Welcome to Sajjanpur

Welcome to Sajjanpur
I happened to watch 'Welcome to Sajjanpur', a movie by Shyam Benegal on DVD recently. One of the better movies I've watched of late. A squeaky clean comedy movie set in a village by name Sajjanpur (renamed from Durjanpur on orders from Jawaharlal Nehru !)in contemproray times.

In a village where most of the population is illiterate, the protagonist is a man - Mahadev - who has set up a shop outside the post office and makes a living by writing/reading letters for others. The story is mostly about incidents revolving around what people ask Mahadev to write and read in their letters.
A transvestite contesting the local Sarpanch elections, a 'compounder' who falls in love with the widowed daughter-in-law of an ex-service man, a harried mother who wants to get her daughter married off, Mahadev himself who finds himself falling in love with a lady who comes to him to write to her husband of 4 years working in Mumbai, all make up for a charming narrative.

As it turns out towards the end, the entire movie is the subject matter for a novel being written by Mahadev, under the pseudonym of Sukhdev. Although some of these incidents don't have happy endings the feel-good factor of the movie as such is unmistakable.

A low budget film involving low budget actors. Not sure if it would have gown down well with the Metro audiences. It certainly went down well with me.

Wolves in sheep clothing

Given the rate at which godmen with dubious credentials are getting involved in scams and facing prosecution (persecution also ?), I foresee these below par sadhus getting together and forming an union. I can see it now - All India Sadhu Welfare and Upliftment Union (R).
Entry criteria would include the following but not be limited to:

At least one case of money laundering/molest/cheating/land grab registered against candidate.
Candidate should have spent at least one week in a prominent jail
Preference would be given to candidates who have linkups with leading film actresses
Preference would be given to candidates belonging to minority communities
Candidate's speeches should have been telecast on regional TV channels

The activities of the Union would include
Getting bail for members lodged in jails
Engage lawyers
PR

Well, I can only hope things don't come to such a pass. But seriously, I think the proliferation in the numbers of sadhus with dubious antecedents is a classic example of supply and demand. In today's rat race, dog-eat-dog world, happiness is at a premium. Everybody understands that. Everybody also knows that religion and spiritualism has the answer. But unfortunately, very few people understand how to use religion and spiritualism to get happiness. The vast majority are confused.
This section of population has left itself totally open for exploitation by unscruplous merchants of religion. They are sitting ducks, as it were.
So anybody with a penchant for marketing/public relations and possessing the gift of gab peddling stuff remotely resembling spiritualism is a magnet for these unfortunate people. People flock in large numbers behind these sadhus in the hope of increasing their happiness quotient.

But more often than not, the law of averages soon catches up with these sadhus. One can't fool everybody all the time, you see.
What follows is what we saw in the case of the now infamous Nityananda.