Booked for Forty Years

I finished reading 'the best novel written in the english language in the last forty years' and still can't get over it. It took me a tedious yet interesting 3 weeks to finish the book. By the time i finished the book, (this might sound an exaggeration) i had got so well acquainted with the protagonist and even after i started with a new book, the characters in the latter one seems hugely distanced for me. So lets not beat around the bush and start head on that why the book in question (a way of refering to something as emulated from the author of this book) is so intriguing and what made it win the booker of bookers twice. Yes the book in question in Midnight's Children. The novel is essentially about how Saleem Sinai's, the protagonist, life and the life of his father and maternal grand father is linked with the pre-independence, independence and post-independence era of the subcontinent. The story spans a period of approximately 60 years starting from Jalianwallah Bagh massacare as witnessed by Saleem's maternal grandfather and ending with Saleem's experience during the emergency. The book is rich in its historical content as it talks about everything from 15th of August,1947 to the 1965 Indo-Pak war and from political turmoil in Pakistan after the independence to the freedom movement of Bangladesh. Rushdie being the beacon of magic realism in contemporary literature uses allerogical narrative, most important being Saleem born at the stroke of midnight on 15th of August,1947 is vested with the special power of reading one's mind and can hold a conference in his head between all those children who were born at and around Midnight on that fateful day which they call Midnight's Children Conference. Since the book covers a barrage of topics and has a battalion of characters there are numerous sub-plots which at times becomes a bit unnerving. It debilitates the linear flow of the plot. Moreover, the humungous amount of writing constituted in the book tends to be to tedious at times to be read. But the content of the book and the structing of narrative devices is so strong that it negates rather overpowers these shortcomings of the book. Saleem Sinai is a collection of those people who have crippled by the failures of our nation or it could be vice versa as the protagonist claims at times. There is a strain of melancholy hopelessness in the story of his life and that of his father and grandfather all of them tried to do something big but ends up in a totaly opposite direction. Why Midnight's Children keeps on rivetting readers and thinkers all over the world even though its history does not bear any direct implication to our society, is obviously because its protagonist resembles everyone who is trying to make his way up the ladder. And it is not just the economic or social ladder, it is also the realisation of one's personal growth, it is about overcoming an identity crisis. Roughly a decade ago people were interested in filming the book and Rushdie penned down the script but the project got marred at the last moment as the Indian government did not allow it to be shot in India. Though a play on the book by Tim supple has been doing rounds all over the world for sometime but it is necessary to cinematically retell the story. It is not just because of his innovative narrative plot and cinematic appeal (surrealistic in essence) but because the story speaks for a lot of people who are scattered across the subcontinent restricted by the borders. These people not only belong to the lower rung of the social ladder but they cut across every social and economic group as self-realisation has got nothing to do with one's income but it has a lot to do with his or her won country. I think there could be a no better time than this to tell the story through a film as the subcontient is going through a major transmutation. India emerging as the next nuclear power though torn apart by terrorism and communal (new lingiustic, thanks to the Thackeryas) forces, Bangladesh going through an extremely unstable political setup and becoming the next breeding of terror and then Pakistan where Democracy has been turned on its head and the country is on the verge of being held hostage by fundamentalist Islamic forces and terror groups. Though i wish Midnight's Children is my first directoral venture but i would be exhilarated to see any prudent filmmaker to take on this project, as the former would take time and i want the story to reach the masses when it can be heard the best.
P.S-I am looking for the screenplay of Midnight's Children penned by Salman Rushdie, if anyone can tell me how I procure one, i would be extremely glad.