so genuine with no anachronisms at all, MC marks as another super-hit by the Deepa-Hamilton duo. Certain sequences/ideologies troubled me but since it is all fiction encapsulated in a narrative, I quite enjoyed it. Depiction of sensitive topics is great which is not unusual in a Deepa Mehta film. A lot could be written about it and the best way to know all about it is to watch it.The tale from the 1940s to the 1970s, with certain twists & turns, beautiful ideas, relationships, empathy, violence, real topics, age- transitions, fights, superstitions, sex, infidelity tiny tidbits and the magic... is enduring. 8.2/10!BOTTOM LINE: Quite a good, charismatic watch. Not Deepa's magnum opus, though.MESSAGE: Liberty doesn't come cheap.Can be watched with a typical Indian family? MAYBE NO.Profanity: Mild | Nudity: No | Sex: Mediocre | Violence: Critical | Gore: Critical | Alcohol: Strong | Smoking: Mild | Drugs: No

londonista With Rushdie having written the screenplay and being heavily involved, comments about faithfulness to the book are moot; also, the book is quite stylised and far too dense with detail to be easily converted.So the biggest problems are thus:* Technical atrocities * Clichés layered on thick * Terrible comedic timingFirstly, the camera work is all over the shop. Hand-held DSLRs are wonderful bits of technology, but camera shake at certain moments of action is confusing, and a bit shoddy. It doesn't help the pace of the film, which changes at strange intervals. Secondly, the compositions are banal. It's like they used iStockPhoto for storyboarding, and stuck every visual cliché about India into the shots.Thirdly, there are moments in the film ripe for black comedy where there is none, and moments where comedy is just jarring. If you're going to mess with established concepts in the audiences' minds, it had better mean something. There is far too much throwaway material in the film.And it's a long one, at 146 minutes, and could have been much shorter, with more energy, better pace, and of higher quality throughout. To the film's credit, there are production elements very well done; the use of children and animals, you'll be startled to hear, are handled brilliantly. But it's not really enough. It may be just that Salman Rushdie would have been better supervising the screenplay rather than writing it himself, and the film could use a complete re-edit, but it is what it is.

peter psp The inspiration for the parable of this movie seems to be the fact that Indira Ghandi was advised by an astrologer that people born on the night when India gained independence from Great Britain are dangerous to her. This caused persecution of many of them by some of them. The contact with astrologer and these consequences are a serious accusation directed to IG and that should not be brought up unless it is supportable by facts. The movie is difficult to watch since there is quite much of brutality and of unacceptable behaviour. This is an image of a world in which a human individual is almost meaningless. The fate of the people born on that day is simply a carrier for bitter accusations. Psychically ill people are treated with brutality and mostly without understanding. Many men shown in the movie are anti-heroes (when a boy says to his parents that he hears voices in his head he gets punched, another day a teacher humiliates him and pulls out a bunch of hair from his scalp). It is hard not to have compassion for these desperate people, and it is heart- breaking to see their sufferings. It is even more depressing to realize that all that was inflicted by themselves. Men in this movie are mostly a bit crazy or criminal or have marginal influence on the message of this story. However women are shown in much better light. They love and are less violent. The only one crazy between them is IG. The movie contains an insult addressed at IG. It is constructed in this way: one of characters has symptoms of schizophrenia and he notices that he can control the voices in his head by blowing his nose. Later he has a night dream in which a woman looking like IG blows her nose and blood appears on her handkerchief. The interpretation is clear: IG was crazy like schizophrenics, and the useless persecutions were a result of hallucinations. IG was in power quite long time and of that only one her deed is pulled out and then an insult is levelled at her. I do not want to defend her, for I am ignorant of history of India, but I bet the image of her is very skewed in this movie. This casts an unpleasant shadow on the rest of the movie that begins in colonial palaces and ends in slums of free India. Is this a reasonable image of the 55 years of independence of India? I doubt, the summary must be brighter than that. I share with Rushdie his disapproval of brutality and wars, however if one wanted to criticize just that then this should be somehow balanced by something positive. This movie is a venomous political satire and is scary to watch. I am afraid that the artistic duo will get death threats. Their view of Indian independence is a bit one-sided. However if the image they project is true then it is a sad prophecy addressed to all countries that want to be free of various oppressors or oppressive ideologies. This is a sad prophecy for Arab countries. An "exception" my be Syria, where they begun from mayhem instead to administer it in small doses, like in IG's prisons. The best way to enjoy this movie is not to understand it. This movie does not provide for the viewer to escape the desperation of the Authors. However I liked the music. I bet that $1 Rushdie received for the film rights is a gross overpayment. What is the point to invest so much money and good work into something so depressing? who will pay for seeing gradually more and more dense desperation?

aslonetsky Only occasionally does a movie portray a culture in a time and place that truly succeeds in giving you a sense of what it was like there. I think of Like Water for Chocolate for example. I was totally blown away by this film's ability to somehow transport me back to India, capturing all the craziness, the colours, the confusion, the sensibilities.... I only spent six weeks there but my son who worked there for a year and a half agreed with me. I think that it is a very unusual film for western viewers. The symbolism is so important and rich. We are not watching individuals at all but characters who represent elements of the country that the writer and director are passionate about. The pace and length is absolutely essential to get the feel of how vast the story is. The camera-work is breathtaking, the music is absolutely authentic, I felt that I could even smell India again. I noticed that the reviews by western critics were mostly negative while those from India were the opposite. If you want to enjoy this film, leave your western film expectations at home and come with an openness to a different way of seeing, learning and experiencing. I will encourage everyone I know to treat themselves to this wonderful film.