Welcome to Sajjanpur (2008)

Truly Dreadful Film

Dreadfully Boring

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Superb acting by the whole team especially Shreyas Talpade. A very good storyline which is something very difficult to find these days. I could not predict what was going to happen next. There was a nice blend of subtle comedy, emotions, tragedy - nothing over the top. Kept me wanting to see more of the movie. The sub plots are nothing really new but the way they were shown were interesting. I really like the hero's character - overall good guy but with a few naughty thoughts. I wish there was a bit more screen time from Divya Dutta and Kunal Kapoor.

ONE OF BENEGAL'S BEST WELCOME TO SAJJANPUR brings caricatures from real life, with anecdotes that would have you either rolling down the aisle or push you into deep thought. It is a mirror of the caste-ridden, male-dominated, superstition-riddled, and employment-less society of north India. The story is set in a fictional village called Sajjanpur. We do not know where this place is exactly, but the characters talk of other nearby places like Gorakhpur, Jaunpur and Satna. Gorakhpur and Jaunpur are well-known places in eastern Uttar Pradesh while Satna is in Madhya Pradesh. So it could be concluded that WELCOME TO SAJJANPUR is a story about nearly the whole of the "Cow-Belt of India", that is, the underdeveloped states like Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, which are, as mentioned above, caste-ridden, male-dominated, superstition-riddled, and employment-less.The main character is a young man called Mahadev Kushwaha (Shreyas Talpade) who is one of the few literate people in this village. Mahadev wants to become a novelist but finds himself working as the letter-writer and letter-reader of the illiterate folk of the village. As his name suggests, he is a Kurmi by caste. His childhood sweetheart Kamla (Amrita Rao), who belongs to the potter caste, is married for four years and comes to him to get letters written to her husband Bansi who is a migrant labourer in Mumbai. Through Kamla's letters to Bansi and Bansi's letters to Kamla we catch a glimpse of the lives of migrant labourers from India's underdeveloped working in India's metros.Other characters include a rich Rajput, Ram Singh (Yashpal Sharma) who is hell-bent on making his wife Jamuna – who is wanted for murdering the girl her son had tried to rape – and through this anecdote we are told about the increasing clout of criminals in India's political system. Ram Singh moves around the entire village on a big motorcycle – a black Bajaj Pulsar – with a gun-toting elderly uncle on the pillion. In Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh it is quite common to see such "rich and powerful" people roaming around in big motorcycles and SUVs with fully armed bodyguards. There is a eunuch Munnibai (Ravi Jhankal) who contests against Ram Singh's wife to oppose the candidature of a criminal. A perennially nervous elderly aunt Ramsakhi (Ila Arun) is worried about her born-on-a-Saturday (and hence unlucky) daughter Bindiya (Divya Dutta) and in order to bring her good luck wishes to marry her off to a dog first as advised by shamans and astrologers. The problem? The dog, too, has to be born on a Saturday and has to have half his tail black and the other half white. The fact that her daughter is educated, has a job and rides a two-wheeler does not make any difference to her. Finally, there are the lovebirds. Ram Kumar (Ravi Kishen) dares to fall in love with a widow, Shobha (Rajeshwari Sachdev), and marries her. They are later killed for defying the norms of the society. There is also a street play anecdote in the film where the villagers are shown to oppose the building of a factory in their village. Mahadev, who wrote the play, is accused of having a revolutionary intention and he is scared on being accused so. Armed rebellions have become common in northern India and villagers are often rounded up by the police for supporting the rebels. The Street Play anecdote and Mahadev's fear, perhaps, underline this very reality.With true-to-life characters and incidents brought alive on the screen by a celebrated filmmaker and his bunch of well-chosen actors, WELCOME TO SAJJANPUR is a delightful film which, I believe, serves its purpose well. That is, presenting a slice of life in northern India. It is hard to pick out any one actor as the best for all of them are so good. But I personally loved Amrita Rao's transition from a Bollywood girl to a veiled village woman who dreams of going to her husband who she has not seen for four years. She suits this role. This is the third time after 'Ishq Vishq' and 'Vivah' that I liked Amrita's work. Ravi Kishen's lover boy role is very touching. He loves this widow but does not know how to tell her and he ends up in so many humorous circumstances because of it. And I liked Ila Arun and Divya Dutta. Arun, as the screaming, fussy mother and Dutta, as her motor-mouth, opinionated daughter, will surely have the viewers falling out of their seats.WELCOME TO SAJJANPUR is a very good movie. Its only drawback are its songs. There are not too many songs but the thing is they are not good and they are placed at the wrong times. Only one song – "Sitaram Sitaram", which works as the theme song – is worth hearing. WELCOME TO SAJJANPUR is not the usual Bollywood fare so director Shyam Benegal could have done away with the songs, they just slacken the pace of an otherwise well-paced movie. Everything else is perfect. The sets are really rural. The clothes, the mannerisms, everything. Though quite mainstream, WELCOME TO SAJJANPUR is one of the best from Shyam Benegal.My rating: 9/10.

This film is a treat to watch and in recent times one of the very few films which leave a beautiful after taste in the mouth long after the titles have been displayed. This film is a creation so rare, displaying a fine balance between satire, ridicule, humour and all the while making the viewer aware of the dark side of life. Many aspects of the film bear the stamp of the Master that Mr Benegal is, and like a rare wine , he has only kept improving with the passage of years. The acting is first rate, with Shreyas Talpade carrying the film through on his capable shoulders, ably supported by most of the other cast. The editing is crisp and never does any sequence appear in any way out of the cohesive well knit fabric of human lives which make up Sajjanpur. Its an amazing film and should deserve many more accolades and International recognition than what has been received by it.It is a shame that it has not been nominated for the Oscars or the Golden Globe.

There's very little plot and the pace is meandering in this Shyam Benegal comedy. It's basically a slice-of-life movie about the inhabitants of a small village Sajjanpur. Numerous subplots abound, some of which are interesting, but the film on the whole is too long. Sharper editing would have left a ninety minute feature, which is what the storyline demanded. Still, its not all bad. There is some decent acting, notably from Shreyas Talpade and Ravi Kishan. The music is dull and the songs mostly a distraction. This film is being praised here, but I feel it could have been a lot better.Overall 5/10