Supermen of Malegaon: Inspiring and Intelligent

Movie: Supermen of Malegaon

Director: Faiza Ahmad Khan

Cast: Shakeel Bharati, Farogh Jafri, Akram Khan and Shafique

Rating: ****

You take some portion out of the lives of people in some small, never heard town of India, so obsessed with cinema; you have the unadulterated, sincere and heartfelt story of ‘Supermen of Malegaon’. Faiza Ahmad Khan, the director shows us in this film what some people in Malegaon do with utmost passion, amidst their poverty-stricken life, in her own style that’d make you cheer.

Despite the communal tension, unemployment, hours of power cut and everything else, people in Malegaon find solace in cinema – which’s not entertainment but way of life for them. Shaikh Nasir, who’s an aspiring filmmaker with two films Malegaon ka Sholay and Shaan in his kitty, now wishes to make ‘Supermen of Malegaon’, a Malegaon version of Superman. With only firing passion in his belly and few saved up bucks, he puts together a small team and makes history.

Shaikh Nasir says – I don’t have any formal education to understand filmmaking. All that I’ve learned is through films I’ve watched over the years, and it’s through them I learnt everything I’ve administered in my films. From camera angles to lighting to almost everything that you could possibly pick up if you have an eye for detail, he reasons passionately. I don’t consider this copying because this is my style, something unique I’ve reproduced on my own. If you call this copying then every film in this world is, as almost all films have a hero, heroine and a villain, adds Nasir, confidently.

The passion towards cinema in these people is unshakable. They’re philosophy is crystal clear that you’d disagree strongly if I call them amateurs. They may be first-timers but with such precision they talk about cinema, you’ll be stunned. Nasir explains his theory about filmmaking, in particularly about comedy and why he always makes comedy films. He says comedy has an everlasting effect and that’s why he prefers making parody of Hollywood films. As rightly pointed out by one of the residents of Malegaon, cinema is a medium through which people want to visualize themselves. If they can’t afford an affluent life, they may as well go and see themselves living a rich life on-screen. This is one hundred percent true.

Faiza makes a film of a film and gives one of the best 65 minutes of my life. She introduces the power of parallel film-making which may very soon catch up and gain popularity, not only in metros but in smaller towns as well. The film on the whole is very interactive and draws you within to contemplate over questions that’ll pop up in your head. By the end of this film or documentary, any which way you call it, you come to understand why this film is titled ‘Supermen of Malegaon’.

Shafique, who played Superman in the film passed away one year after this film was made. I can say this proudly, he didn’t die for nothing. He was a star, a special one indeed. What’s saddening is he couldn’t be present at the big screen release of the film.

In essence; ‘Supermen of Malegaon’ is the kind of film that’ll persuade you to watch and support more indie films.