With the advent of accessible technology, art is appearing more frequently in our lives. Now, art is everywhere– compressed, packaged and powered by the mythical social media. The decade of the 1990s and 2010s was the true age of innocence; it’s almost like a coming-of-age for cinema lovers in India. The slow infusion of technology into our lives: VCRs, Pirated CDs/DVDs, internet and the opening up of markets led to minds being split wide open for the consumption of world cinema. Malegaon is such a village where aspirations overpowered possibilities to make cinema that they wanted to make and they wanted to see– a huge cautionary warning for Bollywood that is facing a series of failures.
Superboys of Malegaon: not a typical retelling
Though Superboys of Malegaon is inspired by Supermen of Malegaon, it is unfair to call it a remake. Because, the retelling of the same story relies on the world and characters of Malegaon. But, what the director Reema Kagti and writer Varun Grover did was to increase the canvas and add the emotional masala, character arcs, the falls and downfalls; and then the rise, death, life and many things that will make you feel for the characters of Malegaon.
But, what the director Reema Kagti and writer Varun Grover did was to increase the canvas and add the emotional masala, character arcs, the falls and downfalls; and then the rise, death, life and many things that will make you feel for the characters of Malegaon.
The story of Malegaon is told in multiple timelines from 1997, 2004 and 2010 unlike the documentary Supermen of Malegaon that focuses on the event of filmmaking. Superboys of Malegaon’s treatment of the story is to talk about the life of Malegaon, not just the event that made them Supermen.
Nasir Shaik (played by Adarsh Gourav), Akram (Anuj Singh), Farogh (Vineet Kumar Singh), Shafique (Shashank Arora), Irfan (Saqib Ayub), Aleem (Pallav Singh) are a bunch of good-for-nothings. But, they are good at executing what they believe in with a conviction that really shook the cine-lovers. As the police raids and destroys their video parlour where Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin were the literal silent heroes, we are faced with the question: how can the bureaucracy understand the creativity behind crossover editing of Hollywood and Bollywood films in 1997?
This is an era when a computer was not even remotely visible in the world of Malegaon. What if the police don’t allow them to showcase films? The boys decide to produce a film that they want to make and they want to see.
Art, for whose sake?
The omnipresent question regarding the importance of the artist and the audience is questioned in the film. Farogh (Vineet Kumar Singh) a ferocious, adamant writer believes that art should have a purpose– the hero should fight the gutka-making factory owner who is imprisoning everyone with addiction. He is the victim of the same addiction. Maybe, he wants to redeem his own sins of addiction through art. Therefore the ferocious drive to make “good art.”
The omnipresent question regarding the importance of the artist and the audience is questioned in the film.
On the other hand, Nasir is someone who believes art should have the entertainment quotient more than anything. The conflict of their dependency on each other is true. Everything falls off as slowly the team begins to dismantle after the successful blockbuster parodies of Malegaon ke Sholay and Malegaon ke Shaan.
The art-for-money vs art-for-value debate continues as their success begets even more money. Nasir becomes successful at money, but eventually fails at cinema. Farogh fails at both cinema and life. For the remaining ones, life goes on as it did when cinema was not a part of their life. Except for Shafique. Cancer hits him. And, the film reaches a climax that can’t be hated despite it being cheesy and melodramatic. The music composed by Sachin–Jigar at the last climax shot is a slow simmering emotional score that pulls you into the life of Shafique in his last days.
The democratic power of cinema
Cinema is not what we make, cinema is what it becomes. It is true for any art. The meaning of art will never be the same once it is public. ‘The birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the Author,’ proclaims Roland Barthes. It stands true particularly in the mass medium of cinema. The superboys of Malegaon parodied Sholay and it became an industry hit in Malegaon. It was owned by them. The film that was made barely with the budget of Rs. 50,000, ran for two months!
Superboys of Malegaon shows us the innocence of film making. They made the film neither for the whole world, nor for the film festival circuits. It was made for the sole entertainment of those 50 odd people in that video parlour. That is what we need to do. In the fad of going global, we are not going anywhere. The film-series Pushpa which was completely rooted in its first part went completely rootless with the sequel.
The tree of Pushpa became vast as the highest Indian grosser, but can it withhold the test of time without its roots like Faiza Ahmed Khan’s documentary Supermen of Malegaon did now?
The tree of Pushpa became vast as the highest Indian grosser, but can it withhold the test of time without its roots like Faiza Ahmed Khan’s documentary Supermen of Malegaon did now? This reincarnation of documentary as a feature film is an impeccable ensemble of actors and writers. The credit must be given to Varun Grover and team to include Shaoib Zulfi Nazeer as a co-dialogue writer to get the diction right. The whole native feel of cinema comes from its zubaan (words), not from the gigantic sets. This can be another lesson for mainstream cinema that is obsessed with visual grandeur than with aural simplicity.
‘Shok paal ke kya karega, Malegaon mein tu marega (What will you do by fostering the passion, when you know you’ll die in Malegaon?)’ Nasir celebrates the pessimism casually driving his scooter. Now, Malegaon has got its unique identity because a few Superboys dreamt to make something “mukkammmal” (great). It teaches you the importance of dreaming and doing something great. It’s a beautiful emotional love letter to the unconditional love for cinema.
Superboys of Malegaon will stream on Amazon Prime Video post-theatrical run.
About the author(s)
Azdhan (He/Him) is a full-time film critic freelancing for Feminism In India. If he is not reading or writing, he will just be zoning-out– even if there is no window– always thinking of writing his next novel to adapt it into a screenplay. The backend process of trying to build something that can solve urban loneliness is also always on his mind.
