Product Details

• Actors: Shreyas Talpade, Amrita Rao, Divya Dutta, Rajeshwari
• Directors: Shyam Benegal
• Format: Anamorphic, Dolby, NTSC, Widescreen
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Number of discs: 1
• Studio: UTV Spotboy
• DVD Release Date: November 26, 2008
• Run Time: 138 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001LTY9LA
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #168,114 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Original UTV Motion Pictures DVD

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars unwelcome in Sajjanpur, February 15, 2009

By 

H. Bala "Me Too Can Read" (Just moved to posh Marina Del Rey, CA - where if you drop a quarter, why, you just keep on walking) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Welcome to Sajjanpur (2008)(DvD/Hindi Film/Bollywood/Indian Cinema/Comedy/Shreyas Thalpade)1 (DVD)

In the tiny, mostly uneducated population of the Sajjanpur village, Mahadev (Shreyas Talpade) stands out as one of the few who's had formal schooling. Thus, he spends much of his time composing letters for the town illiterates and for those lacking that knack for communicating in prose. So Madahev's cleverly written words impact many lives, his pen particularly determining the fates of a compounder (re: doctor/pharmacist) besotted with a young widow, a frazzled matronly woman who wants to marry off her spinster daughter literally to a dog, a drag queen wanting to run for mayor, and, most especially, the beautiful Kamla the potter (Amrita Rao), an old classmate with whom Mahadev falls madly in love. So it's not cool that Kamla is already married.

After Shreyas Talpade's stellar performance in Iqbal, I was anticipating a bounty of goodness in this movie. But a couple of things factor into making WELCOME TO SAJJANPUR a lethargic viewing experience. Most notably, the pace drags for much of the film. It may have been a mistake to allot so much screen time to Talpade's supporting cast, given that their ancillary slice-of-life stories aren't so absorbing. I nodded off several times during the watching of this, and had to rewatch it the day after just to see if it was that bad and that slow (and it was). The songs are unspectacular and the humor is coarse and fraught with uber cheese, which is routine for the common denominator Bollywood flick. It's too talky, with much of the dialogue falling flat (that is, if the sub-titles hold true to the actual dialogue). Amrita Rao, terrific in Vivah and Main Hoon Na, here gets handed a one-note role. Shreyas Talpade, so memorable as the deaf and dumb Iqbal, keeps things afloat, but is disserviced by a plodding story.

Probably one of the things I disliked most about the film is that it introduces an unsavory element into Mahadev's personality. So the village scribe falls in love with the forlorn village belle Kamla, whose husband for four years now has been away toiling in the big city. I cringed in those scenes in which Mahadev sabotages Kamla's letters to her husband and then purposely misreads her husband's written responses. How could this possibly end in a happy way?

Expect a twisting near the film's end, resulting in a reversal of several fortunes (one of which was fairly horrific) and a convenient resolution to the spinster's wedding to a dog. The twist is interesting, one I didn't see coming. But it's not enough to stem this film's tidal wave of ennui.

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best Hindi movie, March 3, 2011

By 

sawani hore - See all my reviews

This review is from: Welcome to Sajjanpur (2008)(DvD/Hindi Film/Bollywood/Indian Cinema/Comedy/Shreyas Thalpade)1 (DVD)

This movie is quiet good , songs are really nice unexpectedly.
I started seeing this movie without knowing the fact it was Benegal's movie . Most of the time
I fast forward most Bollywood movies to if there is something interesting or may be funny.
But this movie was not out and out comedy but very interesting , I was curious to see if the director can continue
the good stuff till the end. Dialogues are simple ,at times satirical and ofcourse witty.
In between I heard couple of nice songs combined with very good playback music .
Very nice love story. At the end of the movie I was curious to find out more details about the movie and I found it was Benegals movie. The reason I missed it was I have skipped first 2-3 minutes and treated it like other hindi movies.
I was so impressed by the movie watched it again.
This is how a movie should be made , it sends right message and very powerful one.

4.0 out of 5 stars The power of the pen!, February 4, 2011

By 

SANJEEV HASTIMAL SANDH (Mumbai, INDIA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Welcome to Sajjanpur (2008)(DvD/Hindi Film/Bollywood/Indian Cinema/Comedy/Shreyas Thalpade)1 (DVD)

There is never a dull moment in this movie, which is a story told through the eyes of a town letter -writer who sits bang outside the post office and services the population (mainly uneducated females) which cannot or does not write its own letters.

This `writer' is a bachelor and the story demonstrates the power of his pen.

There is an election campaign where a goodhearted transvestite is pitted against the local bigwig. There are spinsters, widows, paramedics, women whose husbands work in the city and a proud, retired army man. There are no gruesome baddies in this movie, which is a well directed mainstream Hindi movie.

The bachelor angles for the wife- with- husband- away- in- the- city, but ends up being a Good Samaritan to the couple. And, there are the snake charmer father and son, seller of esoteric oils with magical powers. The acerbic spinster runs away from her symbolic `astrological marriage' and the bachelor is smitten.

The Director is famous for his movies, and this one too does not disappoint. Shreyas Talpade, as the writer, has delivered a stellar performance.

Good prevails over evil in this movie at every turn but the story does not leave the realm of realism. It's a charged, hilarious and racy narration of the extraordinary events of a sleepy little town!

This movie is a great family entertainer, a `must see', and I have not come across anyone yet, who didn't like the movie!