Malegaon's spoof cinema takes flight with Superman. Next change: <I>Spiderman</i>.
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The father of Malegaon's spoof cinema, Nasir, had to take premature retirement, and started selling readymade clothes in his video hall-turned-showroom. But he didn't stop dreaming. In fact, in these feel-bad times he is set to make a comeback with his third and the town's most ambitious film to date, Malegaon ka Superman.
The shooting is over; an early video version of the film has been cut, but Nasir wants better editing and post-production before releasing it digitally on the big screen, that too worldwide. Meanwhile, a delightful documentary on the making of this path-breaking film, Faiza Khan's Supermen of Malegaon, has been travelling round the world, gathering awards at Asiatica Film Mediale in Rome, Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) and at the Karachi film festival.
At one level, the documentary is a funny retelling of the filming of Superman—Nasir shopping for props, getting the Superman gear tailored—but it's also a compelling portrait of the town and its residents. Here you can get an srk haircut for Rs 101 but the Sanjay Dutt style will cost Rs 151, because it's a lot more complicated at the back. The film touches upon the town's communal divide, with Hindus and Muslims on opposite sides of the river; it talks of the economic downturn, the 8-10-hour-long power cuts—but it doesn't leave the viewer feeling sorry for its residents. Because Malegaon's movie-making has given them a unique sense of pride, apart from celebrating the sheer joy of cinema. "I want to make people laugh, laughter is very precious," Nasir tells us on phone.
But putting together Malegaon ka Superman was no joke for Nasir. It's Malegaon's costliest film yet. Made on a budget of Rs 1 lakh, it has been shot on a Panasonic handycam, using chroma (shooting against a plain green screen and then using computer graphics to fill in the background) to make Superman fly, and create other special effects.
What inspired Nasir to move beyond Bollywood, just 296 km from Malegaon, and take on distant Hollywood? Nasir might look like a wannabe Hindi film hero, but he is actually a Hollywood worshipper who regularly screened English films in his video hall. "The camera angles, framing, lighting—I learnt it all from foreign films," he says. His personal favourites: Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times and City Lights. "Chaplin might be dead but his comedies are still alive," says Shaikh.
Like most Malegaon films, Superman too has been put together by an all-Muslim cast and crew. A cynical, intense Farogh Jafri, who aspires to Bollywood fame, is the writer. Akram Khan is a spirited villain, as well as editor and composer of the title track. Pencil-thin Shafique, who looks like an impoverished Big B, is the hero, but he also has to do odd jobs on the sets. Only the heroine, Trupti, is a Hindu, from the nearby town of Dhulia, because women don't work in conservative Malegaon. She charges a royal sum of Rs 1,000 a day and lives up to the stereotype of the "difficult" heroine. She throws attitude, talks in English, uses words like "disgusting", and demands Bisleri.
Like most Malegaon spoofs, the Superman film has its own crazy plot, far removed from the Hollywood original. It's peppered with local issues, idioms, images and, of course, the local sense of humour. Malegaon's skinny Superman has a 24-inch waist, wears bathroom chappals and has the naada (drawstring) hanging outside his boxers. He flies up to get a clear mobile signal and instead gets stuck in electric wires. But it's not all slapstick. There are messages. Superman talks about the necessity of polio drops for kids. The menacing villain is a tobacco merchant and Superman's mission is to rid the town of the scourge of chewing tobacco. The villain loves "gandagi" (filth) and wants to spread a spitting epidemic among children.
Faiza's documentary shows the resourcefulness of the filmmakers. For the crane shot, the camera gets mounted on a bullock cart, the cameraman sits on one end of the cart and the crew pushes the other end to make it go up. The camera is placed on a bike and carted around for trolley, and zoom and pan shots.
Like with any other films, there are problems aplenty. Hero Shafique's wedding delays the film by four days. The most heart-breaking is when the camera falls into the pond. Even the hair-dryer isn't able to bring it back to life and the shooting grinds to a halt while the camera is sent to Indore for repairs.
But Nasir has forgotten those hiccups now. He knows he has a winner in hand and now wants to sell the film's overseas rights. Nasir is already thinking of his next Hollywood spoof. It will be Spiderman—a very fat one, so heavy that he won't be able to swing with his web and will keep falling down. Nasir is also planning his first "original" film. Malegaon ka Taana Baana will deal with Hindu-Muslim unity. But he promises it will do more than spread goodwill and harmony—it will also be rollicking good fun. Now, that's something to smile about.