To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men - that is genius. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
To a person in love, the value of the individual is intuitively known. Love needs no logic for its mission. - Lindbergh, Charles A.
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PROLOGUE
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What can you say about a movie that enthralls you from the moment go? What will you say if it succeeds wildly in creating an ardent interest from the very first minute? What will you say if it is from the best director in India? What will you say if it was a great launcher for one of the greatest music directors from India? What will you say if it was a great movie with a poetic display of patriotism and love? What will you say if it has some of the best performances from some okey-dokey actors, thanks to a great taskmaster? What will you say about a movie that was produced in a studio in chennai, yet give you a symbolic representation of Kashmir? What will you say about a movie that totally enthralled an entire nation of 25 major languages and some 3000 odd dialects? What will you say about a movie that has won so many innumerous awards that speaks volumes about itself?
Well, ROJA is all this and a lot more. Let us read about the movie in the subsequent paragraphs.
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THE PLOT
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The movie has a couple of plots woven beautifully in a poetic way.
The movie starts of with a top cryptologist Rishi(Arvind Swamy) visiting a village in Southern Tamil Nadu for an alliance, as per his wishes. The metro bred Arvind visits the village only to find out that the girl he wanted to see her confessing her love for a close relative. In the meantime he sees Roja’s(Madhu) pranks and is instantly smitten by her. He agrees to marry her. Roja feels a little out of place as she felt her sister was a more deserving one. They move to Chennai and Roja is yet to start her marital life with Rishi yet.
In the meantime Rishi is assigned a posting at an army communications center in Kashmir. Roja, in the meantime, comes to know about the real reason for Rishi choosing her over her sister. Instantly she falls in love and apologizes to Rishi. They go off to Kashmir for their honeymoon and work.
During his tenure, Rishi is captured by terrorists when he comes to know that fearless Roja goes off to a temple in a curfew bound region. He is captured by terrorists, who want “Wasim Khan” who is shown as captured by Indian Military in the initial scenes.
They want an exchange. After a dramatic and persistent try by Roja, after winning the hearts of a soft minister, the government agrees to meet the demand to release a high-profile terrorist for a class-act engineer. Just when the exchange was to happen, Rishi escapes from the terrorists and Wasim is in Jail again. He is captured again. What happens in this story next? See the movie…
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MY ANALYSIS
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The main focus of this movie is terrorism and love at troubled times. Mani has beautifully woven three stories of such grand fashion (4 actually, Dil Se was big mistake as he made it for Hindi audiences). Bombay & Kannathil Muthamittal are some class-acts from Mani. It was Roja which started it all. No one else weaves magic to such a grandeur as Mani does, when it comes to Husband-Wife love & relationship. He also explores the patriotism and the emotions of an army man so beautifully. Loosely based on the kidnapping of an IOC official, Doraiswamy, this movie has beautifully shown the impact of terrorism in normal lives and love, courage and patriotism.
Add to this the award winning and the best-to-date music from AR Rahman, A breathtaking Cinematography from Santosh Sivan (director of Ashoka), A magical art direction and flawless editing from Suresh Urs, beautiful poems of vairamuthu, this movie is the best of kind for its time technically.
As many would agree that this is the best movie about terrorism in India. Although Maachis is a poetic one too, this one is just way too good. Being an ardent taskmaster, Mani has done some excellent job in getting Madhu act beautifully. Nasser as Army man has done an excellent job too. Arvind Swamy, (in his fifteen minutes of fame), has done a magical role that everyone dreams and envies about. The song picturization and locales are just simply excellent.
One thing you might sorely miss is the comical moments. Given the sensitivity of the subject and the poetic and magical sequences woven by Mani you may feel that you have more than your money’s worth, when you watch this.
Another fact about “Roja” is that the chubby-cheeked fair-skinned hero with a great patriotism, in Rishi, who appealed to the audience of the north. Rishi’s patriotic fervor was well lapped up in the movie. Pankaj Kapur has given a spirited performance and it deserves a mention here. I felt his was the best performance in the movie.
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SNIPPETS
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Rishi’s Boss: Rishi, this is a critical assignment, But Kashmir le work pannanum (You have to work in Kashmir).
Rishi : Kashmirum Indiale thaan sir irukku. Indiale irukka entha idathula work panna naan yen thayanganum (Kashmir is also in India, right? Why should I hesitate to work in place in India?
Roja: S.O.R.R.Y (Sorry)
Major: Kush. Bahut Kush. You got your husband. You are happy. I lost so many jawans. Now Wasim khan is free. I am happy, very happy. (Sarcastically)
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RATING
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Story - stars
Direction - stars
Music - stars
Art Direction - stars
Editing - stars
Cinematography - stars
Acting - stars
Overrall - stars
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CONCLUSION
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All in all, a class act. A TWO THUMBS UP MOVIE
I Hope you liked my review, please do comment as time permits.
KALIL
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I venture to suggest that patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime. - Stevenson, Adlai
Peace will come soon and come to stay, and so come as to be worth keeping in all future time. It will then have to be proved that among free men there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet, and that they who take such appeal are sure to lose their cases and pay the cost. -- Abraham Lincoln
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