Hindi
Secret Superstar: Patchy underdog movie riding on Aamir’s fame
There have been numerous films on a protagonist going against the tide to fulfil his ambition and childhood dream. Usually, in films, such aspirants come from second rung cities, small towns or mofussil India. That adds to the sympathy or the underdog quotient as the script’s requirement.
Just about every actor would have played at least one if not more such roles of an underdog hitting the pinnacle of success. Be it in the field of entertainment, industry or underworld. In fact, there have been some films made on real life heroes too who made it big from humble beginnings; some acknowledged some unofficial. The prominent among these include films on Neerja, MS Dhoni, Dhirubhai Ambani, Sachin Tendulkar, Milkha Singh, Silk Smitha, Capt Nanavati, Azharuddin, Phoolan Devi, Phogat sisters, Mary Kom and just about every pre-independence political leader and freedom fighter.
But, unless dramatised, these biopics don’t work. Compare with, for example, M S Dhoni: The Untold Story and Sachin: A Billion Dreams. While Dhoni worked with the viewers, Sachin was rejected. The reason was that Dhoni was scripted to appeal while Sachin went on the lines of a documentary.
Secret Superstar is not a biopic but goes on the same lines of one and one wishes it had taken cue from films like Dhoni or Mary Kom where fighting the odds includes a lot of hurdles and not just one impractical father’s illogical angry outbursts.
Secret Superstar is the story of a teenaged Vadodara girl from a Muslim family though the film makes no reference to her community throughout the film. The character of Zaira goes to a co-ed school, which the makers don’t care if it comes across as English, Gujarati or Hindi medium.
Zaira aspires to be a singer. Her mother, a supressed wife, had bought her a guitar when she was six. Zaira strums on the guitar when her father, played by Raj Arjun, is not around for he lives with the ghosts of Aurangzeb. Zaira can go to a co-ed school, mingle with boys, burkha is never forced on women of the house, it is just that she can’t cultivate her hobby.
Since Raj Arjun works in Saudi Arabia, to the relief of Zaira and her mother, played Meher Vij, he is away 11 months a year and they can live normal lives. Zaira has to give an outlet to her talent without letting her father know about her exploits. Meher Vij, always by her side, sells an ornament to buy Zaira a laptop.
Secret Superstar is also a teenage love story on the side. He classmate, played by Tirth Sharma, loves her and is always ready to go out of his way to help her. Zaira’s journey starts with Meher Vij and Tirth by her side. She decides to sing and post her videos on Youtube hidden behind a burkha hoping for her songs to work and be noticed. Her identity on Youtube is Secret Superstar.
Youtube plays one of the characters in this film as it may have been a part of many others stories too since its inception in 2006. Zaira is an overnight sensation on the social media and is also praised by film stars and others but, mainly, by a cranky music director played by Aamir Khan.
Zaira, the social media sensation, and Aamir Khan, on the last lap of his creativity, join forces and Aamir manages to create a new singing superstar out of Zaira in the process reviving his own career.
Secret Superstar has a predictable story that has been turned and twisted at whim. Glitches are left to pass throughout. The producer’s reputation for minor details is missing here. The first half is designed to be negative where one man is cast out of a 1960 family social film in Raj Arjun.
With fair dialogue, average production values, the film has decent cinematography. For the kind of theme and script the film handles, its 150-minute duration is telling on the viewer. For a musical about launching a new singing talent, the film’s musical score is lacking.
While Zaira carries the film on her shoulders, she is well supported by Vij and Sharma. Arjun is effectively terrorising. Aamir has made a caricature out of the music composer that he plays wearing gaudy T shirts tucked in jeans, the kind of costume tapori hero used to wear in 1970s films to cater to the what was described as ‘frontbenchers’. His execution of the role borders on buffoonery.
Secret Superstar comes across as a patchy film riding on the name of Aamir but hoping for the Diwali weekend to salvage it.
Producers: Aamir Khan, Kiran Rao.
Director: Advait Chandan.
Cast: Aamir Khan, Zaira Wasim, Meher Vij, Tirth Sharma, Raj Arjun, Kabir Sajid.
Hindi
Remembering Gyan Sahay, the lens behind film, television and advertising
From a puppet rabbit selling poppadums to Hindi cinema, he framed it all.
MUMBAI: There are careers, and then there are canvases. Gyan Sahay, the veteran cinematographer, director, and producer who passed away on 10 March 2026 in Mumbai, had one of the latter. Over several decades in the Indian film and television industry, he turned lenses, lights, and the occasional puppet rabbit into something approaching art.
A graduate of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune, Sahay built his reputation as a director of photography across a career that stretched from the early 1970s all the way to the digital age. He was the kind of craftsman who understood that a well-composed shot is not merely a technical achievement but a quiet act of storytelling.
For most Indians of a certain age, however, Sahay will forever be the man behind the rabbit. His direction of the iconic long-running television commercial for Lijjat Papad, featuring its now-legendary puppet bunny, gave the country one of its most cheerfully persistent advertising images. It was the sort of work that sneaks into the national subconscious and takes up permanent residence.
His big-screen credits as cinematographer include Anokhi Pehchan (1972), Pagli (1974), Pas de Deux (1981), and Hum Farishte Nahin (1988). In 1999, he stepped behind a different kind of camera altogether, making his directorial debut with Sar Ankhon Par, a drama that featured Vikas Bhalla and Shruti Ulfat, with a cameo by Shah Rukh Khan for good measure.
On television, Sahay was particularly prized for his command of multi-camera production setups, a skill that made him a go-to technician for large-scale shows and reality programmes. In an industry that has never been especially patient with complexity, he was the calm hand on the rig.
In later life, Sahay turned teacher. He participated regularly in masterclasses and Digi-Talks, often hosted by organisations such as Bharatiya Chitra Sadhna, sharing hard-won wisdom on cinematography, the comedy of timing in a shot, and the sweeping changes brought by the shift from celluloid to digital. He was also said to have been involved in a project concerning a biographical film on Infosys co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy.
Tributes from the film industry poured in following the news of his passing, with colleagues remembering him as a senior cameraman who served as a rare bridge between two entirely different eras of Indian cinema. That is, perhaps, the finest thing one can say of any craftsman: he kept up, and he brought others along with him.
