Mani-ratnam, who undoubtedly is an excellent film maker, was at his best, in this movie. His good work started even before he made the movie, when he decided to give debut to A R Rehman for the music. The main focus of the movie is around the terrorism in Kashmir, which revolves around the love of Rishi(Arvind) and Roja(Madhu).
The first half
In the first half, the movie centers around Arvind and Madhu. They are tamilians who end up in knots (though Arvind went to see Madhu’s sister who was in love with somebody else). This half is full of fun, great songs and the direction is superb. Most of this half is shot in Tamil Nadu.
The second half
The second half revolves more around terrorism in Kashmir where Arvind and Roja have to go due to Arvind’s job. Kashmir is gorgeous and watching the song ’Yeh haseen waadiyan’ tempts you to visit this devastated state. For a change, the hero is abducted by the terrorist and the heroine (Roja - Madhu) fights for his freedom. The terrorist demand the release of one of their captured mate-Wasim. Madhu runs around desperately to get her husband back from the clutches in which she does succeed in the end. Like a typical hindi movie, Arvind runs away from the clutches of the terrorists and Wasim is in prison again.
Pankaj Kapur plays the role of the head of the terrorists and he does total justice to the role. Arvind Swami, Madhu are great.
Songs
The strongest factor in the film are its amazing songs. I bet you would never get tired of them....some of the good songs in the movie are
yeh haseen waadiya......my pick of the best song
chhoti si asha......
roja jaaneman.....
bharat humko.....a patriotic song
rukmani rukmani.....