Review of "Supermen of Malegaon"

Supermen of Malegaon is a 2012 Hindi documentary film, written and Directed by Faiza Ahmad Khan. Superman of Malegaon was intended to be released for a Singapore TV Channel.

Malegaon is a small town in Maharashtra, surviving on power looms and is fraught with poverty, communal tensions and hardships. This movie traces the existence of the parallel film industry thriving in this small town, which we are not even aware about.

It follows the story of a certain “director” who is making a spoof of the Hollywood series of Superman and captures the trials and tribulations, the ups and downs in his ambitious project. “Ambitious” is the key word here because the most striking aspect about the story is how he succeeds in following his dream in spite of limited resources.

The theme and the plot of film is simple, but what is striking is the fact that these are real people, with real dreams and aspirations of making it big that we are made to experience during the course of the movie. The film is not sermonizing yet strikes a chord somewhere. There’s a part in the movie which has a beautiful, tragic poem about the poverty and strife in Malegaon, with striking images of a child smoking bidi, however, it immediately snaps out of it to the project at hand- the making  of “Supermen of Malegaon”.

What stayed with me after watching the film besides the fact that it was downright hilarious, is the sheer zest and love for movies which the characters display and one cannot undermine the small but significant contribution to the entertainment industry which “Mollywood” has been making.