Movie Review: Supermen Of Malegaon

OK, first of all, SoM is not a movie. It's released in theatres, but it really is a documentary. The type you see on BBC, Discovery and Nat Geo. Not even the Paranormal type! It's 1 hours 15 min long, and covers a motley gang of "filmmakers" with a hand held video camera, a budget of 50000, local lads and a gal paid 1000/day, and a dirty pond as the location for the "movie", a spoof on Superman and his "flying powers".

Yes, that's the Superman. (Note the "M" and the red underwear?)

Now, as a documentary, SoM is fun. It's actually a pretty powerful set of life lessons too, if you look for them!

Malegaon is a small town 300 km from Mumbai, separated by deep communal divides, and the only buzz being the incessant clatter of the powerlooms. But in the midst of the filthy ponds, dusty roads and sweaty shop floors, Malegaon is also home to a very unique film industry, Mollywood. Video-parlours provide the workers an escape into a world of fantasy, and very interestingly, rather than the standard fare from Bollywood and Hollywood, it's the 15 day 50000 Rs remakes with local casts that seem to be the most popular! The filmmakers "industry" comprise simple local powerloom workers who barely make a hand to mouth living, armed with outdated video cams and a dream to make it big one day.

SoM captures the story of Nasir Shaikh, one of the filmmakers from Malegaon, and his mega project, Malegaon Ka Superman. After auditioning their hero Shafique, a scrawny powerloom worker, they import the heroine from a nearby town, Dhule - since the predominantly Muslim Malegaon doesn't encourage girls from getting involved in the vices of the film industry. A local milk seller sponsors 8000-10000 in return for a shot in the shop. The documentary captures the shooting - trying to get Superman to fly into a rickshaw, hang from an electricity pole, paddle on a truck tyre tube in the pond, and bash up the baddies in the climax scene.

The documentary is shot in a very unobtrusive way, giving an amazing glimse into the lives of the film makers, their innocent dreams, their realities, their struggles, their happiness at those small victories, and most importantly, their "never give up" attitudes. You smile as they go about their ridiculous enterprise, but you cannot really get away from the realization that this is not really a joke for them!
I really do think theatres should be cautioning weekend audiences before selling the tickets. Just in case you are not the documentary types, and were really looking for a Hot Shots kinda spoof from Bollywood - this is not it.

Notes on Malegaon:

The Friday culture of movie releases in Malegaon was shattered in Sept 2006 when a bomb went outside a mosque, thought to be the handiwork of far right Hindu groups. Malegaon is quite today, but the ghosts of that sad day continue to haunt.

Malegaon has its own SRK, Aamir, Amitabh and everyone else you can imagine. The most famous movie is undoubtedly Malegaon ke Sholay in which Rubber Singh's dacoits attack on cycles, and Basanti becomes Basmati.

Malegaon is still 300 km from Mumbai. Or maybe, it's drifted a lot further...