Roja is probably Manirathnam's biggest commercial and critical success to date. Though diluted considerably, he skilfully brings to screen the volatile situation in Kashmir with this tale of a woman from a small village in Tamil Nadu who sees her husband being kidnapped by terrorists and struggles to get him back unharmed. Sure it is quite a lightweight treatment of a serious issue but he can be commended for bringing the issue to light. Roja is entertaining while at the same time showing us all sides of the issues in Kashmir.

Rishi Kumar(Arvind Swamy), a computer engineer born and brought up in Madras, has his heart set on wedding a village girl. He arrives in the village to see Senbagam(Vaishnavi) but when she asks him to 'reject' her since she is in love with another man, he points to her sister Roja(Madhubala) as the woman he wishes to marry. Roja, who is initially angry at the turn of events, has a change of heart when she learns the real reason behind why Rishi opted to wed her instead of her sister. An unexpected honeymoon to Kashmir comes up when Rishi's boss falls ill and Rishi has to take his place...        [ More ]