TOP 10; 10.ROJA

At the 10th place is Roja,directed by Manirathnam.For a change,it had a different story and a gripping screen play.It is one of those Tamil movies which reverberated throughout India,thanks to its universal theme.This movie had everything going its way,Santhosh Sivan's tilting camera,Manirathnam's direction,the lead pair's soulful acting,and above all it was A.R.Rahman's first movie and he absolutely rocked.It was the first of Manirathnam's political trilogy(Bombay and Dil Se followed).

Roja(Madhu Bala) is a young lady born and brought up in Southern India. She marries Rishi(Aravindsamy) and they leave the village to settle in the city, where both fall in love. Rishi, who works for the Indian Government, is instructed to go to the troubled state of Kashmir on a classified mission, Roja goes along. Then Roja's world is shattered when Rishi is abducted and held for ransom by a group of militants who want an independent Kashmir, and the release of a terrorist held with the Indian military forces. Roja persists in her efforts to get her husband back.

It was perhaps the first movie which talked extensively about the Kashmiri militants.As usual Mani was perfect with his screen play and the high point of the movie is the scene where the militants try to burn the Tricolour.Arvindsamy's acting and A.R.Rahman's background score pushed up this particular scene by several notches.This movie also had some brilliant performances from Nasser,Janakaraj and Pankaj Kapur revelled in his role as the militant head,Liaqat.It is one of those very few Indian movies which told the viewpoint of the militants in its true light.In he climax,though the lead pair re-unite, you could feel a sense of sympathy towards the antagonist and this is the movie's USP. I recommend this movie to all thos patriots out there and I assure you ,you will not be disappointed

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