Review: SUPERMEN OF MALEGAON Shows True DIY Film Love
Two hundred and seventy kilometers outside of Mumbai in Maharashtra is the small industrial town of Malegaon. For a long time, the only thing that kept Malegaon on the map is the power loom and textile factory that employs most of the men in the town. A few years ago that all changed when one industrious soul, Sheikh Nasir, took advantage of Malegaon's unusually film crazy population and began making spoofs of popular Indian films and to his and everyone's surprise, they became massive local hits. Supermen of Malegaon follows Nasir and his rag tag cast and crew as they attempt to adapt the Superman story to Malegaon in their most ambitious effort yet, Malegaon Ke Superman!
I love films, as I'm sure most of you do, but I've never seen anything like the movie mania depicted in Supermen of Malegaon. This is a city with no other entertainment outlet, only movies, and after working all week at the power loom, the citizens are desperate to forget their worries and they swarm to the theater in a way that I've NEVER seen. Malegaon is a city ripe for exploitation, and Sheikh Nasir understands this and tries to deliver for his fellow citizens. We watch his trials and tribulations as he attempts to get his magnum opus completed in spite of problems with his cast, crew, equipment, finances, and everything else that plagues filmmakers everywhere. He's just doing it for hundreds of dollars, rather than millions.
Supermen of Malegaon is most definitely a crowd pleaser. The situations and complications that haunt Nasir's every move and by turns hilarious and heartbreaking, and sometimes both simultaneously. There is always the temptation to laugh and point fingers at the primitive nature of the whole operation, however, never at any point does the film allow that. These are not creatures worthy of pity, they are ambitious businessmen and artists. Everyone from the director to the writing staff (up to four people this time!) to the composer (who also serves as the playback singer and on-screen villain) are in this for the love of film. Even though these are spoofs, they are no joke.
As with any great film, the filming of Malegaon Ke Superman in the documentary is not without its challenges. First of all, there is the star, Shafique, who works at the power looms and who is shaped more like a lollipop than a superhero, there will be more about his later. Then there is the equipment with which Nasir is making the film, little more than older consumer grade camcorders, though he has at least made the jump to digital these days whereas his first film, Malegaon Ke Sholay, was shot on VHS and edited from VCR to VCR like I used to do to make mixed party tapes when I was a teenager. The most ambitious part of this whole film, however, is Nasir's plan to introduce chroma (greenscreen) to his homemade movie for the first time. He says he saw greenscreen being used in the outtakes of a big Bollywood film and he wants to make Malegaon's Superman really fly this time.
Director Faiza Kahn was commissioned to make this documentary for Singapore television back in 2008, but it is only recently that it has found an audience at home. While the film has been on the festival circuit for a couple of years, Supermen of Malegaon will finally grace Indian screens on June 29th, thanks to the indie friendly PVR Directors Rare, whom I've praised in the past for their adventurous spirit. This is the kind of film that will kill with movie crazy audiences. For everyone out there who wants like hell to make a movie but can never quite get off their ass because it seems too hard, Shaiekh Nasir and Shafique will put you to shame as they do the impossible, and do it with a smile on their faces. Supermen of Malegaon is one of the most inspiring filmmaking documentaries I've ever seen, and one of the most entertaining.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go hit up my contacts in India to get some copies of these Malegaon masterpieces...
I love films, as I'm sure most of you do, but I've never seen anything like the movie mania depicted in Supermen of Malegaon. This is a city with no other entertainment outlet, only movies, and after working all week at the power loom, the citizens are desperate to forget their worries and they swarm to the theater in a way that I've NEVER seen. Malegaon is a city ripe for exploitation, and Sheikh Nasir understands this and tries to deliver for his fellow citizens. We watch his trials and tribulations as he attempts to get his magnum opus completed in spite of problems with his cast, crew, equipment, finances, and everything else that plagues filmmakers everywhere. He's just doing it for hundreds of dollars, rather than millions.
Supermen of Malegaon is most definitely a crowd pleaser. The situations and complications that haunt Nasir's every move and by turns hilarious and heartbreaking, and sometimes both simultaneously. There is always the temptation to laugh and point fingers at the primitive nature of the whole operation, however, never at any point does the film allow that. These are not creatures worthy of pity, they are ambitious businessmen and artists. Everyone from the director to the writing staff (up to four people this time!) to the composer (who also serves as the playback singer and on-screen villain) are in this for the love of film. Even though these are spoofs, they are no joke.
As with any great film, the filming of Malegaon Ke Superman in the documentary is not without its challenges. First of all, there is the star, Shafique, who works at the power looms and who is shaped more like a lollipop than a superhero, there will be more about his later. Then there is the equipment with which Nasir is making the film, little more than older consumer grade camcorders, though he has at least made the jump to digital these days whereas his first film, Malegaon Ke Sholay, was shot on VHS and edited from VCR to VCR like I used to do to make mixed party tapes when I was a teenager. The most ambitious part of this whole film, however, is Nasir's plan to introduce chroma (greenscreen) to his homemade movie for the first time. He says he saw greenscreen being used in the outtakes of a big Bollywood film and he wants to make Malegaon's Superman really fly this time.
Director Faiza Kahn was commissioned to make this documentary for Singapore television back in 2008, but it is only recently that it has found an audience at home. While the film has been on the festival circuit for a couple of years, Supermen of Malegaon will finally grace Indian screens on June 29th, thanks to the indie friendly PVR Directors Rare, whom I've praised in the past for their adventurous spirit. This is the kind of film that will kill with movie crazy audiences. For everyone out there who wants like hell to make a movie but can never quite get off their ass because it seems too hard, Shaiekh Nasir and Shafique will put you to shame as they do the impossible, and do it with a smile on their faces. Supermen of Malegaon is one of the most inspiring filmmaking documentaries I've ever seen, and one of the most entertaining.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go hit up my contacts in India to get some copies of these Malegaon masterpieces...
There is a sad postscript to this story that I would be remiss for forgetting. Shafique, the star of Malegaon Ke Superman, died of cancer the morning after the finished film finally had its premiere in Malegaon. His premiere was attended by some of the most influential people in Indian independent cinema, including the standard-bearer, Anurag Kashyap, with whom I happened to be tweeting the day before this premiere, of which he was very proud. The irony of his death is that the film dealt in part with Superman fighting tobacco chewing, which was the likely cause of Shafique's real life mouth/throat cancer. He is missed, and he will always be remembered as the hero that introduced the world to Malegaon.
Do you feel this content is inappropriate or infringes upon your rights? Click here to report it, or see our DMCA policy.
