Ajit Rai

Malegaon is a Muslim-majority town located 200 km from Mumbai in Maharashtra. This town came in the headlines when on 29th September 2008, six people were killed and hundreds were injured in a bomb explosion on a motorcycle near a mosque here. This incident gave a new term to Indian politics - 'Hindu terrorism'.

In this case, former Bhopal MP Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur served a term in jail. This town has rampant poverty and sees bouts of communal tension. Despite this, Malegaon is known for one more thing - the 'spoof cinema' of Bollywood films. 

Malegoan shot into fame in the world cinema for the first time when in 2008, Faiz Ahmed Khan, a Malegaon-based man who was crazy about Hindi cinema, made a documentary 'Malegaon Ka Superman' on the subject of spoof cinema of Bollywood film.

The film received a lot of attention and awards all over the world. This film was released in India on 29 June 2012. People have forgotten the Malegaon blast now, but the spoof cinema of Malegaon is still discussed all over the world. Nasir Sheikh was a character in this film.

Reema Kagti has made a Hindi biopic of one of the main characters of the documentary 'Malegaon Ka Superman', Nasir Sheikh - 'Super Boys of Malegaon'. Reema Kagti is also a producer of the film along with Farhan Akhtar, Zoya Akhtar, and Ritesh Sidhwani.

After becoming famous at the Toronto International Film Festival, this film was shown in the competition section at the 4th Red Sea International Film Festival held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and was highly appreciated. This is the only film from India in this film festival this year.

In the movie, the role of Nasir Sheikh is played by Adarsh ​​Gourav, who started his career with Karan Johar's film My Name is Khan (2010) opposite Shahrukh Khan. Adarsh ​​Gourav got international fame in 2021 for playing the lead role in Ramin Bahrani's film of the same name based on Arvind Adiga's novel 'The White Tiger'.

A poster of "Malegaon ka hero"

Apart from Aadarsh ​​Gaurav, most of the actors in the film are newcomers. Only Vineet Kumar Singh, who came into the limelight with Anurag Kashyap's film 'Gangs of Wasseypur', is a known face. He has played the role of a self-respecting scriptwriter in this film.

Adarsh ​​Gaurav's acting is amazing and all the new actors of the film have also done a great job. The filming looks realistic despite being stylized. The film had oodles of melodrama and it keeps you hooked till the end.

Varun Grover is the film’s script writer and Swapnil S Sonawane’s cinematography is simply superb. Recreating the entire era of Malegaon spoof cinema on the silver screen was a challenging task that Varun Grover and Reema Kagti have accomplished.

This film has many stories of the craze of small towns for Hindi cinema. Nasir Sheikh and his friends from villages and towns of India are simply crazy about Bollywood.

It was in 1997 in Malegaon when television and film video cassettes had just arrived in small villages and towns. Soon, small video parlors opened up. Since these Hollywood and Bollywood video cassettes were pirated their screening was illegal. 

Nasir's elder brother used to run a similar video parlour in Malegaon. He would say that there are two types of videos - halal and haram. He used to call the videos of old films halal and the pirated videos of new films haram, although both were illegal.

One day the police raid his video parlour and shut it down. Nasir Sheikh feels humiliated. This is where Bollywood spoof cinema was born in Malegaon. Nasir Sheikh decides that he will make his own cinema with the local youth.

Nasir Sheikh is facing problems. He is in love with a girl from his village, Mallika, while another girl, Shabina, loves him. Mallika is good at studies while Nasir has left his studies and works as a video cameraperson at weddings.

When his family goes to Mallika's house with a marriage proposal, her father refuses and tells them that he has arranged his daughter's marriage with a good family in Mumbai. The irony is that Nasir Sheikh also gets the contract for video recording of Mallika's wedding.

On the other hand, his elder brother arranges his marriage with Shabina. Shabina marries Nasir Sheikh on the condition that he will not make her leave her law studies. Hurt by these incidents, Nasir Sheikh decides that no matter what, he will make his film - 'Sholay of Malegaon'. He starts taking auditions by arranging money from here and there.

A scene fropm Malegaon ka Superman

He changes the names of the original characters of Sholay. For example, Basanti of Malegaon becomes Basmati and Gabbar Singh becomes Rabbar in Sholay. The problem now is where to find a girl for the role of Basmati. No girl from Malegaon will work in the film.

While recording a wedding video, he meets Tripti who is dancing and singing on stage. With great difficulty, she agrees to some extra money. Now they start looking for a location. And finally, somehow, the film is completed.

A grand premiere is held in Nasir Sheikh's brother's video parlour. The film becomes a super hit. Similarly, Nasir Sheikh makes spoofs of many Bollywood films and earns a lot of money. He becomes famous from Malegaon to Mumbai.

This is where the problems in his life begin. His friends feel that everyone makes the film together, but only Nasir Sheikh is getting the money and fame. All his friends leave him one by one.

One story is about a writer, poet Farooq (Vineet Kumar Singh), who wants to go to Mumbai and become a big scriptwriter. He writes a weekly column on literature in a local newspaper. He has also given a script to Nasir Sheikh, but Nasir goes on making other types of commercial films in return.

Shafiq is heartbroken when he returns home one day to find that his stepmother has sold as waste all the newspapers in which his columns were published and that she had saved them with great difficulty as her capital.

He goes to Mumbai where he faces failure. After his father's death he returns to Malegaon exhausted and dejected. On the other hand, Tripti dreams of becoming a heroine and keeps comparing herself to Sridevi.

In reality, she is harassed by her husband and is abused daily. During the shooting of the film, she falls in love with Nasir Sheikh's friend Shafiq. Soon, it turns out that Shafiq is suffering from cancer. Meanwhile, making a film on the script of Asif Albela, an actor from Malegaon who has achieved some success in Mumbai, becomes a burden for Nasir Sheikh.

The film flops and Nasir Sheikh loses all his money. Nasir Sheikh now realises his mistake. It is 2004 in Malegaon. A lot has changed. The friends meet again on the pretext of arranging for Shafiq's cancer treatment.

Writer Farooq's financial condition is very bad. In a touching scene, he asks Nasir Sheikh for 70 rupees for alcohol. Nasir says that he cannot give money for alcohol. Finally, he giveThen he gives it to him out of kindness. All the friends are worried about how to overcome this situation.

One day the writer Farooq says something very important to Nasir - "Nasir, you have added a page to the book of Hindustani cinema. It will not be erased. Everyone has to go one day, so what is there to fear? The only sadness is that we will go without doing anything.

"He further says- "Many of our friends wanted to become actors but could not. I have a script. Let us make our own film - "Malegaon Ka Superman". Nasir Sheikh finds a new way. He starts preparing for this film.

He persuades an upset friend to play the villain. His wife gives him all her savings which she has earned from her law practice. She also frees Tripti by getting her a divorce from the court. For the role of Superman, Nasir chooses his friend Shafiq who is battling cancer and is admitted in a hospital in Nashik.

The problem is how to take him to the location without the doctor. At first the doctor refuses to go along. Nasir offers him the role of Superman's father. The lure of playing a role in a movie is so great that the doctor agrees.

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These youngsters of Malegaon now shoot a film using local resources and equipment and history is made. At the end of the film, just like Steven Spielberg's great film 'Schindler's List', the real characters of this story are introduced along with the actors playing their roles.