The star cast of Welcome to Sajjanpurmight not
at first give the star crazy movie viewers an urge to watch it in their first
thought but considering the name Shyam Benegal, remembering the brilliant
performance of Shreyas Talpade in Iqbal and coming across the name
Amrita Rao may give rise to a second thought .And if they really watch
they sure would not be disappointed. A good story nicely told and a good
performance to make the story more remarkable.
The story is set in an under developed village named
Sajjanpur , which has a short story on it's name which has been changed from
Durjanpur to Sajjanpur , where people live a very humble life accommodating
themselves with the scarcity of water, panchyati raj, illiteracy, superstition
and living life without ambition. Our main character Mahadev seems to be the
only graduate, and an aspiring novel writer, in the village. He has a very
unusual profession of writing letter for the illiterate villagers and charges
them Rs.2 for the same. The director's choice of the lead character's
profession is a deliberate act. People in the village and people from nearby
villages are somehow connected to Mahadev for the purpose of writing their
letters and we get a glimpse of the village life, the people, their way of
living and the fear the villagers suffer due to bhai raj.
The story has several sub plots each holding up a social
issue though very delicately not announcing a judgement.
The life in the village is such that Mahadev does not get
any plot to write something unique. An election is about to take place and
hence there is a spurge of life. The first letter that Mahadev has to write
with the beginning of the cinema is for the heavy weight contestant Ram.... The
scrupulous Ram orders Mahadev to write a letter to the Collector to cancel the
candidature of his close contestant with the charge that her husband is an ISI
agent. And the story rolls thereafter.
The contestant withdraws her candidature but a new drama begins. A new
contestant arises Munnibai, an illiterate eunuch, and urges Mahadev to write a
letter to the Collector informing him about her candidature. She does not want
the murderer Bhabi , the other heavyweight contestant, to win without a fight.
The drama rises. She is threatened of dire consequences if she dares to contest
in the election and she justifies her candidature with a heart rendering urge
to Mahadev to write a letter to the Collector asking for protection. The performance of Munnibai will be remembered long but I must confess that I could not identify the actor.
There are other stories also. A young married village woman
(Amrita Rao) comes to Mahadev to write a letter to her husband living in Mumbai
asking him to come and take her with him. The woman recognizes Mahadev to be
her classmate in the primary school. Mahadev too recognizes her and starts
flirting with a distant hope to be able to convince her to marry him. Kamala’s,
the married women, husband hasn’t come
for a visit for four long years and hence Mahadev snatches the chance to
convince her that he might have some mysterious reasons for not coming to meet
her newly married wife and poses himself as her well-wisher. He forces Kamala
to ask her husband to take her by Diwali and arrange an accommodation there. A
letter thereafter arrives that he will be taking her soon as he has managed to
buy an accommodation and it is revealed later that he has managed so buy
arranging to sell off his kidney. The game has gone too far. Mahadev realizes
his folly is going to take a life of a person and he sells off his land and
pays his penance .
A parallel story runs of Ila Arun and her daughter Divya.
She comes to Mahadev to help her write a letter to her in-laws about the
prediction of marrying her daughter Divya to a dog to wash away all the misfortunes
she is born with and asks them to arrange a sum of Rs. 5000 for the purpose.
Her independent daughter fights back against her intolerable superstitious
mother and there flows some hilarious incidents. Ila Arun is at her best. Her
mind blowing performance will really be appreciated by movie lovers. And so is
Divya Dutt.
There is yet another love story of Rajeshwari , the widow,
and the compounder (Ravi Kishen) upholding another social issue that still
remains unresolved.
The election is now at its end and surprisingly Munnibai wins.
There is more but let that side of the
tale remain untold.
Ashok Mishra’s lyrics and Shantanu Moitra’s composition have
combined to produce some beautiful songs well integrated with the plot.
And to conclude a must watch movie that can only be enjoyed
watching rather than reading reviews.
