A new film adaptation of Salman Rushdie’s 1981 novel about India after independence, Midnight’s Children, has plunged the author into new controversy in his native land.
At the film’s premiere in Toronto at the weekend, director Deepa Mehta said no Indian film distributor had bought rights to the film.
“Salman has often said that the book was his love letter to India. I think the film reflects that love. What a pity if insecure politicians deprive the people of India [the chance] to make up their own minds about what the film means, or does not mean, to them,” the Hindustan Times quoted the Indian-Canadian director as saying.
The film includes unflattering portrayals of Indian politicians.
Cinema experts in India said the failure to find a distributor revealed a weakness in Indian democracy. Rushdie’s relationship with India is also troubled.
His 1988 The Satanic Verses is still banned there. His memoirs, due out this month, reportedly describe him staying in dozens of safe houses across Britain after the fatwa issued over it. – (Guardian service)