Superboys of Malegaon
A movie like “Superboys of Malegaon” is right up my alley. This is a sweet, energetic movie about underdogs who want to make movies, and don’t go the conventional way of doing so. “Ed Wood,” “Bowfinger,” “American Movie,” “The Disaster Artist” and “State and Main” are its predecessors, but there’s a lovely degree of emotional storytelling at work in Reema Kagti’s film that almost puts it on another level as those movies, even the ones based on true stories. “Superboys” is inspired by a true story, as well- documented in the documentary, “Supermen of Malegaon”- but the way director Reema Kagti gets to the heart of this story was something special. It’s easily my favorite feature film in this young movie year.
The year is 1997. In the small Indian town of Malegaon, Nasir (Adarsh Gourav) is a wedding videographer who- along with his brother- is trying to run a micro-cinema in the town. To get an idea of what the “micro-cinema” is, it’s a small building with a make-shift screen and auditorium with probably less than 100 seats, and they don’t always show movies on 35mm projectors. There’s another theatre nearby that shows new movies from the Indian film industry and packs them in; Nasir’s is playing Keaton and Chaplin. I’d be all over it, but it doesn’t bring in the crowds. One day, Nasir is looking for new movies to play, and someone shows him a unique way of getting to the good stuff- using two VCRs, editing clips into a larger whole. Nasir takes to it, and the cinema is a hit. When he gets dinged for showing copyrighted films without permission (which is only partially true), Nasir has the idea to make movies of his own. He already has an exclusive cinema to show them in.
This is all in the first 20 minutes. One of the things I love about this film is seeing how the story evolves. It starts as a story about small-town people trying to succeed with a business before becoming a film about shoestring filmmakers trying to make their own movies, which is where it feels most like the films listed earlier. After that, there is tension regarding whom deserves the most credit for their success, and the film transforms- and time jumps- into a movie about strained creative ambitions when egos get in the way. Finally, another time jump occurs, and real life intercedes and all of the strains that have been building throughout the film lead us to the story that inspired the earlier documentary. Here, there’s also a bit of “Fanboys” that comes in, and what we see transpire is emotional, imaginative for a lifelong film nerd, and a beautiful testament to the strength of friendship when life comes into play. How the screenplay by Varun Grover builds off of each section that came before it is how the emotions of this film’s final moments really land. There’s beautiful performances, sad realities about the difficulties for independent filmmakers, and an overarching sense of triumph that is revealed as Nasir and his friends eventually find their voice again. The way they transport their final audience is how I felt. This is a movie that will stay with me.
