Roja

This movie gets a 10/10 simply because of its uniqueness but that does not mean that it is not without flaws. I'll get to that later. The terrorism component has been shown very disturbingly. The big flaw I feel is that which the director discovered but failed to exploit fully. I'm talking about the language barriers between the north and south and how frustrating it can be especially in the light of a tragedy. Well he might have actually done more than I can remember because I saw this movie more than a decade ago. The most important thing about this movie that it was AR Rehman's débutant music score, before which he was just doing just music for advertisements. Well done Mani Ratnam for exploiting AR Rehman fully.

The threat of terrorists in India meshed with mild romance is the summary of this movie. Roja(the rose) the heroine is an innocent girl whose newly wed husband gets kidnapped by Pakistani terrorists. The story revolves around how she runs from pillar to post to get her husband freed. The movie is quite intense in the later parts.

Roja is a film that many feel has been a turning point in Indian cinema. The North, that usually gets all the media hype & coverage in spite of poor techniques and stories got a slap on its face when this Tamil movie was dubbed in Hindi, to enable the larger population to watch this film with a topical theme (of Kashmiri militancy). Movies from the South have always been better in content and form compared to the North. And this movie created that awareness amongst the public there, and its success encouraged many other films to be dubbed in Hindi.

And many a star was born:

1. Mani Ratnam (who had given better films like Mouna Ragam, Nayakan, Geetanjali and Anjali before)

2. A R Rahman aka Dileep Shekar: The man who brought in the New Sound to the Indian film music (lest they forget Music Maestro Ilayaraja's genius, with whom he was a lead keyboard player once) and threat to the copycats of yore: The Annu Maliks and the Anand Milinds

3. Santosh Sivan: The cinematographer, now-turned director

4. Arvind Swamy: The chubby-cheeked fair-skinned hero who appealed to the color-conscious Northies. And his patriotic fervour was well lapped up.

5. Madhoo: The ugly duckling as she was presented in her debut movie was transformed into a lovely and believable Roja- a village belle in awe of the city life and courageous when her life becomes hell with her husband's abduction.

What was interestingly presented in the Tamil Original (but lost completely in the Hindi version, as every character speaks Hindi) was the language problem she faces in the North.

I watched the film thrice.

Roja (1992) : Brief Review -

An early 90s Sensation about Hardcore Patriotism and Hardcore Love. Roja is first of it's kind of theme by Mani Ratnam where he set the love story in the Terrorism atmosphere. He succeeded fulfilling both of them on high note and most importantly he did it positively and without any gimmicks. Roja is a sensation because it came in early 90s, an year before Riot Events took place in India or else the impact and disturbing theme would have fizzled to stand out. And also because Bollywood and South cinema had just started enjoying Masala Films filled with Machoism and Love Triangle based on Sacrifice, but then Roja came with a Love Story set in Sensitive and more realistic atmosphere. Kashmir's backdrop is always sensitive and fragile topic for Indian Movies because if you make just 1 small mistake, only god knows how people are gonna outburst and make it big issue. Fortunately Roja is a safe film cinematically and logically both. The patriotic theme sustains and evokes people to show thier love for the country and at the same time the Love Story runs smoothly. Arvind Swani and Madhoo both provides solid acts and even supporting cast is really good. Roja is truly by all mean a staggering debut for Music Maestro AR Rahman. Each and Every song is Awesome, even the worst case ends at Good. Dialogues are Fantastic, that's it. Kudos for Mani Ratnam for attempting a gutsy product much earlier than expected. He wrote an amazing script and justified it fully with his direction. Probably, the first time Love Story and Patriotism have been bounded together therefore creating a sensational Roja. I hated his 'Dil Se' for the Dumb characterisation but Roja doesn't have anything like that and lives upto all essential elements of Quality Filmmaking. Roja is an early 90s Classic which still manages to hold its impact despite several attempts on same theme.

RATING - 8/10*

By - #samthebestest

For once it is reasonably clear why the heroine falls in love with the hero, and also the motivation of the hero, even if it is unlikely, is well presented. This was one of the few movies that actually made me cry, and its images of Kashmir are beautiful.