Midnight

Deepa Mehta’s Midnight’s Children releases tomorrow (1 February 2013). Before the flick hits the screens, Moviechakkar decided to enter into a small conversation with the lovely lady. Read on… <strong>Tell me your thoughts on the film as it releases in its home country? </strong> I am super excited about Midnight’s Children’s release in India. To bring the film home feels totally appropriate.

While the two highly-controversial epic motion pictures Deepa Mehta’s Midnight’s Children and Kamal Haasan’s <em>Vishwaroop</em> vie for a high-profile viewership this Friday there is another much smaller far more intimate and domesticated battle at the movies, both brought on by first-time directors who enter the portals of middleclass homes to explore the inner and outer spaces that working-class characters occupy on any given day.

Shocking as it may seem actors of Asian origin are still not being considered for protagonists’ roles, unless they are roles of Asians. Satya Bhabha, Deepa Mehta’s young Parsi-Jew Briton lead in <em>Midnight’s Children</em> who now lives in the US is struggling to find his bearings in the mythic culturally freewheeling atmosphere of Los Angeles.

Renowned photo-journalist and brother of film-maker Deepa Mehta, Dilip Mehta, organized a special screening of much anticipated film, Midnight’s Children at PVR Plaza, Delhi on 22 January, 2013. The special screening was aimed at raising funds for Ila Trust founded by Reeta Devi. The screening was graced with the presence of the director of the film Deepa Mehta, celebrated author Salman Rushdie, veteran actress Seema Biswas, Minister of Human Resource Shashi Tharoor and his wife Sunanda Pushkar.

Interestingly Sarita Chowdhary, the actress who shot to fame in Mira Nair’s Mississippi Masala and Kamasutra plays Mrs Indira Gandhi in <em>Midnight’s Children</em>. She has been kept completely out of all the publicity. “Deepa Mehta didn’t want to draw any attention to Sarita Chowdhary who plays Mrs Gandhi but looks nothing like her. The whole strategy was to not focus attention on the character and the actress playing the role,” said a source.

Young British-Asian actor Satya Bhabha whose father is Parsi and mother a Jew, is currently in Mumbai attending his brother’s wedding. Satya shot to fame for his sterling performance as Salim Sinai in Deepa Mehta’s adaptation of Salman Rushdie’s <em>Midnight’s Children</em>. Satya’s performance has been hailed as a triumph of credible characterization.

After a lot of suspense around its release, PVR Picture has acquired the distribution rights of Deepa Mehta’s Midnight's Children based on Salman Rushdie's 1981 novel by the same name. The film is now being readied for release in India in December. The film was earlier mired with fears that it would not find a distributor in the country where it is set. Commenting on the acquisition and release of the film, PVR CEO Kamal Gianchandani said, “"We're looking at releasing the film in December (2012). We're yet to decide the release date.”

It was a battle between the Nose and the Knee on location for Midnight’s Children in Sri Lanka. Apparently Satya Bhabha, who plays the hero with the long nose and Tamil superstar Siddharth Narayan, who is cast as Satya’s foster-parents’ abandoned child who grows up hating his life in the slums, both had a pitched battle going on. While Satya’s character has an extra-long nose (which came naturally to him since he’s a Parsi) Siddharth’s character Shiva has extra-bulky knees with which he tries to subjugate Satya.

Darsheel Safary has finished all his work for Deepa Mehta’s Midnight’s Children including the dubbing. For now it’s no more movies for the child-wonder who was nominated for Filmfare’s Best Actor Award at the age of 11 and lost the trophy to Shah Rukh Khan. Darsheel shocks you by confessing he may not choose acting as his career when he grows up. That he is no longer a child is proven by his clarity of thought and his exasperation when called a child. “Arrey that was when I did <em>Taare</em>… I was born in 1996 so you can calculate how old I am.”