In one of my most favourite scenes from Faiza Ahmad Khan’s Supermen of Malegaon (2008), the protagonist Nasir is having a verbal duel with brother Nadeem, who wants to follow his foot-steps and make a career out of making amateur films in Malegaon. After making Malegaon Ke Sholay – a parody of the iconic 1975 film – Nasir became a local celebrity. Nadeem is showing his parody of Tere Naam (2003) to the camera, when Nasir rebukes him for wanting to pursue it as a career.

It’s a fascinating divide Khan captures in her documentary, where one brother is seduced by the magic of cinema, while the other seems blinded by its glamour and fame. For someone so close to the dream machine, it’s incredible how Nasir is able to suss out the lies in the oft-romanticised maxims: ‘Follow your passion,’ or ‘Conquer your dreams’. He tells Khan how filmmaking has to be a hobby. There are no returns here, and one can’t run a household on it. “Main khud phaste jaara ismein (I, myself, am getting trapped in this).” 

I remember wondering if Nasir was always this wise. Reema Kagti’s Superboys of Malegaon provides an answer to this. Based in the North Maharashtrian town, Kagti’s film becomes a prequel of sorts and chronicles the events that led to Khan’s documentary. It’s sincere, funny, and often warm in the way it tells the story of five boys: Nasir (Adarsh Gourav), Shafique (Shashank Arora), Farogh (Vineet Kumar Singh), Akram (Anuj Singh Duhan) and Irfan (Saqib Ayub), who would inadvertently end up making a dent in film history with sheer perseverance.

Adarsh Gourav as Nasir in ‘Superboys........

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