Welcome to Sajjanpur | |
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Movie Poster for Welcome to Sajjanpur
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Directed by | Shyam Benegal |
Produced by |
Ronnie Screwvala Chetan Motiwalla |
Written by | Shyam Benegal Ashok Mishra |
Starring |
Shreyas Talpade Amrita Rao Kunal Kapoor Ravi Kishan Ravi Jhankal |
Music by | Shantanu Moitra |
Cinematography | Rajan Kothari |
Edited by | Aseem Sinha |
Production
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Distributed by | UTV Motion Pictures |
Release date
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19 September 2008 |
Running time
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134 mins |
Country | India |
Language | Hindi |
Budget | ₹1.6 million (US$25,000) |
Box office | ₹20 million (US$310,000) |
Welcome to Sajjanpur is a 2008 Hindi comedy film directed by Shyam Benegal and starring Shreyas Talpade and Amrita Rao in the lead roles. The film is by noted Parallel cinema director, Shyam Benegal, marking his return to comedy after filming Charandas Chor (1975). Even though Benegal is responsible for other films in the parallel cinema genre, this film was one of his mainstream Bollywood films. It was a remake of the 1977 film Palkon Ki Chhaon Mein.
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 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 realised his dream of writing a novel.