- Welcome to Sajjanpur
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Welcome to Sajjanpur 
Movie Poster for Welcome to SajjanpurDirected by Shyam Benegal Produced by Ronnie Screwvala
Chetan MotiwallaWritten by Shyam Benegal
Ashok MishraStarring Shreyas Talpade
Amrita Rao
Kunal Kapoor
Ravi Kishan
Ravi JhankalMusic by Shantanu Moitra Cinematography Rajan Kothari Editing by Aseem Sinha Studio IX Faces Pictures Distributed by UTV Spotboy Motion Pictures Release date(s) 19 September 2008 Running time 134 mins Country India Language Hindi Budget Rs 9.3 Crore Welcome to Sajjanpur is 2008 Hindi comedy film directed by Shyam Benegal, it stars Shreyas Talpade and Amrita Rao in the lead roles. This film is entirely based on the storyline inspired from director Meraj for his immensely popular classic “Palkon Ki Chhaon Mein” released in 1977 starring Rajesh Khanna and written by Gulzar. The film is by noted Parallel cinema director, Shyam Benegal, returns to comedy after his film, Charandas Chor (1975). Even though Shyam Benegal does more films in the parallel cinema genre, this film was one of his mainstream Bollywood films.
Contents
Plot
Mahadev (Shreyas Talpade) is an unemployed graduate with a Bachelor of Arts from Satna college, who is forced to make a living writing letters for the uneducated people of his village. His real ambition is to become a novel writer. Through his humble occupation, Mahadev has the potential to impact numerous lives. The movie is a satirical, but warm-hearted portrait of life in rural India.
Among Mahadev's customers are:
- Mahadev's childhood crush Kamla (Amrita Rao) is desperate for communication from her husband Bansi Ram (Kunal Kapoor), who works as a laborer at a dockyard in Mumbai. In the letters to her husband, a jealous Mahadev writes the opposite of the loving messages Kamla wants to convey, while faking what her husband has written to her.
- A hurried mother (Ila Arun) who wants to get her manglik daughter, Vindhya (Divya Dutta) married.
- A landlord whose wife is a candidate for the village Sarpanch, and who wants all her political rivals eliminated from the race.
- A eunuch Munni who is contesting the elections for the village Sarpanch but fears the threats from the landlord.
- A love-lorn compounder, Ram Kumar (Ravi Kishan), who is crazy about the widowed daughter-in-law Shobha Rani (Rajeshwari Sachdev) of a retired army soldier.
Mahadev manages to get his friend engaged, police protection for Munni, and almost kisses Kamla before they are interrupted. However Munni is seriously injured in the head, and he learns a shocking truth about Kamla's husband.It soon turns out that the story was a fictional novel written by the real Mahadev, but it is mostly based on his own experiences. Though it turns out that some of the villagers didn't exactly have happy endings, Mahadev sorts out his mistakes and accomplishes his long-held dream of writing a novel.
As Mahadev, under pseudo name Sukhdev, reveals that Munnibai became a successful politician, becoming an MLA, or a Member of the State Legislature, with high connections and powerful people surrounding her. It is also revealed that Kamla and Bansi are happy in small house in Mumbai, who come to visit Sajjanpur every Diwali. In midst of all these good news, Mahadev notes that Ram Kumar and Shobha Rani were lynched because members of their community opposed a widow getting re-married. Mahadev also notes that he got married to Vindhya, the manglik, after wooing her by writing 40 letters. While most people consider a manglik to be a great misfortune, Mahadev notes that he became successful due to his marriage, as he paid down his farm land mortgage, built a wonderful house and realized his dream of writing a novel.
Cast
Main cast
- Shreyas Talpade as Mahadev Kushwaha
- Amrita Rao as Kamla Kumharan
Other cast in supporting roles
- Ravi Kishan as Ram Kumar
- Ravi Jhankal as Munnibai Mukhanni
- Yashpal Sharma as Ramsingh
- Rajeshwari Sachdev as Shobha Rani
- Divya Dutta as Vindhya
- Ila Arun as Ramsakhi Pannawali
- Kunal Kapoor as Bansi
- Lalit Mohan Tiwari as Subedar Singh
- Rajit Kapur as Collector
- Vineeta Malik (Kamla's mother-in-law)
- Dayashankar Pandey as Chidamiram Naga Sapera
- Sri Vallabh Vyas as Ramavtar Tyagi (Masterji)
Soundtrack
Music of the film is by Shantanu Moitra. The music was released on 5 September 2008.[1], there are a total of seven songs in the soundtrack including one remix.
- Sitaram Sitaram - KK
- Ek Meetha Marz De Ke - Madhushree, Mohit Chauhan
- Bheeni Bheeni Mehki Mehki - KK, Shreya Ghoshal
- Dildara Dildara - Sunidhi Chauhan, Sonu Nigam
- Aadmi Azaad Hai - Kailash Kher
- Munni Ki Baari - Ajay Jhingran
- Sitaram Sitaram (Remix) - KK
Reception
Upon its release, an Indiatimes review said, "Shyam Benegal has always been accredited as a mesmerizing storyteller known for making ‘meaningful’ cinema. This time he also caters to commercial consumers, coming up with his most ‘entertaining’ attempt, by far."[2]Although this film was a remake of Rajesh Khanna's “Palkon Ki Chhaon Mein”, which is regarded as a classic but had become an unexpected box office flop in 1977, this film managed to be successful commercially too.
References
- ^ Welcome to Sajjanpur Songs Listing
- ^ Welcome to Sajjanpur - Review Indiatimes.com, 19 September 2008.
External links
- Official Welcome to Sajjanpur Website
- Welcome to Sajjanpur at the Internet Movie Database
- Sen, Meheli (2011) “Vernacular Modernities and Fitful Globalities in Shyam Benegal’s Cinematic Provinces”, in: manycinemas 1, 8-22, Online, pdf-version
Films directed by Shyam Benegal Ankur (1974) • Charandas Chor (1975) • Nishant (1975) • Manthan (1976) • Bhumika (1977) • Kondura (1978) • Junoon (1978) • Anugraham (1978) • Kalyug (1980) • Arohan (1982) • Mandi (1983) • Trikal (1985) • Susman (1987) • Antarnaad (1991) • Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda (1993) • Mammo (1994) • Sardari Begum (1996) • The Making of the Mahatma (1996) • Samar (1999) • Hari-Bhari (2000) • Zubeidaa (2001) • Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero (2005) • Welcome to Sajjanpur (2008) Well Done Abba (2010)
Bollywood (Hindi cinema) 
Hindi films A–Z — Highest-grossing
Films by year: 1930s · 1940 · 1941 · 1942 · 1943 · 1944 · 1945 · 1946 · 1947 · 1948 · 1949 · 1950 · 1951 · 1952 · 1953 · 1954 · 1955 · 1956 · 1957 · 1958 · 1959 · 1960 · 1961 · 1962 · 1963 · 1964 · 1965 · 1966 · 1967 · 1968 · 1969 · 1970 · 1971 · 1972 · 1973 · 1974 · 1975 · 1976 · 1977 · 1978 · 1979 · 1980 · 1981 · 1982 · 1983 · 1984 · 1985 · 1986 · 1987 · 1988 · 1989 · 1990 · 1991 · 1992 · 1993 · 1994 · 1995 · 1996 · 1997 · 1998 · 1999 · 2000 · 2001 · 2002 · 2003 · 2004 · 2005 · 2006 · 2007 · 2008 · 2009 · 2010 · 2011Categories:- 2008 films
- Hindi-language films
- Films directed by Shyam Benegal
- Indian comedy films
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