The state of Maharashtra is home to Mumbai, and to India’s largest movie industry. It’s also the location for the industrial city of Malegaon, which, as this likable, factually based drama tells it, could barely be further from the glitz of Bollywood. But, in what initially feels like a Hindi-language spin on Be Kind, Rewind, a group of movie-mad locals create their own versions of box-office smashes, starting with the classic melodrama Sholay. The result is enthusiastic rather than elegant, but it’s a local sensation. Based on a documentary titled Supermen of Malegaon, Reema Kagti’s fiction feature gets a little bogged down in the tension between the friends, resulting in a marked dip in energy in the second hour. But the (literally) uplifting final act raises the roof and, through rudimentary green-screen technology, some of the cast.
In UK and Irish cinemas
