Supermen of Malegaon – Not a Review

You know you are watching something really good when none of the couples in the theatre seem to be making out.

You know you are watching something really great when the theatre is almost empty, you can sit wherever you choose to sit, and still none of the couples seem to be making out.

Supermen of Malegaon belongs to the second category.

For some reason or the other, my plans of watching this documentary were always getting postponed. I’d even given up hopes of watching it in theatres. But its run kept on extending. (It’s still playing. At least in Mumbai it is. God bless PVR). And so a couple of days back, I finally managed to catch a late night screening of it.

A lot has already been said about this gem. I don’t think I can add anything new to it all. But a feature like this deserves to be talked about.

So here it goes.

Watching Supermen of Malegaon can leave you feeling somewhat…ashamed of yourself. At least it made me feel that way. How else are you supposed to feel when you watch a bunch of simpletons doggedly work towards achieving something, and not stop till they achieve it? Uplifting, yes. But sooner or later, that sinking feeling kicks in.

Some painful deductions:

• The camera used to shoot Malegaon ka Superman probably had a lower resolution than the camera in your previous phone.
• The budget of the movie was not much more than what a couple of outings with friends in an upscale pub would cost.

Want me to go on? Should you just skip this one and save yourself the embarrassment?

Not at all. Do watch it by any means. Because it just might turn out to be the ‘kick in the butt’ you so desperately needed.

I’m not saying it’ll inspire you to be a filmmaker. It just might. But more importantly, it’ll make you go after whatever it is that you want to go after, while making the most of what you have. Not a bad lesson to take away from an hour-long documentary, right?

In case you missed it in the theatres, please wait for the DVD to come out (not referring to the costly Region 1 version). In case you can’t wait, go ahead and do what you have to do. Just ensure you buy a copy when the DVD does come out. This one deserves it. J