So often dubbed “unfilmable”, Salman Rushdie’s 1980 Booker-winning novel is bravely taken on by director Deepa Mehta, crafting an ambitious but flawed adaptation.
Narrated by Rushdie, it’s a generational saga following Saleem (Satya Bhabha), a boy born in 1947 on the night India declared independence from England and imbued with special mystical powers.
Mehta does well in subtly depicting India’s postcolonial history, but the book’s ‘magic realism’ feels weak and unfocused.
There’s humour and heart here, but it’s an overlong tale as meandering as the Ganges.
