2. I am Bhumika Mahida
I am here because I love to give presentations.
Subject : paper 202 Indian English Literature : Post
Independence
Topic: Is the Midnight’s Children Similar With “An
Umbrella Academy”
M. A. Sem 3
Department of English MKBU
Hello!
3. 3
An Umbrella Academy a NETFLIX Series
• The Umbrella Academy is based on the comic published by Dark Horse and created and written
by Gerard Way.
• The story is about a group of seven children with special abilities adopted and raised by the
eccentric billionaire Sir Reginald Hargreeves.
• In the age of superheroes movies and TV series, where all common tropes are well known, this
series is a breath of fresh air.
• The man trained them to be superheroes during their childhood and in their adolescence they
fought crime as a team.
• After twelve years of being separated, the whole family has reunited again due to Hargreeves’
death.
- (a review , WatchTVAbroad blog)
4. 4
Is An Umbrella Academy Based on Midnight’s Children By
Salman Rushdie ?
• a few people comparing Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy to X-Men,and the
Academy in question does have superficial similarities to Casa de Charles
Xavier.
• But the premise for Gerard Way’s comic wasn’t derived from Stan Lee. It’s a
riff on Salman Rushdie’s brain-bending magical realist masterpiece,
Midnight’s Children.
• I would have loved a show that made explicit use of Midnight’s Children. (I
suppose I will have to wait for Netflix’s adaptation of Midnight’s Children).
-(Amy Glann)
reviewed by Amy Glann , (NETFLIX)
5. 5
• The pilot sets up the Rushdie-esque high concept right at the
beginning: Forty-three babies are born simultaneously to women who
hadn’t even been pregnant when they’d woken up that morning.
Intrigued? All these babies will turn out to have unique supernatural
abilities, and they will be the subject of lifelong, ominous interest from
an abusive authority figure.
• In Rushdie’s novel, this premise is allegorical; the children are born in
the hour of India’s newborn independence (Partition, meet Parturition!),
and the shadowy peril is Indira Gandhi.
• In The Umbrella Academy, we open on a young girl at a public
swimming pool in Soviet Russia, as voiceover narration explains the
outlandish situation, until a reclusive billionaire magically appears to
purchase the infant.
• The narration explains that of the 43 children born in this remarkable
way, Sir Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore) gets his mitts on seven.
Then we’re off to the races, with The Umbrella Academy children going
on hero missions while wearing fetching British-style prep-school
uniforms and little eye masks.
6. 6
• The digressive, appositive-heavy voice is a character’s voice. It earns the right to be what it is
by intense focus on what makes narrating protagonist Saleem Sinai who he is, and it sustains
that focus for hundreds of pages.
• And because it is an allegory, it ties itself by definition to real events and times and places and
people. It’s not a move that pays off when you’re inhabiting a world of abstractions, and that’s
essentially what The Umbrella Academy gives us—and it’s why, in the final estimation, the
series fails to deliver.
8. 8
• Netflix has ordered a new original series adapting Sir Salman
Rushdie’s magnum opus Midnight’s Children, the streamer
announced.
• First published in 1981, the novel blends actual historical events
and fictional
narrative to tell the story of Saleem Sinai.
• Midnight’s Children straddles multiple genres, including magical
realism, surrealism, comedy and tragedy, in an effort to reflect
how a nation, particularly one as diverse as India, can’t be
encapsulated into one thing.
• The novel was awarded the Booker Prize in 1981, as well as the
Best of the Booker Award twice. It’s regarded as a watershed
novel in post-colonial literature, with many of the Indian-English
books published in the decade after 1981 frequently dubbed
“post-Rushdie.”
9. 9
• The series will be distributed internationally, as the
streaming giant hopes the adaptation will help
Netflix gain ground in the Indian market.
• “The rich experience and talent of Indian creators
combined with the global reach of Netflix have the
potential for millions of more people around the
world to rediscover this story,” said Erik Barmack,
Netflix’s vice president of international originals, in
a statement.
10. 10
“I am absolutely delighted that Midnight’s Children will have a
new life on Netflix, and greatly look forward to working with
them to help create it,” said Rushdie.
11. 11
References:
• Pastemagazine –Netflix – The Umbrella Academy , Salman Rushdie- midnight’s children- Amy
Glann, San Francisco Bay Area , poet, essayist and fiction writer
• Pastemagazine.com – NETFLIX – set-to-adapt, Salman Rushdie / Midnight’s Children – Katie
Cameron –Thomas Lohnes/Getty-NETFLIX
• WatchTVabroad.com<<NETFLIX>>”The Umbrella Academy”
• Daniel D’Addario , “The Umbrella Academy” -Variety
