Popular reviews

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  Review by Athulkishan 4

  Girl sings "Chinna Chinna Asai", gets arranged marriage ten minutes later.

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  Review by Michael James ★★★★ 8

  An ambitious socio romantic thriller from Mani Rathnam for its time, thats set within the bounds of Kashmir conflict. The cryptologist and crypto codes adds a more fresh aspect to the narration. It does tread along the sensitive lines of jingoism and islamaphobia, but gets handled with sensible caution, focusing on the life of torn apart victims from the war and untapped humanism existing within each soul. The shining chemistry between Aravind Swamy-Madhubala is major factor for its scenes to work in a an emotionally effective manner. Santhosh Sivan cinematography is exceptional, capturing the beauty of the village and Kashmir in vibrantly. AR rahman debuts with a scintillating all time classic album and background score. His score intensifies the intended patriotic feel. Though it has its flaws with hyper nationalistic exaggerations, it’s definitely worth a watch for its bold attempt and top notch filmmaking.

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  Review by Preet ★★★½ 1

  lmao my man got rejected by the big sister and said i guess I'll just marry the small sister now 🤷‍♂️

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  Review by Mad ★★★★

  THAT SOUNDTRACK 😩😩😩😩😩

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  Review by shaheerjpeg ★★★

  gorgeous cinematography & an-all timer debut from a.r rahman can't fully save this film from being one of ratnam's weakest.

  the biggest issue here is that the politics are very jingoistic and uninteresting which is shocking & saddening when you take into account how films like raavanan and dil se worked so well due to their thorny, complicated yet thought provoking politics. he has never outright said it but there have been hints here and there that higher ups interfered in the film's politics, i won't be surprised if they told him to tone it down and reduce the amount of empathy given to the separatists. oh well, its still a good film.

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  Review by don ★★

  Ratnam, Rahman and Sivan are all operating at 100% here but it never really amounts to more than very pretty propaganda. its occasional attempts to humanize the Kashmiri separatists are always undercut by its complete unwillingness to humanize their struggle. knowing how capable Ratnam is at delivering much thornier critiques, i would have to imagine that there was at least some pressure from higher ups to tell a simpler story (hell, it even happened to Bombay 🤷🏽‍♂️), but still, even the romance is weak by Ratnam standards.

  regardless, i do have to admit that watching Arvind Swamy fight off goons while on fire was pretty sick.

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  Review by Niraj⚡ ★★★½

  How to slay in debut ft. AR Rehman👑

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  Review by Kriti ★★★ 4

  I don't like this one as much as Ratnam's other films if we're being honest but the scene where Madhoo bursts into the police station after her husband got taken and isn't able to comprehend anything because they're all speaking in Hindi will always stay with me

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  Review by anoopmama

  growing up in a post-rahman world means my whole perception of bollywood kollywood and tollywood music is wrong. or not wrong but completely dominated by the man who changed the game. i never questioned it until i got older but people always fucking told me about roja and how it changed everything and made rahman who he is and started a new wave of filmi music. i never got it. roja was always my least favorite rahman album but every time i read a book or watched an interview with the master it was brought up like some holy text. not to mention all the older cousins and family members who knew i worshipped rahman and always talked about how…

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  Review by adpadgaonkar ★★★★ 2

  Roja is one of the first films I ever watched and it was great to revisit after a long time. Mani Ratnam’s ability to craft this film with great attention to detail about regional and cultural sensitivities of different parts of India is inspiring. The film manages to be political with its discussion of concepts like national identity and differing viewpoints but maintains so much tangibility with its relatable characters. The themes present in the film are furthered by the passionate music provided by AR Rahman. It’s amazing to think that this was his debut.

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  Review by Yury ★★★½

  It's been interesting watching Ratnam's "terrorism" trilogy in reverse order. I started with Dil Se's abstract allegories and loud sequences with tension thrown in, moved on to Bombay's harsh lashing out at the world it was made in, with blunt to the point commentary. With all that said, the tameness of Roja puts the series into a new perspective for me. Based off the two that I had seen I thought Ratnam's intent was to assess terrorism directly and through stories that involve it give it more analysis than is typical of movies. However, it's a series about how we analyse terrorism, and what does terrorism look like in the films we watch. In Roja, Ratnam is at his most…

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  Review by Abid ★★★

  A. R. Rahman is literally a GOAT 👑