Superboys of Malegaon movie review: Filmi flourishes of Adarsh Gourav, Vineet Singh movie land it uneasily between fact and fiction

Being twice removed from the source creates its own tensions: if that credit slate had been placed at the opening of the film, we would have known the context, and that niggling question– why this film—would have been answered.

For those who haven’t seen the documentary which actually managed a theatrical release in 2012 (during the sadly short-lived era when there seemed to be hope that releasing non-fiction films would be successful), Reema Kagti’s feature introduces us to a group of young men in Malegaon who are mad about movies.

That is in itself is a familiar film subset: what sets this bunch apart is that they are able to parlay their avid viewing of Hollywood classics by Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton — we watch them watching an iconic scene from ‘The General’ — and popular Hindi movies, into the actual making of films, featuring their own people, using their own spots as locations.

Malegaon, or at least the largely-Muslim section of Malegaon from which the ‘actors’ and ‘technicians’ are drawn, turn up in droves, and help those films earn enough money for ‘producer-director’ wedding videographer Nasir Shaikh (Adarsh Gourav), and his collaborators, writer Farogh (Vineet Singh), faithful pal-turned-actor Shafique (Shashank Arora), to make more movies. They are supported by a cast, clad mostly in wide collars and flared trousers, which makes no bones about their desire to become stars via a mix of Amitabh’s delivery, Mithun’s hair-cut, and their local patois.

 

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You may be reminded of a few Excel films in this movie on the making-of-movies and their intrepid makers – Farhan Akhtar’s ‘Dil Chahta Hai’ in which best friends part and regroup, Zoya Akhtar’s ‘Luck By Chance’ on the hardships that confront outsiders, Kagti’s own ‘Gold’ which champions underdogs. There’s a Bollywood flavour to the whole thing, which draws attention to itself in both sanitised situations and constructed dialogues: a doctor referencing ‘Anand’ in his diagnosis of cancer, an idealistic writer declaring ‘writer sab ka baap hota hai’– the first could make you smile if it weren’t such a self-conscious hark-back, speaking to how even regular people harbour dreams of acting; the second is both meta-and-ironical (‘metaronical’ could well be a word), as the writer of Superboys of Malegaon is Varun Grover, who has been vocal about the difficulties writers face in the Mumbai film industry.

The film brings Muslim characters back on our radar, breaking away from the tropes of evil terrorists and subservient sidekicks, and giving us those who own the story and drive the narrative: in and of itself, especially in these polarised times, that’s important.

The men, played by some of the best actors currently working in Bollywood, play their parts well enough. So do the women, even with not as much screen-time: Muskkaan Jaferi, as Sheikh’s loyal wife, leaves an impact; Manjiri Pupala’s Basmati in ‘Malegaon Ke Sholay’, standing in for the original motormouth Basanti, shows a wonderful understanding of what’s real– her sitting on a bench, waiting for a bus to Nashik– and what’s not—her as that ‘heroine’ on the big screen. Now’s that a line you can take home.

Those moments, including one of which is owned by Shashank Arora’s fragile superhero who wants to fly, move you. You wish there were more of these in this fresh iteration of Malegaon’s once-were-supermen chapter whose filmi flourishes place it uneasily between fact and faction.

Superboys of Malegaon movie cast: Adarsh Gourav, Vineet Singh, Shashank Arora, Gyanendra Tripathi, Anuj Duhan, Saqib Ayub, Pallav Singh, Manjiri Pupala, Muskkaan Jaferi
Superboys of Malegaon movie director: Reema Kagti
Superboys of Malegaon movie rating: 2.5 stars