MOMENTARY MALEGAONS OF MOVIEMAKING

AROGH Jafri once told me in his shabby, tiny, book-lined room in Malegaon "slightly bigger than a grave", as he described it-that his life resembled Javed Akhtar's; and yet, not quite.

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Like the famous screenwriter-poetlyricist, Farogh was born in a progressive, intellectual family. His mother was a primary school teacher, father used to bring out an eveninger called Shaamnama. However, unlike Akhtar, Farogh could never find far-reaching appreciation and success for his writing.

Farogh was a diehard cinephile and scriptwriter of the wacky spoof films Malegaon Ke Sholay and Malegaon Ka Superman, which the small town in Maharashtra became synonymous with apart from infamous communal clashes. An artiste who dreamt of crossing over to Bollywood but never could, Farogh was frustrated by privation and lack of opportunities in his hometown which he referred to as a big hell.

He passed away on September 13, 2020, unsung and unable to bridge the 300-odd km that separated Malegaon from Mumbai, the yawning distance that he spoke about eloquently in impeccable Urdu in Faiza Khan's outstanding 2008 documentary, Supermen of Malegaon, on the making of the local Superman.