Hindi-language film about filmmaking is one of the year’s surprise cinematic treasures.
A surprise delight for me this year was the Hindi-language film Superboys of Malegaon, a heartbreaking dramedy based on true events that were previously the subject of the similarly-named documentary film Supermen of Malegaon.
Shortly after its brief theatrical run, the film is now more widely available on Amazon Prime. It’s expressive, warm, and rooted in a deep love for movies and filmmaking. It’s certainly a must-watch for anyone who has dreamed about picking up a camera and grabbing your friends to, as Lloyd Kaufman would put it, “make your own damn movie”. The narrative is incredibly moving and one of my favorite movies of 2025 as we approach the midpoint of the year.
I try to avoid too much plot exposition in reviews but in this case I feel it’s necessary to set the stage as a tantalizing hook. The film chronicles a group of pals living in the town of Malegaon in Western India in the 90s who taste success, and are almost destroyed by it.
Nasir Shaikh operates an independent movie theater with help from his friends, showcasing films with a focus on action and genre pictures. But because the boys are showing movies without the proper licensing, it’s essentially a pirate operation. And just when things are looking up, they’re forced to shut down.
And that’s when the idea hits: the police can’t stop them from showing movies if it’s their movies.
Overnight, a scrappy group of friends becomes a filmmaking team, intent on saving their humble theater. Nasir directs the effort. Farogh, a newspaper reporter, becomes their writer. Shy but lovable Shafique aspires to play a lead role but settles to help with the production. Other friends and family pitch in both behind and in front of the camera.
Rallying the village to get involved with the production and risking a large part of his budget on hiring a single professional actress, Trupti, Nasir becomes the director of a locally produced shoestring film, a Sweded remake version of the popular Sholay.
This first half of the film is a scrappy and inspiring look at what people can accomplish when they work together. In this sense, I’m reminded of Michel Gondry’s Be Kind, Rewind, which shares a nearly identical premise about the employees and supporters of a dying video store who start making their own movies to try to save it. But there’s an impending darkness at the edges in this version of the story.
Because it’s a film about filmmaking, Superboys naturally introduces certain thoughts and criticisms about both the business and craft of cinema: conversations around originality versus parodies and remakes, and the cynical views of the business and the way it’s run by powerful executives rather than passionate artists. Even the inciting incident, in which the boys were unfairly raided for showing unauthorized screenings of foreign movies, is a statement about access. The boys screen these films to share their love for them, not to profiteer from them.
The locally-produced Sholay parody becomes a regional hit, but from here things get dicey with a whole new set of challenges and the group becomes increasingly fractured on what to do next. Success exacts a heavy toll.
Nasier, as the director and theater operator, enjoys both the credit and financial reward of the film’s success, while those he rallied to volunteer their help don’t reap any of the benefits. Having tasted success, his only concern is to try to recapture lightning in a bottle and increase his own celebrity profile. Upset by his selfishness, many of the friends disassociate themselves from his projects and from the group.
Farogh, eager to prove himself as a capable writer, is ready to move on from the realm of parody and remake to showcase an original screenplay, and increasingly frustrated by Nasier’s broken promises.
Gentle Shafique dreams of being a movie star but remains loyal in helping Nasier and contents himself to assist from a production role, and tries to be the glue in the group’s collapsing friendships. The bright spot in his world is Trupti, the beautiful starlet who, ironically, seems to be the only person who truly understands him.
Instead of moving on to greater things, the group’s fabric is destroyed and they go their separate ways, never achieving any greatness apart like they could when working together. It’s only when an unexpected tragedy strikes that the friends put aside their differences to work together again toward a common goal that unites them in love, and to make the film that they were destined to make.
I’m keeping these details spoiler free, but it’s an incredibly moving last act that reminds both the characters and the audience what’s truly important.
Superboys of Malegaon is a movie for people who are in love with movies, but also itself a wonderful movie in its own right that succeeds at both reverence for cinema and also for being approached on its own quality. The story is raw and the performances are earnest, delivering up one of the year’s most emotionally charged screen treasures.
A/V Out.
Watch it on Amazon Prime: https://amzn.to/4jRxJZn
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