A good movie is a also good reason to crib..

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
-Leonardo Da Vinci

I don't even remember when or where I read that quote, but it kept coming back to me while watching 'Welcome to Sajjanpur'. The movie very successfully captures the true picture of a contemporary village. The simple life, where superstitions still reign, the worries and hopes and fears and weaknesses and strengths are all very beautifully depicted. Every character feels real, you can almost name someone on which it might be based. The protagonist is a letter writer, who is eyes and ears for his mostly illiterate gaonwallahs. But what happens if he starts putting his own feelings in letters written for others? You'll have to watch the movie to find out.

The movie also brought the topic of real letters back to my mind. Call me prehistoric, but while a kid, I have written letters on a real postcard with a real pen, mostly to my grandparents. But now with mobile and sms in every home, letter writing is almost extinct (The movie even has in a scene our protagonist writing a sms chitthi). What we write is mostly emails (and some rants blog entries). And no need to tell, it's not the same. Letters somehow carried this ineffable charm (something to do, atleast in part, with writing on a paper). But it seems unlikely letters will gain ground again. I would rather not lose the old style, at least.