Welcome to Sajjanpur to be shown in London Festival

Mumbai, Sep 13 (UNI) A delightful satire on rural India, 'Welcome to Sajjanpur', the latest offering of veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal, has made it to the London Film Festival, beginning October 15.

The film, presented by UTV SpotBoy, would feature in the Competition section of the World Cinema at the festival on October 25 at OWE 1. The next day the film would be screened at Waterman's Art Centre. There would also be UK and European premieres of the film, according to a release here.

'Welcome to Sajjanpur' revolves around Mahadev, one of the few educated young men from Sajjanpur, gifted with a flair for words.

His ambition is to be a novelist. But life's circumstances demand that he eke out a living by writing letters. So, he sits next to the post-office and writes letters for all and sundry. His letter-writing is persuasive and powerful and that makes him popular with the largely non-literate population of the town.

Soon Mahadev uses his talent to manipulate people with amusing and sometimes not so amusing results. The film is entertaining, musical and comic interpretation of characters and events that are at once hilarious and poignant.

''Welcome to Sajjanpur is a journey to the real India and shares with you some harsh and some not so harsh realities of that India.

It also brings alive the simplicity and the beauty of the heartland, which is far removed from the city life. It is Mr Benegal's supreme and uncorrupted storytelling style that makes you enjoy thoroughly the ride to this India'' said Vikas Bahl, COO UTV Spotboy Motion Pictures.

The film's cast included Shreyas Talpade, Ravi Kishan, Divya Datta, Amrita Rao and others follow on the trail of other Benegal films, which were screened at the London Film Festival. These include path-breaking ventures like, Manthan, Kondura, Mandi, Trikaal, Susman, Suraj ka Saatwaan Ghoda and Samar.

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