Supermen of Malegaon Bollywood Movie Review

‘Supermen of Malegaon’ is often a poignant, hilarious ode to filmmaking. Its an area film produced and consumed locally.

There is global cinema and national cinema. In a country like India, additionally, there is regional cinema. What many don’t know is the fact that India can be where you can exactly what can be called – ‘local cinema’ where films are designed and consumed locally.

It is often a love poem to cinema, an ode towards the spirit of human ingenuity, a passionate tale about creating films and it’s really hilarious on top of that. For most of the audience, this might be the funniest documentary ever made.

A film crew follows Sheikh Nasir, a resident of Malegaon, while he attempts to produce a parody of Superman called Malegaon Ka Superman with actors, cast, technicians and props sourced from his town. We get a glimpse from the joys, the agony, the achievement and also the epiphany of developing cinema.

That he or she is setting up a low quality, made for an area audience film minus the aspiration of creating money, lends it the poignancy and innocence missing from your biggest filmmaking centres with the world.

If Marin Scorsese’s ‘Hugo’ was the feature film version of the depiction of one man’s adoration for making tricks laden cinema, ‘Supermen of Malegaon’ is the documentary version with the same passion.

Like Georges Melies, who wished to produce a rocket fly and men disappear during a period if this was considered impossible, Sheikh Nasir efforts to find cheap substitute for making superman fly, to discover local ways of complex cinematic problems at the budget where such computer graphics seem impossible.

‘Supermen of Malegaon’ is thus a report in ingenuity, of an die-hard but untrained film crew’s intense desire and ability to produce suggestions to create magic on-screen. Thus we percieve Sheikh locally making the green chrome background used for effects.

We see our crew tear up our Superman’s external undergarment and another mans jeans to hoist them with an iron bar prior to the green chrome screen to show them flying. We see Sheikh using a cycle like a trolley plus an empty bullock cart like a jimmy jib.

While it is a serious film about someone setting up a parody, in addition, it turns into a metaphoric parody of economic cinema, and all the cliches they belt in a spirit of self-righteous megalomania.

For this is why filmmaking can and will be – a work of passion first and commercial considerations second, much like Georges Melies and Sheikh Nasir saw and like 1000s of aspiring filmmakers globally desire but are not in a position to make.

Ironically, this tale of Malegaon’s filmmaking ‘Supermen’ has been manufactured by way of a motley number of talented super women. Director Faiza Ahmad Khan’s keen a sense satire and irony are amply visible.

https://www.doujinthai.org/ (‘Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! and ‘Gangs Of Wasseypur’) gives a rustic feel on the film along with her earthen music while editor Shweta Venkat Matthew lends the film its poignancy along with her observant edits.

Two superhero films release now in India – ‘Supermen of Malegaon’ and ‘The Amazing Spiderman – The Untold Story’. Ironically, it is ‘Supermen of Malegaon’ which has a fantastic story containing not told.

While the earth has watched Spiderman on three previous occasions but this is perhaps the first time anyone is telling the funny, hugely inspiring and globally awarded story of a local film industry. The choice of what you should watch, dear viewer, is entirely yours.

Buzz Rating: 4.5

Cast: Sheikh Nasir, Akram Khan, Shafique and Farogh Jafri

Director: Faiza Ahmad Khan