Hey guys!! I just saw a movie named Welcome to Sajjanpur (by Shyam Benegal) and was thinking about it...
In case u haven't yet seen the movie, do watch it.
The movie starts with the description of the village of how a village "Durjanpur" was renamed as "Sajjanpur", and how the villagers have turned bad (durjan) from good (sajjan). It's a story of a typical Indian village, which is backward in true sense (at least depicted in better way than ne other bolly movie). It depicts the lifes of actual villagers, their daily lives and behaviour.
The movie contains perverts, criminals, bitches, ignorant ppl, naïve ppl, power-hungry bastards. But the way each character is depicted and the way the script goes, u’ll laugh at almost every situation. Punch-lines are abundant in the movie and the use of typical village language n vocab actually tickles u.
One thing that all of us failed to realize, at that point of time, was the actual message that was being presented to us. Throughout the movie, the message that was being projected was that life in an Indian village is pathetic. No. This is not an overstatement actually. The condition is truly pathetic.
The entire movie is full of examples verifying so. (I don’t know whether I’ve described the egs properly or not. The best thing would be to watch the movie to understand them)
1. a case of rape n murder of a minor by son of powerful person was addressed without even mentioning those words. The entire sequence actually sounds funny when u see it in movie.
2. throughout the movie the pervert mind of a guy manipulates an innocent girl.
3. widow remarriage, though accepted by family, was still unacceptable to “society”. The way that incident ends is horrid!
4. an independent girl is being forced to marry off to some bloody dog, just becoz she is “manglik”.
5. an innocent man standing for elections of Sarpanch is removed from candidature just becoz opponent idiot wrote a letter to Collector saying tht tht guy is a spy!! And they believed the letter contents… Also would like to add that the innocent guy was a muslim. I hope u understand my point.
All these incidents were shown in a very light manner. I mean we all were like laughing at the situation.
For the villagers, all these incidents weren’t really a big deal. Like in the 4th case, the entire village was there to see the girl get married to tht dog, n when she tries to run away, the entire bloody village runs behind her to get her back.
Till the movie neared the end, I didn’t understand the actual meaning of the movie. But when I saw that girl running to save herself, a thought just ran through me. This is just a movie. The actress is supposed to run off. But in real life, this isn’t what happens. The marriage takes place. The girl is wedded off to a dog. And all that just becoz she was born such that she was “manglik”!
I don’t know whether the rest of the gang even thought about the movie after we left the hall. Majority of them didn’t really like the movie.
I initially hated the movie too, but luckily didn’t walk off in interval. I’m happy I sat through the entire show. I’m sad that unfortunately the movie was based on reality. Each aspect that was shown is an issue in itself. The dark sides of society have been portrayed in a very subtle manner.
Welcome to Sajjanpur is an excellent movie; but only if u understand the hidden meaning behind it. Else to an otherwise ignorant person, the movie will either be a comedy or a crap or waste-of-time sort of movie.
Had the movie been made on a serious note rather than as a comedy, it may have had a deeper impact on people, but definitely the number of ppl watching it also may have reduced big time. I feel so.
