‘Superboys of Malegaon’ Spotlights the Joy — and Pain — of Cinema

The year is 1997. The sun has risen, the morning has begun, and it’s already full of disappointment. One man begrudgingly takes photos of overeager couples in a studio. Another goes off to the mill for work he finds boring, while a writer asks whether an editor will publish his ghazal, only to hear a feeble “we’ll try” (a polite no). Still another must shoot a wedding video after toiling all day for his brother. But there’s one thing that ties these apparently disparate, disgruntled men together: their unabashed love of movies. Because, at the end of the day, despite how disappointing their life feels, they’ll find themselves seated, in front of a screen, as the reel plays, and magic unfolds.

Reema Kagti, who has co-written everything from Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara to Made in Heaven, is back with a directorial feature after six years. This time, her offering — which pays homage to the 2008 documentary Supermen of Malegaon — relates the real-life events of a motley crew that made beloved homegrown movies for a village about six hours from Mumbai, the world’s most prolific movie capital. The result is an introspective and sometimes all-too-real gaze into the machinations of filmmaking. Though Superboys doesn’t hit all the dramatic notes we’ve come to expect from the writing superhouse associated with its production company, it dares us to think a little bit harder about the people who make our favorite on-screen moments possible. Magic is hard to bottle up — and even harder to deliver.