{"id":349,"date":"2021-09-17T12:37:45","date_gmt":"2021-09-17T12:37:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/?p=349"},"modified":"2021-09-17T12:37:45","modified_gmt":"2021-09-17T12:37:45","slug":"critical-article-response-padmas-role-in-the-adaptations-of-midnights-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/?p=349","title":{"rendered":"Critical Article Response: Padma\u2019s Role in the Adaptations of Midnight\u2019s Children"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ana Cristina Mendes, from the University of Lisbon in Portugal, presents a fascinating argument on the diverse media adaptations of Salman Rushdie\u2019s Midnight\u2019s Children.<\/em> Her article, published in 2016 and titled \u201cPadma or No Padma: Audience in the Adaptations of Midnight\u2019s Children,<\/em>\u201d opens with Rushdie\u2019s opinion of adaptation. Mendes explains that he sees it necessary to diversify content between mediums of the same text because \u201cbooks and movies are different languages\u201d (Mendes). She then proceeds to analyze three different adaptations of Midnight\u2019s Children\u2014the 1998 TV show, the staged production by the Royal Shakespeare Company, and the 2012 film production\u2014explaining that each rendition would fail without proper modification, tailoring them to the audience and the category of media under which they fall. Furthering her argument, she draws attention to Padma\u2019s role in the original narrative as the primary representation of an audience, and contrasts it with the absence of her role in the 2012 film production which she argues has a significant impact on the delivery of the author\u2019s message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within the adaptations, there are subtle changes to the storyline and presentation of Midnight\u2019s Children<\/em> that can significantly alter the message conveyed to the audience. One of these, as Mendes notes, is the diversity in the opening of the stories. She argues that \u201cbeginnings are important for the attention of the audience, whether spectators or readers\u201d (Mendes). She goes on to explain that necessary and strategic changes must be made to draw the audience into the specific media. The film rendition opens with scenes of festivity, music and liveliness, which is background information to the narrator, Saleem, who focuses his speech on the independence of the nation. The novel opens in a similar way\u2014with Saleem narrating an introduction\u2014however, the focus is on the events of his birth, rather than those of the country\u2019s independence. This shift successfully captivates the audience of the film, but it misses the original sentiment expressed in the opening of the novel. In a similar manner, the film closes on a hopeful note to leave the viewers satisfied, whereas the novel closes with despair and desolation to leave the analytical minds questioning (Mendes).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The adaptation to which Mendes dedicates most of her time is the 2012 film production. While she does not delve deeply into the features of the film itself, she notes nuances between its trailers designed for British, American, and Canadian audiences. She explains that each trailer\u2014like the differing stories within each form of media\u2014is \u201cobviously tailored for and targeted to intended audiences\u201d (Mendes). The British and American trailers promote Rushdie\u2019s name as the narrator due to his popular position in their societies, whereas the Canadian trailer places the attention on the director of the film who is a popular figure in their society. The British trailer focuses on the very large role that the UK played in the story as well as its involvement in the making of the film; while the American trailer highlights the celebrations of independence with tones of western music\u2014both evoking a sense of national relatability and understanding within the viewers. All three of the trailers attempt to connect the nationalities of the audiences to the story, which is a method of attaching them to the narrative (Mendes).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regarding the audience specifically, Mendes explains that Padma\u2019s character in the story is very significant to the progression of the novel. It is her role that is the \u201coriginal addressee and audience,\u201d and with that role she is responsible for the up-front reactions, questionings, and doubts of the storyline (Mendes). She keeps Saleem focused and truthful in his narrative. Her role is so vital in the novel that Saleem cannot successfully continue his story in her absence, conveying that without an audience, the message is worthless and dead. The audience, like Padma, is the story\u2019s confidante, caregiver, and critic; and without it, there is no meaning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2012 film rendition of the novel, however, eliminates Padma\u2019s role altogether, replacing it with Rushdie\u2019s narrating voiceover. Mendes argues that this adaptive change subtly drives the message in a different direction than that of the novel. In the novel, there are many uncertainties that Padma points out and directly questions, leaving the reader to ponder on their own what each facet of the text symbolizes. It is much more unclear, provoking a skeptical eye from the very beginning of the novel. In the film, however, Rushdie himself narrates, questions and responds on his own, turning the story into rather a \u201csemi-autobiographical narrative\u201d (Mendes). The absence of Padma is the absence of doubt; therefore, the happenings within the film are more easily acceptable by the audience as historical representations of India and of Rushdie\u2019s life experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is clear that Mendes presents strong evidence for the effects of adaptation on the audiences of Midnight\u2019s Children<\/em>. The nature of adaptation is making drastic and necessary changes to the storyline in order to be effective through the specific medium of art. Mendes presents a phenomenal work expressing the value of adaptations for varying nationalities and audiences. She also brings to light the importance of Padma\u2019s role as the exemplary audience in the novel and the effect her absence has on the film. Adding on to her argument of audience, however, it is important to recognize that the physical audience of the novel is largely different from the physical audience of the film. That is to say, the general audience attracted by this sort of novel\u2014complex and sporadic in nature\u2014consists of very different minds than that of the audience that would generally be attracted to the film. The novel audience is one that prefers unanswered questions and analyzing text to come to their own conclusions on the matters within it. The film audience is one that prefers to have some level of provided understanding and a clear picture of each situation\u2014to have all the pieces come together in the end and to have at least the most important questions answered by the close of the film. The former is the kind of reader who would need the character of Padma within the text to pioneer questioning, doubt, reasoning and reaction\u2014a kind of pre-analyzer to aid in the analysis of the text. The latter has no need of Padma because their own role of audience is sufficient for following the storyline and understanding the film\u2019s rendition of it. Therefore, the absence of Padma\u2019s role in the film adaptation is not an eradication of her role, but rather a transfer of it to the physical audience watching film. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

March 19 2018\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Works Cited<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mendes, Ana Cristina. \u201cPadma or No Padma: Audience in the Adaptations of Midnight\u2019s<\/em> Children<\/em>.\u201d The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, <\/em>Vol. 52, no. 3, 2017, pp. 501-518.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ana Cristina Mendes, from the University of Lisbon in Portugal, presents a fascinating argument on the diverse media adaptations of Salman Rushdie\u2019s Midnight\u2019s Children. Her article, published in 2016 and titled \u201cPadma or No Padma: Audience in the Adaptations of Midnight\u2019s Children,\u201d opens with Rushdie\u2019s opinion of adaptation. Mendes explains that he sees it necessary…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[162,163],"class_list":["post-349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-critical-analyses","tag-midnights-children","tag-salman-rushdie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=349"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":350,"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349\/revisions\/350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}