Postcards from India
As a tribute to Shyam Benegal who passed away on December 23, 2024, a flashback to one of his rare comedies
Charming, earthy and witty, Shyam Benegal’s Welcome To Sajjanpur is one of the few comedies in the eminent directors vast and varied repertoire. And it boasts of the best dialogue in recent Mumbai cinema—by Ashok Mishra.
Set in the fictional, idyllic village of Sajjanpur, the sweet and sour happenings are seen through the eyes of letter-writer Mahadev (Shreyas Talpade), who uses his thwarted literary ambitions to write colourful letters for the illiterate folks of the village.
From urban India, it is tough to envisage a part of India that has “23 hour power cuts,” so many illiterates, and very little contact with the modern world. Hilariously, a hick with a mobile phone, needs Mahadev to send and read smses for him.
Mahadev’s love for a simple potter Kamla (Amrita Rao) leads him to try to fudge her letters and wreck her marriage with her husband (a star making a surprise appearance) in Mumbai, but his repentance and reparation is touching too.
Around his mostly uneventful life, is the romance with the compounder (Ravi Kishen) with a widow (Rajeshwari Sachdev), a mother’s (Ila Arun) worry about her manglik daughter (Divya Dutta) and the local eunuch (Ravi Jhankal) taking on the ‘sarpanch’ (Yashpal Sharma) in the elections.
The recreation of the village milieu is authentic—the houses as well as the costumes—and shot lovingly by Rajan Kothari. The problem with the film is that the central track is too slight, and the subsidiary characters not suitably fleshed out. Caste, class and community that are so strong in rural India, barely raise a head, even during the election episode. The tragedy of the widow and her suitor is too briefly dismissed. And the songs just hold up the narrative without adding anything to the film.
Benegal has always got very good performances from his repertory of favorites (like Rajeshwari Sachdev and Ila Arun), but he manages to make Amrita Rao to get out of her simpering act and deliver a lovely performance as the shy and lonely abandoned bride. Ravi Jhankal is impressive as the eunuch, but it is Shreyas Talpade, eyes brimming with mischief and unruffled body language, who holds the film together.
With its minor flaws, Welcome to Sajjanpur is enjoyable in a very gentle, offbeat way—just don’t expect Priyadarshan style comedy here.
