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.