Welcome To Sajjanpur

Director: Shyam Benegal
Producer: Ronnie Screwvala
Starring: Shreyas Talpade,Amrita Rao,Ravi Kishan

Shyam Benegal, India's legendary filmmaker and known for his thought-provoking serious cinema, has now delivered a light-hearted delightful tale in the movie 'Welcome to Sajjanpur'. Benegal says that a light man in his production unit motivated him to produce this film.

'Welcome to Sajjanpur' has a talented cast comprising Shreyas Talpade (of the 'Iqbaal' fame), Amrita Rao (the 'Vivaah' girl and the Bhojpuri top star Ravi Kishen. Shantanu Moitra is the music director and Ashok Mishra and Swanand Kirkire are lyricists.

The movie is a satirical comedy on the reality of contemporary rural India, especially on the government's much-talked-about literacy drive. The movie is produced by Chetan Motiwalla and Ronnie Screwvala under the banner 'UTV Spot Boy'.

The film is a mix of sweet and sour comedy. It's story revolves around Mahadev, played by Shreyas Talpade, as one of the few young men in Sajjanpur who are educated. He is employed in the village post office and earns a living writing letters for the villagers.

The convincing quality of his words makes Mahadev and his letters extremely popular in Sajjanpur. So, this film depicts the simple life of contemporary rural India, with a hint of comedy. Through Sajjanpur people, director Shyam Benegal makes a statement.

He points out that there is electricity in Indian villages, but then there is "22 hours of load-shedding" too. Yes, children go to school, but are out on small excuses. The villages are still dominated by superstition and modernism, pitiable conditions of widows, and abuse of power by local politicians.

Mahadev's character is a beautiful and likeable one - he sits down under a tree and writes emotion-packed letters for villagers. Of course, they love him and repose full confidence in him.

His childhood sweetheart is Kamla, played by Amrita Rao, but she gets married to someone else! Among Mahadev's many admirers is a eunuch who wants to challenge Ramsingh, a young man who has fallen for a widow, and a woman (played by Ila Arun) who wants her daughter married to a canine to get rid of her superstition that her daughter is mangla doshi.

The film is light-hearted and aims to make the audience laugh. But very few scenes succeed at that. The one good scene features Mahadev trying to get out of the rut of writing straightforward letters by adding true emotions in them. Yes, there's one more scene symbolic of India's exploding mobile phone population wherein Mahadev writes out a mobile chitti-an SMS!

Shreyas Talpade carries the film with an excellent performance. Amrita Rao has played her role well, just as in 'Vivah'. Yashpal Sharma, Ravi Kissen, Divya Dutta and Rajeshwari Sachdev do their best as supporting cast.

Songs are hummable. Camera work is competent. Writing could have done away with unnecessary, superfluous gags. Editing could have trimmed sub-plots. Dialogue is interesting-the UP dialect may be a trifle challenging to follow at first.

Incidentally, director Shyam Benegal's latest offering is set to be screened at the forthcoming London Film Festival (LFF). It will feature in the competition section on World Cinema at the fortnight-long festival starting Oct 15th. The LFF screening will also mark the movie's Britain and European premiere.

UTV Spot Boy's Chief Operating Officer Vikas Bahl says that the movie's USP is the master director Shyam Benegal's story telling. It is poignant as well as hilarious, he adds. Benegal's 'Welcome to Sajjanpur' is listed for screening along with other Indian movies including Nadita Das' 'Firaaq', Santosh Sivan's 'Tahaan', Ketan Mehta's 'Colours of Passion' and Shashank Ghosh's 'Quick Gun Murgan'.