Welcome to Sajjanpur is different from the art films we are accustomed to seeing from Shyam Benegal, with the possible exception of Zubeidaa. By that I do not mean that it is not good. It is simply more in the realm of mainstream commercial Indian cinema. I feel that Welcome to Sajjanpur is definitely more entertaining on that account than Zubeidaa, for example, and therefore more likely to be accepted by a mainstream audience.
In a village called Sajjanpur in India, Mahadev Khushwaha (Shreyas Talpade) is the only person who has a B.A degree. His dream of becoming a novelist takes a backseat to his role as the official letter-writer to the largely illiterate inhabitants of the village, who are all in awe of his ability to make even the most basic message sound as if it is a beautiful poem. So we see a host of characters visiting his little desk under the banyan tree, where he has set up shop, day in and day out. He meets an old classmate from primary school, Kamala (Amrita Rao) who was pulled out of school by her family at an early age, as she comes to him to get letters written to her husband, who moved to Mumbai to make a living immediately after their wedding four years earlier and whom she has not seen since. We meet Ramkumar (Ravi Kishan) who is smitten with the widow Shobharani (Rajeshwari Sachdev Badola) and wants Mahadev to help him woo her. We meet Mausiji (Ila Arun) who is superstitious, as many village folk are, and tries her level best to ensure her stubborn daughter Vindhya (Divya Dutta) is married as soon as possible. We meet Ramsingh (Yashpal Sharma) who tries to intimidate Mahadev into writing to the Collector in support of his dubious wife, a candidate in the local elections against Munnibai, a eunuch who wants to stand against her and who also comes to Mahadev to ask him to write to the Collector to help her assert her rights.
If you are thinking ‘Comedy of Errors’, then you are right, as that is what Mahadev sets about doing – changing what he thinks are wrongs into rights and vice-versa. Along the way, there is a lot of mirth and some heartbreak.
Welcome to Sajjanpur is an entertaining satire on modern India’s rural politics. Watch it and smile.
