Short answers, pulled from the story.
Midnight's Children is the 1981 second novel by Indian-British writer Salman Rushdie, about India's transition from British colonial rule to independence and partition. It is a postcolonial, postmodern and magical realist story narrated by Saleem Sinai, who is born at the exact moment India became independent.
Saleem Sinai is born precisely at midnight on the 15th of August 1947, making him exactly as old as independent India. All children born in India between 12 a.m. and 1 a.m. on that date are imbued with special powers.
Midnight's Children won the 1981 Booker Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and the English Speaking Union Literary Award. It was also named the Best of the Booker in both 1993 and 2008, marking the prize's 25th and 40th anniversaries.
In 1984 Prime Minister Indira Gandhi brought an action in the British courts, claiming she was defamed by a single sentence in the penultimate paragraph of chapter 28. The case was settled out of court after Salman Rushdie agreed to remove the offending sentence.
Director Deepa Mehta collaborated with Salman Rushdie on a film version of Midnight's Children, with Satya Bhabha as Saleem Sinai. It premiered in September 2012 at the Toronto International Film Festival and the Vancouver International Film Festival.
Chutnification is a word Salman Rushdie coined in Midnight's Children to describe the adoption of Indian elements into the English language or culture. A chutney is a sauce for a dry base, originating from the Indian subcontinent.