The Indian movie, Roja is directed by Mani Ratnam and originally is a Tamil language romantic thriller movie. The movie stars are Arvind Swamy and Madhoo Shah in the lead roles. This movie is also known to be the debut work of the music director A. R. Rahman. The film was dubbed in various languages including Telegu, Malayalam, Marathi and Hindi. Roja was recently re-released for international audiences in light of the growing fear of terrorist attacks the world over. It is considered as the one of the best films from the Indian film industry in the 90s. It was for Roja that Mani Ratnam won 3 National Awards and became a critically acclaimed director.

Plot of Roja
The theme of the movie Roja is based on the relationship between Savitri and Satyavan of the Hindu epic, Mahabharata. The story of the film Roja starts in a village somewhere in Tamil Nadu. Roja revolves around one man`s love for his motherland and a wife`s unfailing love for her husband. Roja played by Madhoo is a village girl, born and brought up in Sundarapandianpuram in Tirunelveli district in Southern Tamil Nadu. She prays that the handsome suitor and top cryptologist Rishi played by Arvind Swamy, arriving in the village soon, accepts a proposal to get married to her sister. It soon emerges that Roja`s sister is in love with another man, and to everyone`s surprise Rishi requests Roja`s hand in marriage. This happens because of the fact that Roja`s sister requested Rishi to deny for the marriage as she is engaged with someone else. Accordingly Rishi says to the in-laws that he is not liking the elder one but he would love to marry the younger one i.e. Roja. Roja gets married to Rishi, and the couple move out of the village to live in the city. But Roja is always depressed as she thinks that Rishi betrayed her sister. One day she discusses it with Rishi and Rishi clears the fact that Roja`s sister requested him to do so. Roja calls up in the village and after confirming the fact with her sister she feels very sorry for Rishi.

Working for the Indian Government, Rishi is assigned a posting at an army communications centre in Kashmir. Roja requests her husband to take her with him. In the midst of the exquisite beauty of Kashmir the married couple fall in love and share some blissful moments with each other. But Roja`s world is shattered when Rishi is abducted by militant Kashmiri separatists who demand the release of their terrorist leader Wasim Khan from prison, held by Indian military forces in exchange of Rishi. Roja pleads with politicians and the military for help, but she has little success.

The film is set against the backdrop of the longstanding struggle between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, an issue that is still in the melting pot. Rishi on the other hand tries to make the opposition leader played by Pankaj Kapoor understand that there is no gain in such types of riots. The leader becomes touchy about Rishi and he decides to leave him while at the same time the government decide to let Wasim Khan go in exchange for Rishi. The climax is very interesting when the Indian Government takes Wasim Khan to hand over to the opposition leader but they could not bring Rishi as he has already run away from their custody. Roja comes to receive Rishi but he is not there but soon the climax reveals and Rishi comes from the forest areas to Roja. The leader surrenders to the government and the film has a happy ending.

Cast of Roja
The main star cast of the film includes Arvind Swamy, Madhoo, Pankaj Kapoor, Nasser and Janagaraj supported by many other artists. The film `Roja` is written and directed by Mani Ratnam and it is produced by Mani Ratnam and K. Balachander. Music in the film is composed by A. R. Rahman.

Soundtrack of Roja
Recorded on Panchathan Record Inn under Lahari Music, Roja"s soundtrack was listed in Time magazine"s "10 Best Soundtracks" of all time. Roja was the debut soundtrack album to music composer A.R. Rahman and featured lyrics by the Tamil poet and lyricist Vairamuthu. The soundtrack album was originally released in Tamil in 1992 and was later released in Malayalam in 1993 and in Hindi and Marathi in 1994 by Magnasound. The instrumental special version featuring 5 songs was released in Tamil and Telugu by Lahari Music in 1993 and in Hindi by Magnasound in 1994.

Awards for Roja
The movie has won many awards including many foreign awards. In the year 1993 at the 18th Moscow International Film Festival held in Russia the movie, Roja was nominated for golden St. George award. Listed below are the Indian accolades for the movie Roja.