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. But there, Rishi is kidnapped by
terrorists who want one of their leaders Wasim Khan released in
exchange for Rishi. In a land where she doesn't even know the
language, Roja struggles to get her husband released unscathed.
Manirathnam serves up a perfect blend of patriotism and romance
without going overboard in either. The words spoken by Arvind
Swamy in captivity are tinged with naturalness and are inspiring
rather than seeming like soulless movie lines. His questions to
Pankaj Kapoor about the terrorism and killings are intelligent
and are an expression of the questions that arise in our minds
whenever we read about violence in Kashmir. The scene where he
douses the burning Indian flag, with Rahman's rousing background
music, is scintillating and is guaranteed to generate a
patriotic fervour, even in the most cynical of Indians. The
scene where a simple act like breaking a coconut at the temple
brings soldiers to the scene is a telling sign of the volatility
of the situation there.
The first half of the movie is no less engaging with no shortage
of Manirathnam's trademark cute touches. The entire sequence,
where Arvind goes to the village, is skilfully done with some
subtle humor involving the oldies in the village. The playful
interactions between Arvind and Madhubala(like when he places a
cigarette in her mouth in the split second his mother has her
back turned to them) are cute and funny. Madhubala's anger when
she thinks she has taken her sister's place and her softening up
after realising the truth are picturised naturally. There is
also a scene in the second half, where Arvind makes Madhubala
wear his sweater, that lightens the heavy mood of the second
half without seeming out-of-place.
Roja is a complete movie in that there is no aspect of it that
comes up short. Manirathnam proved that he had an eye for genius
by picking A.R.Rahman, who had so far been composing commercial
jingles, as the music director. With a superb soundtrack, Rahman
gave notice of his talent and started on a hugely successful
career that shows no signs of slowing down even 10 years after
this. Chinna Chinna Aasai... is catchy and has some wonderful
lyrics by Vairamuthu. Pudhu Vellai Mazhai... and Kaadhal Rojaave...
are soothing and melodious while Rukkumani... is rowdy. Santosh
Sivan's camera captures both the greenery of the village in
TamilNadu and the snowcapped peaks of Kashmir with elan. A
couple of well-placed close-up shots(like the droplet of water
on Madhubala's shoulder) take our breath away. Dialogs by
Sujatha are intelligent and add a sense of believability to many
scenes. The point where Madhubala asks Nasser why the life of
her husband is worth less than that of a Minister's daughter is
a classic.
Arvind Swamy piggybacked on Roja's success to become a
heartthrob to millions of girls in TamilNadu. He performs well
in the scenes in captivity. Madhubala, probably one of the most
underrated actresses, comes up with a surprisingly strong
performance. Her outbursts at Nasser and the terrorist in jail
are delivered convincingly and she brings out the trauma of a
woman who has lost her husband in a land that is foreign to her
when she spots Arvind's photo in the paper but has no idea what
the accompanying caption says. Nasser and Janakaraj do their
jobs well. Pankaj Kapoor manages to bring out the humanity in
his character of the terrorist.
Roja is one of the most fragrant flowers in the garden of tamil
cinema. |
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