Welcome to Sajjanpur is a film about…
Uh oh. What IS it about?
Oh yes, it’s about a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Specially that. But it’s a Shyam Benegal film.
In a quaint little village in India lives an educated young man nmed Mahadev. With no job in hand, what he does for a living is to is write out letters for everyone else in the village. Them being clueless and illiterate. Of course Mahadev (Shreyas Talpade) is sometimes mischiveoius nd puts what he wants to in those letters. But he’s basically a good guy.
Life begins peacefully enough. Until Mahadev meets his childhood crush, Kamla (Amrita Rao0. Pretty, innocent, appealing – and married. kamla is waiting forever for news from her husband who is far away in Bombay, apparently trying to make money. She gets the ever-willing Mahadev to write to him. And Mahadev, wanting her all to himself, severely edits each letter to ensure that the two get adequately upset with one another.
Meanwhile the film ambles on to other stories. A eunach is fighting elections. A compounder is trying to marry the widowed duaghter of an ex millitaryman. and a mother is convinced she must marry her daughter off. It ambles and ambles, clip-clopping through one or the other story, reluctant to settle on any one, being funny and grim in turns. It’s full of little sermons and lessons and clear-cut messages. Each of the little stories has its own shocking chapter. In the end… well, in the end everything just sorts itself out, as it must, leaving Mahadev a lot less mischevious than be began with.
Someone wake me up already.