#tw forced sterlisation

[scripttorture]

Torture in Fiction: Midnight’s Children

I’m doing this one in the full knowledge that it’s probably not a story most of my audience is familiar with. Which is part of why I’m covering the movie rather than the book.

 Once again I’m rating the depiction and use of torture, not the movie itself. I’m trying to take into account realism (regardless of fantasy or sci fi elements), presence of any apologist arguments, stereotypes and the narrative treatment of victims and torturers.

 Midnight’s Children is Salman Rushdie’s masterpiece and quite possibly the modern Indian novel. Here’s the trailer to give everyone an idea of the story.

 It tells the story of Saleem, tying both his life and his family history intimately to the story of his country. Saleem, born at midnight on the moment of India’s independence, is gifted with supernatural powers that could have changed the course of history.

 I’m focusing on the end of the story. After the bloody period of partition and Bangladesh sheering itself from Pakistan, as PM Indira Gandhi comes closer to declaring her bloody ‘Emergency’ Parvati-the-witch uses her powers to assault Major Shiva, Saleem’s long time rival.

 As people are ‘disappeared’, tortured and forcibly sterilised the pregnant Parvati marries Saleem. Days after their son is born military forces raid and demolish the slums of Delhi, with Shiva at their head. Saleem is captured and tortured by a boy he’s known from childhood.

 In a story that is so much about metaphor and layered coincidences this is as much a clash of ideals, a clash of ‘Indias’ as it is a personal vendetta. Saleem, raised by a wealthy Muslim family, with every advantage the newly independent India could offer and Shiva, who grew up in a single parent household as an impoverished slum dweller, embodying the inequalities fracturing Indian society.

 I’m not gonna lie I adore this movie and there’s really an awful lot to admire in its tactful, hard hitting and original depictions of torture, rape and brutality.

 I’m giving it 9/10

 The Good:

 1)      Parvati rapes Shiva. It’s unusual in and of itself to see a woman inarguably rape a man. The characters make this even more unusual: Parvati is generally a sympathetic character whereas Shiva is defined by his violence, lack of empathy and physical strength. And yet the way the scene is played doesn’t leave any doubt. The fear and revulsion are clear on Shiva’s face as a character the audience has come to love ties him up with a sari. She does it to spite Saleem.

 2)      In the middle of the night Shiva stands on a roof and announces to the slum Parvati and Saleem call home that it’s going to be demolished. As the inhabitants stagger out into spotlights bulldozers plough through their homes. Parvati is crushed in the rubble of the slum, desperately trying to save her infant son. I’m not sure what impact this scene has on a Western audience. But slum clearances are a reality in much of the world and this scene captures their magnitude and horror. Ordinary people powerless to do anything but run while their homes are torn down around them.

 3)      While Parvati tries to save her child Shiva runs into Saleem. And beats him unconscious. The contrast between them is superbly handled, Shiva in his military uniform, thoughtlessly violent while Saleem tries desperately to reason with him, saying everything he can think of that might make it stop. Including telling Shiva that Parvati’s son is biologically Shiva’s. Shiva doesn’t stop.

 4)      Beaten bloody Saleem wakes up in a room with two military policemen and Shiva. They explain that Midnight’s Children are dangerous and that Saleem is going to give them their names and addresses. His response is ‘Never’.

 5)      The torture scenes themselves, such as they are, are very cleverly shot. It’s a device which lets the film keep its 12 rating and in this case I think it works well. The abuse Saleem suffers in the custody of Indira Gandhi’s government is shown in the blood stains on his clothes, the cuts on his face, his exhausted slump. Contrasted against Shiva (and the other guard’s) spotless uniforms, cheery smiles and threatening questions. We see blows swung but rarely land.

 6)      In the midst of torture Saleem tells Shiva that they were swapped at birth. ‘I stole your life’. He says it with a gun in his mouth. It’s a signal that Saleem has reached the point where he doesn’t believe Shiva can hurt him anymore. So he lashes out with the only weapon he has, the secret he’s held on to for years. The effect it has on Shiva is momentous.

 7)      And this scene highlights a thread that goes through all of the torture scenes in the movie: the dignity of the victims. Despite blood, drool and generally looking as though he’s beaten half-way to death, Saleem keeps his dignity. What’s rarer though is that the film applies this to Shiva as well. Shiva isn’t debased when he is a victim instead it’s acting as a torturer and abuser that takes his dignity away.

 8)      The acting in these scenes is nothing short of phenomenal. The characters are expertly portrayed. Siddarth’s superb turn as Shiva gives all of these scenes so much power and the chemistry between the actors helps make these some of the most emotive portrayals of abuse on screen.

 9)      The forced sterilisation scene is incredible. Shot in the cramped confines of a tent (similar to the ones actually used in India) Saleem struggles desperately against a team of doctors and nurses. As he’s held down an anaesthetists mask comes down over his face and the camera fades to black with Saleem still saying ‘no’. Once again I’m not sure of the impact this has in the West but it encapsulates the horror of forced sterilisation campaigns in Asia in way that no other piece of fiction comes close to.

 10)  One of the things points 2, 3, 4,5 and 9 together highlight is torture as a function of government bodies. The movie handles the scale and bureaucracy of abuse beautifully. It doesn’t let us forget that behind the ‘tough men’ are neat politicians, ordering the abuse or allowing it to happen. It certainly doesn’t let us imagine that torture is something that happens accidentally without the order, or apathy of people in power.

  The Bad:

 Usually I take off more than one point for this unfortunately common and hugely damaging stereotype.

 Under torture Saleem ‘talks’ and he accurately gives the names and locations of 419 of Midnight’s Children. I’ve covered at length why this isn’t possible, and how the memory problems torture causes prevent people who want to ‘talk’ from giving accurate information.

 So why not jump on it here?

 Because in this story, which is about the country as much as the characters, the torture isn’t really the point. The point is that the Emergency, the erosion of democracy and the erasure of human rights, ‘broke’ the ideals embodied in India’s independence. As Saleem’s narration puts it:

 ‘We were the promises of independence, and like all promises we were made to be broken.’

 I do have major problems with this aspect of the film. But I also want to acknowledge that there’s a place for metaphor in stories. And with any serious issue where we should draw the line with these sorts of metaphors is always going to be up for debate.

 Whether this use is justified or excusable I’ll leave for you to decide.

 Overall:

 Midnight’s Children is a story that is utterly, unapologetically Indian and the portrayal of torture throughout is as much rooted in the country as the portrayal of religion and politics.

 Torture in Midnight’s Children isn’t about ‘making people talk’ despite the posturing interrogators who lord over Saleem. It’s about the divisions in India: the way the rich and powerful treat the poor and the way government bodies condone or ignore systematic abuse.

 The movie concentrates on abuses that rarely make it in to fiction in the Western world but are realities elsewhere. This different perspective, a perspective I recognise, is something I really appreciate.

 But I think what makes this movie special to me isn’t just the careful dissection of torture in India but the way the story handles points that are almost universally ignored.

 Midnight’s Children shows ‘good’ people torturing and does not for a moment suggest that this was right or understandable.

 It shows ‘bad’ characters being abused and does not rob them of their dignity or suggest that they ‘deserved’ it.

 Characters we are supposed to empathise with and characters we are supposed to revile are treated with the same respect. The victims are allowed their dignity. The abusers are shown to be wrong.

 When so many stories chose instead to show torture failing against heroes while it succeeds against villains Midnight’s Children is a welcome dose of humanity.  

 Happy Independence Day everyone.

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