Superboys of Malegon (2024 | India | 127 minutes | Reema Kagti)
Movies about making movies will always hold a special place in my heart, and Superboys of Malegaon is no exception. Superboys of Malegaon is a Hindi-language coming-of-age film that tells the true story of Nasir Shaikh, an amateur filmmaker from Malegaon, India. In the 90s, Nasir (Adarsh Gourav), the son of a movie parlor owner, grows tired of the Bollywood films he feels obliged to showcase at the theater and craves something new. He recruits his friends and other locals to create a movie that celebrates their town while providing the comedic relief the residents desire. Among the assembled crew are Farogh (Vineet Kumar Singh), Akram (Anuj Singh Duhan), Shafique (Shashank Arora), Irfan (Saqib Ayub), and Aleem (Pallav Singh).
Like many films based on true stories, this one packs a lot into its two-hour runtime. At times, it seems to add scenes and plotlines simply because they happened in real life, rather than because they are essential to the narrative. The film, divided into three sections spanning 13 years, starts and ends strong but loses momentum in the middle. It drags slightly, relying heavily on montages, but by the time the third act arrived, my boredom was nearly gone, replaced by a sense that the first two-thirds of the film were building up to this very storyline. Although much of the beginning of the film is necessary for understanding and connecting to the end, I wish more time was dedicated to Shafique’s story and the making of their last film, Yeh Hai Malegaon Ka Superman (2009), as the title of this film suggests. The ending is strong, and I’m not sure the film needed as much of the middle to get there.
Although centered around filmmaking, the film primarily explores the growing pains of navigating growing up and pursuing dreams (or missing opportunities) with your best friends at your side. Over these 13 years, we witness friendships dissolve and rekindle, first loves slip away, and for some, end happily ever after. Some dreams are realized while others are quite literally squashed.. The ensemble cast of dreamers ensures that almost everyone will see a part of themselves in this film, especially fellow film enthusiasts. If you’ve ever made a low-budget ‘film’ with your friends in your parents’ backyard on your mom’s video camera, this film’s for you.
What I love most about films centered around making movies is that they remind us of why we love movies and why humans love to create art. There’s a moment early on when Nasir is watching a Bruce Lee movie with his girlfriend (Riddhi Kumar), who remarks on how sad it is that Lee died so young, to which Nasir replies, “He’s not dead. Just look! See how he kicks.” Film can indeed allow its stars to live on forever in a way that no other medium can. It serves as a beautiful reminder of both the legacy of film and the fragility of life, one that becomes even more significant as the film progresses and the characters age.
Superboys of Malegon arrives on Amazon Prime Video on April 24th.
Image courtesy Amazon MGM Studios.