New Delhi, Feb. 26 -- "Small cell carcinoma," the doctor begins. Two blank faces stare at him. "Have you seen Anand?" he tries again. "What happened to Rajesh Khanna."

The simple point of Superboys of Malegaon is that, even at its bleakest, life can be made sweeter by cinema. The Anand reference softens the blow of a cancer diagnosis for two movie-crazy men who've travelled from the small town of Malegaon in Maharashtra. When they get back, the patient's friends gently rib him about having a rich man's ailment. Even the doctor's life is made a little happier. He accepts a part in their upcoming film in return for home visits, saying he'd always wanted to be an actor but his father forbade it.

Thirteen years earlier, Nasir (Adarsh Gourav...