Early Tollywood

2.17.2008

Music: A R Rehman
Cinematography: P C Sriram
Art: Thota Tharani
Editor: Vijayan - Lenin
Dialogues: Sri Ramakrishna
Story, Screenplay and Direction: Kathir
Producer: A M Ratnam
Release Date: 9th July 1999
Cast:
Kunal(Raja),
Sonali Bendre(Roja)
Nazar(RamaKrishna)
Story: Titles of the movie starts with showing the travails of child labor. Immediately after titles, a computer screen appears in which the user chooses a love story as the option. Then the real story of the movie unfolds in the glamour capital of India, Bombay. Victorious Terminus platform is buzzing with the exuberant visitors from all the suburbs, who came to downtown to celebrate the new year. Yup! It is the midnight of 31st December. A sober looking middle aged man trying to catch-up the excitement realizes that there something amiss for the cute teenage lad who is sitting beside him. Raja(Kunal), is looking very sad gazing into non existing emptiness. That middle aged man asks him about the reason for Raja's sadness and try to comfort him with a few kind words. Raja starts telling his story ...... here you Go!! A teenage lad, Raja, from the interiors of AP lands up in VT to attend an interview for the prestigious management school in India "RamaChandra Institute of Management(RIM)". But what he lack is financial background. His father is blacksmith, who can't afford Raja studies. Raja go to Nariman Point and rests on a cement bench on the sea face with his 'trunk pette'. He slips into a sound sleep as the sea breeze make him comfortable. An old man(Nazar) spots this talented guy and manages a seat for Raja in RIM. As you have guessed by now, RamaChandra, the founder of RIM is none but the old man (Nazar) who spotted Raja. Raja gets admitted into RIM, which has a pay cyber cafe, and somehow hits off well with the computers. One fine day Raja enters MIRC chat and start chatting with SUMAM. Sonali is the gal who had a nick called sumam. That gal introduces herself as a married female with kids to Raja. And Raja still wants to befriend her. Later on Sumam apologizes for giving wrong info to him and lets him know the real intro. And she asks him to guess her real name using her nick. Raja hits the bull's eye in second guess by say 'Roja'. This is the beginning of Boons & Millers romantic story between Raja and Roja. Only wrong info they conveyed to each other is that Raja is from London and Roja is from US of A. In fact, both of them are chatting in same cyber cafe. They start kutchi-kooing over net. Its a different matter that after a month Raja gets a bill of Rs 5000/- for his chats. Meantime Raja and RamaKrishna become very close buddies. RamaKrishna gives a thorough encouragement for Raja about love. Raja asks Roja for her picture and she emails him. He also emails his picture to her. It so happens that when Roja opens Raja's pic, Raja see Roja in real. Both of them are shocked as they expect their chat partners to be in abroad. They smile at each other without uttering a single word. Raja and Roja catches the same VT bound 8:10 train in Bandra Station every morning. They look at each other and smile, but no talks. They know that they love each other, but they are too shy to approach each other with a proposal. There was an annual function declaring the top 10 Management colleges of India. Gupta Institute of Management (GIT) bags the second place. Son of Mr Gupta was asked to receive the award. RIT grabs the first place and daughter of RamaChandra receives the award. As you might have guessed the daughter of Ramachandra is none but Roja. When the Numero Uno award was announced our hero Raja was conveniently sent by the director to a toilet. At that time Mr Gupta comes to a conclusion that his son and Roja can be the best combination for the marriage. And it is evident that Raja is still not aware of Roja being the daughter of his mentor RamaChandra. Raja confess his mentor that he spotted his net friend in real and say that he is in love with her. RamaChandra encourages him to the extent that he is ready to write a love letter that is given to Roja by Raja. Ultimately Roja composes the love message on the request by her dad, without knowing that the destination of that letter is none but her. Raja hands over his love letter to her at Bandra station and it was misplaced while she was traveling in train. Roja hands over her a love letter to him next day at Bandra station, which too was somehow misplaced. Raja starts thinking that Roja is not loving him as she did not respond to his lover letter. Same is the case with Roja. As viewers are squirming in seats with tension, Raja comes to know that Roja is the daughter of Ramachandra. By that time Gupta fixes the marriage talks with RamaChandra. A disheartened Raja finally decides to favor his mentor to his lover. Raja asks Ramakrishna why Ramakrishna pampers Raja so much. Ramakrishna tells his flashback about his pathetic travails of childhood (Incidentally the cement bench on which RamaKrishna spotted Raja, was his first destination in his childhood). At the same time RamaKrishna asks Raja if his daughter will agree to marriage. Raja says that she is going to agree. Meantime Roja sends Raja an email telling that his dad is willing her to get married to some guy and she loves Raja. Raja promptly responds to her mailing that explaining that Roja misinterpreted the Raja friendship as love and he is not interested. So stage is set now for the grand climax. We are aware that Raja and Roja love eachother very deeply. Raja can never ditch his mentor for his love. Ramachandra will never get Roja married to jr. gupta if he comes to know that Raja and Roja each other. Roja cannot say no her dad. Will Raja gets married Roja? Will Roja gets married Gupta? Or is there a sad ending with Roja or Raja dying? Will Ramakrishna come to know that Raja loves none but his daughter? .... well ... questions are galore! But you must watch this film on big screen to know the answer.