Roja, Kaely Mayes

Kaely Mayes

March15, 2010

Screening Bollywood

Laura Brueck

Roja

Roja, made by Mani Ratnam, came out in 1992. It was originally created in Tamil and later dubbed over in Hindi due to its popularity. This film centers around two main themes, Indian nationalism and melodramatic love. The plot of this film is as simple as it is complex. Roja is a young village girl from Sundarapandianpuram of only 18 years who is as free spirited as they come. She is excited for her elder sister to be marrying a wealthy man from the city who can provide her better life, but things are never as they seem. Shortly after arriving in the village the man from the city, Rishi Kumar, decides that he would rather take Roja as a wife instead. At first everyone, including Roja, thinks that this is a disgrace to the village and especially to Roja’s sister and family. What they were not informed of was the fact that Roja’s sister was the one who turned Rishi down because she was in love with another. This fact is not brought to Roja’s attention until she gets into a fight with Rishi about said disgrace, and receiving confirmation from her sister as well. Thus begins the first steps towards real love between the two. As a top cryptologist for the Indian Army, Rishi is asked to come to Kashmir as a replacement and Rishi accepts with out argument. Soon Roja and Rishi find themselves in beautiful, but deadly Kashmir. At first everything is going splendidly, Roja and Rishi are falling in love (which is seen through them running around Kashmir’s landscape together and through them finally consummating their marriage), Rishi’s job is going well and they seem to be in bliss. All that changes when one morning Roja decides to visit the local temple with out telling Rishi. In fear Rishi rushes out to find her, but when he finally finds her he was in for a terrible surprise. Rishi is taken hostage by Muslim terrorist in exchange for the release of their captured leader Wasim Khan. The rest of the movie is split into two narratives. One being Roja and her insistence and determination to get Rishi back to her. We watch Roja battle the Indian Army and politicians to get her husband back. This is a challenge due to the fact that she speaks only Tamil, and a little bit of English, whereas everyone around her speaks only Hindi. The other narrative is Rishi and his fight against his captors. Rishi becomes a moral compass of the “right” as he continually berates Jaquait, the temporary leader of the terrorists, and the terrorist’s objectives of separating Kashmir from India. Rishi humanizes both the terrorists and the nationalists by essentially bringing them both to the same level and showing the faults of the terrorists. For example, when Pakistani soldiers kill Laquait’s brother Rishi asks him if anyone (meaning Muslim or Hindu) likes to see the death of a child. Eventually Rishi’s words hit a cord in the terrorists, which allows for his escape and return to Roja.

There are multiple scenes of overly dramatic nationalism. The scene in which really displays this is when Rishi smothers the burning Indian flag. After the announcement that the Indian government would not trade Rishi for Wasim Khan, one of the terrorists takes an Indian flag and starts it on fire. Rishi seeing this makes a dash for the flag and puts out the fire using the “stop, drop and roll” technique. After the flag is saved Rishi stands up with pants ablaze and hands tied together to attack the terrorists in defense of India. He holds his own for a minute, but is over powered quickly. Other scene of nationalism by Rishi is when he is first asked to go to Kashmir by his boss. His boss tells Rishi he is sorry for having to send him to such a violent and deadly place, but is rebutted by Rishi. Rishi states that he should not be afraid to travel with in India, subconsciously admitting his nationalist nature.

Roja plays a complex part of the story as the instigator of everything that is happening (it is her actions that result in Rishi’s abduction) and as the opposite of what Rishi stands for. Roja is seen as the anti-nation, not because she believes in what the terrorists are doing but because she ultimately doesn’t care at all for the nation as a whole. Her only objective in this film is getting her husband back, regardless of what it means to the nationalist movement. She puts herself and her desires above all else. This is a very shocking idea, for the movies of the past; the woman was the physical symbol of the nation. The women did everything for the good of the nation, even if it meant killing her own son, and for the creation of the Indian secular state. Thus, it is astonishing how Roja can be the polar opposite of those women.

After watching this movie in both Tamil and Hindi I have to recommend watching it in Tamil first. It was much easier to understand what was happening with the Tamil subtitles. Especially the scene after Rishi is abducted and Roja runs to the police. In Tamil you can tell that she is speaking another language that the police officers do not understand. In the Hindi version it just seems like the officers are just ignoring what she is saying because she is screaming. There are also a few scenes in the Hindi version that were cut off or shortened, which in my opinion was a shame because the scenes added a little more emotion to the characters. The Hindi version seemed a little scattered and unorganized because it was missing those sections.

Other than that, I think that this is a movie that everyone should see at some point in their lives. The story of Roja is very beautiful and inspiring, as is the scenery of Kashmir. While this is supposed to be more of a political commentary on the relations in Kashmir, but be warned that this film has a very Indian Nationalist slant towards the situation in Kashmir.