what ROMAN HOLIDAY is to poornima....

A REVIEW ON ROMAN HOLIDAY by one of the students in my classrooms.....

A week long of pact making and royal parties in pointed heels leads princess Ann to a nervous breakdown.  It is then she is administered sedatives to sleep her frustrations away. But Ann feels that daring a plot of escape into the city of Rome for a ‘Roman Holiday’ could very well be the antidote to her ‘burn out’.

In this night of escape, she meets Mr.Bradley on his return from a bad game of cards.  He helps her in sheer concern for her age and evils it could attract and later allows her to stay for a night in his apartment which she exclaims as an ‘elevator’.

The next day dawned for Mr.Bradley at 12 noon with a realization of the ‘missed’ interview with the princess.  Later in the day, he barges into his office with yarns of the interview ‘attended’ - only to get bombarded with the news about the illness of the princess, the cancellation of the ‘attended’ interview and the discovery that the woman who has sought asylum in his dingy flat is, in fact, Princess Ann herself who had blanketed her identity in the name Annya. 

The scoop-mongering nature of the shoddy press and preying paparazzo is well established with the news-starving Mr.Bradley challenging his boss with an indigenous scheme of doing an exclusive story on the secret life of the princess.  This, he feels, would help him not only to sustain his job but would also get him a one way ticket to the States.   

Meanwhile, the princess gets on with what she always wanted to do - sleeping in pajamas, ambling in comfortable sandals, a hairdo of her choice, a breakfast on the roadside café, fun of a gelato under the sun and a fitting finale of ‘the roman holiday’ with a cut-loose dance over the river.  Narratives of the entire film is exciting and fast paced spiced with panorama of major tourist attractions in Rome - all done on a scooter ride with Mr.Bradley who slowly endears himself not only to the princess but also to every audience of this celluloid classic.

The fun reaches its climax at the dance party when Ann attempts an escape from the Royal Guards and it soon nosedives into its anti-climax with Ann having to return to Embassy House - thus bringing her ‘Roman Holiday’ to its poignant end. 

This film is really about the ‘escape’ everybody dreams of but only a few of us dare to realize.  Breaking away all those chains charged upon us is sheer thrill that instills in us a hope of daredevilry.  While most of us are all spineless escapists, we find Ann an intrepid adventurer of the finest order. 

In fact, this film is not just about a holiday.  It’s about a girl finding ‘the woman’ in her.  Many of us, by oversight, would tend to believe that Ann’s exploration of Rome is interesting and fun-filled.  Nope.   Ann has the guts to explore within herself to find out a woman of exemplary character and fortitude who decides to follow the trail her mind and heart ask her to.   If life were all about making decisions and their executions, Ann has, indeed, grown very tall during this ‘roman holiday’ to live her life fully. 

The final frames of the film could not have been better as they  unfold with a shocking twist in the ballroom of the Embassy House.  Mr.Bradley with his friend reveals to the Princess his real identity which is acknowledged by Ann with a tinge of furtive majesty - at “Meet-the-Press” function . 

After all, hasn’t she become a woman now?