Anand Pagare is a media activist working in one of the most sensitive areas in the country, Malegaon. A boiling pot of communal strife, the town is in the constant grip of violence and religious tensions, but while these stories are picked up by the mainstream press, there are still atrocities that happen under the radar. Anand, born into a…
If you ‘Google’ Malegaon what you’ll get is a list of articles and images of a scruffy little industrialised town, the other half of the search results will be of film titles. It is an unlikely combination but Malegaon is home to a flourishing film industry—Mollywood.
Malegaon ka Superman,which made a big splash in the media recently, is not the only one of its kind. The industry has many more talented directors who put in everything they have to produce films. Abid Firdauzi is one such filmmaker. While his first love is making films he supports himself by working in one of Malegaon’s many power looms. Anything and everything that he saves goes towards feeding his passion.
The plots of the films as well as the titles are spin-offs on Bollywood films but the similarity between the two film industries ends here. The budgets are about a quarter of the originals, the equipment consists of bullock-carts and small handy-cams and the stories are socially relevant to Malegaon.
The city struggles with a grim socio-economic reality and throws up many issues that the films deal with. Our Community Correspondent Anand is an ardent fan of Mollywood films. “They bring up very important issues and sometimes they do it while making fun of the situation. So even though we’re sitting and laughing we know that what they’re showing is actually pretty serious.” He says.
On a Friday evening after a week’s work is done, people in Malegaon relax by watching the latest film to hit the screen. Chances are, that instead of watching a movie that has Shahrukh Khan romancing a pretty actress in the Swiss Alps, they will be watching the latest Mollywood blockbuster.
Article By: Kayonaaz Kalyanwala
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