Fresh like a Flower. Review on Roja

This movie was named Roja meaning rose in Tamil.It was a trend at that time in Tamil movies, naming films after flowers. Here the heroine happens to bearing the same name and hence the title.This movie was released in 1992.The movie was released without much publicity and also it

had two relatively unknown faces as the lead pair and an unknown debutant music director and the only crowd pulling factor was Maniratnam.His previous movie Dhalapathy (Rajni-Mammooty) was one of the most marketed and costliest movies of that time. But, Roja went on to become one of the turning points in Indian cinema (not just Tamil Cinema) for even the dubbed versions also became huge hits, the reason was not just Mani but the theme chosen (National integration). This movie helped Mani to shift from his tamil base to a bigger national audience.The film also saw the emergence of a new sensation, A.R.Rehman who with his fresh sounds, topped with excellent and innovative hummings and perfect digital recordings went on to steal the hearts of the youth in this country.

The story is based on a real story of abduction of an IOC official from the south by Kashmiri terrorists.The movie moves from a village in south Tamilnadu to the snow capped mountains of Kashmir taking along with the audience from Kashmir to Kanyakumari on a trip of patriotism and national integration.

In the movie Rishi(Arvindsawamy) is a citybred computer engineer who wants to get married to a village belle and finally gets married to a girl who happens to be younger sister of the girl he intended to marry, because the elder one is already in love with another.The village sequences are shot beautifully, with the frames filled with greenery, goats, crystal clear waterbodies and lots of old women(who also dance to a unique song with a heavy dose of western drumbeats).The location chosen a small village near Tirunelveli in south Tamilnadu is stunningly beautiful.chinna chinna asai song is also shot here with pleasing visuals by Santosh sivan and poetic lyrics by Vairamuthu(he got the national award for the song).

The movie takes a sweet turn after Rishi and his wife Roja shift to his home in Delhi.The way the initial mis-understandings between Rishi and Roja are sorted out are sweet and cute, 100% Maniratnam way.The way the common sentence ''I M S O R R Y'' is used by Maniratnam to create a romantic mood is something worth mentioning.

But things take a U turn when Rishi is deputed to Kashmir to decode an encrypted message.He gets abducted by a bunch of fanatic terrorists who want their leader released from jail.The efforts of the village bred girl Roja who tries all methods possible for the release of her husband forms the rest of the movie.It's the determination of Roja to win back her husband at any cost and the patriotism of Rishi who is ready to sacrifice himself for his country which form a gripping screenplay.Pankaj Kapur plays a nice role as a terrorist who changes his ideals after his brother is killed by his own masters. Nasser plays the role of an army officer who tries to help Roja but has to keep national interests above all else.

The film has fine usage of bit songs to rise the heat of patriotic fire among the audience.Kudos to Rehman whose arrival started the trend of using bit songs to enhance the narration.He is more at ease scoring bit songs for he has lot of experience in creating ad jingles.The movie took Maniratnam to the Hall of Fame of Indian Cinema eventhough it was not his best film.The movie has few scenes which were already used in his old movies like Mouna ragam.But to someone who was new to a Maniratnam film it was a movie that was fresh and pathbreaking. The success of this movie made Maniratnam to embark on two more journeys to the heart of the patriotic Indian with another two movies Bombay and Dilse