Superboys of Malegaon: 'uplifting' Indian love letter to scrappy filmmaking

"Hymns to the magic of filmmaking tend to be more entrancing when there is some ineptitude involved", which is why the Hindi-language comedy "Superboys of Malegaon" is "so engaging", said Jonathan Romney in the Financial Times.

Based on a true story, it's about a young film buff named Nasir (Adarsh Gourav) who runs a video parlour showing films on VHS, in the Indian city of Malegaon. The business is struggling because Nasir's programme of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton films doesn't attract audiences, but then he gets the idea of showing pirated videos in which these silent classics are mashed up with Bollywood films. They prove a hit, and before long he is making films himself, roping in friends to shoot "made-in-Malegaon" parodies of Bollywood hits. Romantic subplots aside, the film is "very much a story about men's friendship and flaws", and its "genial ensemble cast" is nicely headed by Gourav, who proves a "personable" onscreen presence.

The film "gets a little bogged down" at points, and suffers from a "marked dip in energy in the second hour", said Wendy Ide in The Observer. But it's likeable, and its "uplifting final act raises the roof".

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"Superboys of Malegaon" has its share of "goofball pleasures and familiar insights about scrappy moviemaking", said Lisa Kennedy in The New York Times. But it works best, in my view, "as a touching tribute to friendship".

I found it "thoroughly enjoyable", said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. A "feelgood underdog adventure", which reflects on an interesting phenomenon: the fact that new filmmakers are rarely able to make it with "completely original work".