ThAct: Midnight's Children
This blog is part of Thinking Activity of Midnight's Children novel by Salman Rushdie. Let discuss videos.
Video : 1
The lecture begins by setting the stage for Midnight’s Children as a hybrid postcolonial form—a novel that mixes Western postmodern techniques with Eastern oral storytelling traditions. Rushdie, the speaker notes, has created a narrative that feels both modern and ancient, experimental yet deeply rooted in tradition. The cinematic adaptation, however, doesn’t quite reproduce this hybrid structure because the medium of film limits certain narrative complexities.
1. Hybrid Narrative Style
Rushdie’s novel draws heavily from Western postmodernism:
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Fragmentation – the narrative is non-linear, jumping across times and events.
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Metafiction – the narrator is aware of telling a story, often commenting on the process.
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Unreliable narrator – Saleem, the protagonist-narrator, admits to forgetting, distorting, or inventing events.
At the same time, the flavour is unmistakably Indian, described as “Bollywood masala.”
Example: the children-swapped-at-birth plot echoes countless Hindi films where coincidence drives the story.
2. Contrasting Storytelling Traditions
The lecturer contrasts two traditions:
Western narrative tradition:
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Rooted in realism, cause-effect logic.
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Aristotelian probability – events follow plausible patterns.
Eastern narrative tradition:
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Comfortable with improbability.
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Allows long digressions.
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Blends reality with fantasy freely.
The lecturer gives a playful example:
In a Western realist novel, a boy might lose his father and spend chapters searching logically for him.
In an Indian story, the boy might accidentally meet his father while buying sweets at a market, only for the father to turn out to be a disguised king.
3. Layered Narrative Structures – Russian Dolls & Chinese Boxes
Rushdie builds his narrative like a series of nested containers—each story opening into another:
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Russian nesting dolls – one inside the other.
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Chinese boxes – each reveals a smaller one within.
Examples from the West:
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Plato’s Dialogues – Socratic stories framed by conversations.
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Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein – Walton’s letters frame Victor’s story, which frames the creature’s story.
Examples from Indian storytelling:
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Panchatantra – Vishnu Sharma teaching King Amar Shakti’s sons through interconnected animal fables.
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Shukasaptati & Kathasaritsagara – stories told by parrots, sages, gods, each embedded within others.
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Baital Pachisi (Vikram-Betal) – King Vikramaditya pulls a corpse possessed by Betal, who tells riddling stories before each escape.
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32 Putli stories – magical statues narrate moral tales before granting wisdom to a prince.
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Arabian Nights (Alif Laila) – Scheherazade tells endless stories to King Shahryar to delay her execution.
He also links this to:
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Ramayana – begins with sage Valmiki asking Narada for the tale of Rama.
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Mahabharata – narrated by sage Vaishampayana to Janamejaya, within which are countless sub-stories.
Modern Indian example:
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Girish Karnad’s Hayavadana – a play-within-a-play structure, blurring performers and characters.
4. Midnight’s Children – Narrative Devices
The lecturer emphasises Rushdie’s key devices:
Pickle Jar Metaphor:
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30 jars for 30 chapters, each preserving a chutney-like mix of myth, history, and memory.
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One jar left empty – symbolising that the story is never truly finished.
Framed narration:
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Saleem tells his story to Padma, echoing Scheherazade in Arabian Nights.
Blending real and magical:
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Social realism: references to real political figures (Indira Gandhi, Morarji Desai) and historical events.
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Magical realism: fantastical powers of the midnight-born children, inherited from oral tradition.
Counter-historiography:
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Saleem’s personal story challenges official history, suggesting the “truth” of nations is as subjective as personal memory.
Mythical technique:
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Myths are not revered; they are playfully woven into everyday life, sometimes parodied.
5. Form and Content Are Inseparable
Rushdie’s point: How you tell a story matters as much as the story itself.
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All narratives—whether epics, myths, or histories—are shaped by the teller.
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Time distorts stories; “truth is pickled.”
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The shifting structure mirrors Saleem’s shifting identity and India’s changing history.
6. Limitations of the Film Adaptation
Even though Rushdie co-wrote the screenplay, the film:
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Compresses the plot.
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Loses many narrative layers and digressions.
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Cannot replicate the “storytelling about storytelling” feel.
The lecturer ends with the suggestion that a web series or long-form TV could better capture the sprawling, digressive style of the novel.
The video discusses the key characters in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, focusing on their traits, symbolic roles, and importance in the narrative.
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Saleem Sinai – The protagonist and narrator, born at the exact moment of India’s independence. He has a telepathic ability that connects him to the other “midnight’s children” born in that hour. Saleem’s life parallels the history of modern India, making him both a personal and political symbol. His fractured identity and unreliable narration reflect the fragmented history of the nation itself.
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Shiva – Saleem’s rival, also born at midnight but switched at birth with him. He represents strength and aggression, excelling in warfare but embodying a ruthless and opportunistic nature. Shiva stands in contrast to Saleem’s more idealistic and sensitive personality, representing the darker, violent side of the nation’s development.
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Parvati-the-witch – A fellow midnight child who possesses magical abilities, particularly in conjuring illusions. She plays a key role in Saleem’s life, both romantically and in the broader magical-realistic fabric of the novel.
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Aadam Aziz – Saleem’s grandfather, a Western-educated doctor whose alienation from both tradition and modernity mirrors India’s cultural tensions. His secular outlook and disillusionment set the tone for the generational shifts in the family.
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Amina Sinai – Saleem’s mother, caught between her past love and her marriage. Her personal struggles reflect the emotional undercurrents of the family and the political upheavals outside.
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Ahmed Sinai – Saleem’s father, whose failures in business and increasing alcoholism mirror the instability in the family’s fortunes.
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Other Family Members – Characters like Mary Pereira (the nurse who switches Saleem and Shiva at birth), Reverend Mother, and Saleem’s sister Jamila Singer contribute to the layers of family drama and political allegory, each adding to the novel’s themes of chance, fate, and identity.
Overall, the characters in Midnight’s Children are deeply interwoven with India’s socio-political landscape. They are not just individuals but embodiments of historical forces, cultural conflicts, and the multiplicity of post-independence identities.
References :
Characters | Midnight’s Children | Sem 3 Online Classes | 2021 07 10.” YouTube, 10 July 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNlfpIl05w8.
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