An honest film

I was no big fan of Mr.Shyam Benegal, till sometime back. I only knew that he is a director who makes off beat, serious, art movies. But when I saw a simple yet captivating movie made by him - Welcome to Sajjanpur, which is a satire on rural life and its tribulations, I could not help but admire his craft and talent. Instead of investing huge amount of money and wasting time running around so called big stars, he did magic with a lesser known ensemble cast. The movie has comic moments and some good humour. All characters are well defined and their personalities clearly outlined. But more than anything else, he did a commendable job of highlighting so many social issues in a matter of three hours.

Mr.Benegal is a true genius, and he has made a wonderful film, which I have seen at least seven times till date. And today I was compelled to write about it. Just a humble attempt to list down some of the many issues dealt with in the film. For the benefit of those who would care to know what still ails our society, here it goes

• Gender issues like girl child education, Rights of women, remarriage of widows, injustice meted out to rape victims by the society
• One of the biggest problems faced by India today is that of clean drinking water
• Changing of city names by regressive and opportunistic people for their political motives
• Prejudice against Muslims
• Criminalization of our political system, with money and violence as the basis of success in elections rather than a good manifesto
• High rate of illiteracy in a country run by a bunch of illiterate greedy politicians
• Freebies and reservations
• Still looming large is the evil of superstition, outdated rituals and blind faith
• Migration of rural population to crowded cities, where the poor & unscrupulous people in absence of employment avenues are forced to sell their organs and blood
• Ill trained doctors endangering the lives of people.
• With changing times and advent of technology, there are some new forms of less harmful but equally distracting trends like the chain mails/sms ' forward this mail to 100 people or you will have bad luck'

The list above is not exhaustive; I have only mentioned the ones that I could recall. This film hits you hard and forces you to think about bigger problems in life than just ' I am stuck in a wrong job, I cannot buy the latest mobile phone, I do not have a big car, my friend bought a new house, my life sucks...'

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Dazzling star

This story is about a boy who had a magnetic personality and super human qualities. Irrespective of age or gender, he had a knack for winning hearts of all and sundry. As they say in Hindi "Yaaron ka yaar tha woh."

He was full of zeal, excitement and love. Talking about passions, he had two of these which I can recall, one was a beautiful girl with blue eyes (he was only sixteen at that time), and second was his fixation for body building. He was obsessed about good physique and would stand in front of the mirror, always trying to figure out if he has a perfect "V" shaped body. But, his charisma was in his big expressive eyes, and an attractive face with a light chocolate coloured complexion.

A popular guy in the neighbourhood, even his parents were known by his name. Inside the house also, he was the beloved clown, bringing smile to everyone's face. But he was more than a funny guy, he had a golden heart.

The boy had a younger cousin who was an average student, but he had a lot of trust in her abilities. Always encouraging her to study hard and come at the top of the class. I remember that year when he was very sick and confined to bed, he was still worried about her performance. The girl eventually followed his advice and did very well in her exams . In fact, her academic results never went down again. But before she could share the success with her brother, he was already on a different journey.

It's been more than a decade now that he left his grieving family for heavenly abode. Losing a child is the biggest loss for any parent. But his parents were no ordinary people, they were brave, strong and special. They not only continued to live life, they even gave a young girl a chance and an opportunity to live.

This is a tribute to the boy and his parents; together they symbolize the spirit of life.

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