Sep 19, 2008 09:00 PM
1555 Views
This movie is like gentle flow of stream - Calm, Quite, Simple and ofcourse no impact - Good / Bad / Ugly!
Might be a movie that can be categorised as simple and humble - nothing above that.
It brings the memory of yester years of Malgudi Days!
Shaym Benegal is known as some one who comes up with subjects which are more intense and with this movie he has proved his craftsmanship in handling simple subjects. But seriousely - you could have made it a bit more interesting, avoided the stereotype characterisation and increase the tempo.
Also, this movie lacks a strong plot and it is not driven by the characters.
The movie should have been initially named as "Mahadev ka Sajjanpur" as it appears in the censor board certification but later renamed as Welcome to Sajjanpur.
Mahadev - the character played by Shreyas Talpade narrates the story - Sajjanpur was Durjjanpur initially and Nehru given direction to change the name as Sajjanpur but alas then onwards the number of Sajjans in the village started decreasing. Shreyas completed his graduation from Satna but could not get any job and always wanted to be a writer. But struggling hard for a subject in the village and take up the profession of writing letters for villagers. Other major characters are his old classmate Kamla (Amrita Rao) who is married but her husband is in Mumbai for last four years. No idea for four years who used to help her in writing letters but all of a sudden her old friend Mahadev started helping her. In between he rediscovers his old sentiments towards her and started manipulating letters (A small similarity with the Sawariaya Movie where in Ranbir manipulates his love's fiancee's intention). Later on he realised his mistake and went up to the extent of helping the couple's reunion. Kunal kapoor (kamla's husband) seems to have taken up the guest role of hero's hearthrobe's husband (similar role in Bachna Ae Hasino). Thats all about the movie and yes - in between the Goondaraj in the village (Who else otherthan Yashpal Sharma can play the role of local north indian goon), transition from letter to email, revolution in the village where a eunuch is being elected as Serpanch (which really happnned in MP / Chattisgarh), certain superstitions in village are also being shown. And Songs were fit in the wrong places!!!
I love the character played by Illa Arun even though she is having limited screen presence. Also, Divya Dutta (finally became Mahadev's wife) did a good job.
Ravi Kishen the Bhojpuri superstar - came up with a dashing presence but after his initial appearance, the character has totally disappeared in air.
Altogether - it is a movie which is quite simple and harmless. But no message is given, fails to entertain us through out.
Well - I dont recommend this as a must see movie.
