
Roja ( The Rose)
Directed by Mani Ratnam
Produced by Mani Ratnam
Starring Arvind Swamy,Madhoo,Pankaj
Kapoor,Nasser
Music by A. R.
Rahman
Release : August 14
1992
DVD Release: Aug 14 2002
Genre: Thriller | Politics | Romance | Drama


Roja (Tamil: ரோஜா) (1992) is a Tamil film released in
1992.The story is based on a real story of abduction of an IOC
official from the south. 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 AR Rahman and without
any crowd pulling factor went on to become one of the turning
points in Indian cinema. The film was subsequently dubbed into
English and French .The film won three National Film Awards
(India's Equivalent of BAFTA), including Best Film on National
Integration, catapulting Ratnam to international acclaim.Maniratnam
has touched upoun the India kashmir border conflict as a backdrop
and weaved a wonderful love tale about national integration. Roja
is the biggest box office success in his career.The film's score
and soundtrack were composed by A. R. Rahman, who debuted as a
music director with this film. The film also gained international
acclaim with its nomination for Best Film at the Moscow
International Film Festival. The film was recently re-released for
international audiences in light of the growing fear of terrorist
attacks across the world. It is considered as one of the best films
from the Indian film industry in the 1990s. This soundtrack
is among the "10 Best Soundtracks" of all time listed by TIME
magazine, issued in 2005.The soundtrack features score and 6 songs
composed by A. R. Rahman, with lyrics in the Tamil language by
Vairamuthu. This soundtrack was revolutionary in that it changed
the face of Tamil Film music in 1992, announcing the arrival of
Rahman as a potent force in the Indian music scene. He used many
instruments and grand arrangements to generate an epic sound to the
songs.
Time magazine's noted film critic, Richard Corliss stated that the
"astonishing debut work parades Rahman's gift for alchemizing
outside influences until they are totally Tamil, totally
Rahman."
The story of Roja is about an indian scientist who gets
kidnapped by renegade kashmir terrorists who are fighting to gain
independence from India.Rishi Kumar (Aravind 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.