Most people believe it is possible to do anything, under any circumstances. However, can a dog say “meow?” For Raja, yes. Raja is a blind man who does not let his disability get in the way of anything. Despite his shortcomings of not being able to use eyesight in catching criminals, Raja and his mother try everything to get Raja into a police uniform.
After much convincing and proof that Raja can in fact work as a police officer (while Raja has in fact passed the written exams), Raja’s mom helps Raja to get a job in the police station. However, Raja is only given the position to cook food for other cops. However Raja’s chance shines when he meets a girl named Lucky, who is currently under police watch due to her father, another respected police officer, being killed by gang members.
Because the other police members are busy with their lives and keeping this girl safe, Raja is the only one who has the ability of getting to know the girl personally. Raja does, as the job of cooking is not something that is time consuming. When doing so, Raja becomes close with the girl and even makes her get out of the depression from losing her father. At the same time, Raja has incredible selective hearing skills, as that sense was enhanced due to no eyesight. Using this selective hearing, Raja while hanging out with Lucky was able to discover that bad people were in fact following Lucky everywhere she goes, despite being on police watch.
After the rest of the cops finally understand this mishap from being unable to identify Lucky’s followers, they finally let Raja take over the Lucky case. Raja to everyone’s surprise states to go back to Lucky’s hometown where Lucky’s father was killed. Raja states that if the solution to every problem was running away, then no problem would ever get solved. Once arriving, Raja spends the next couple of days mapping out the area by foot, getting a sort of spatial awareness of the environment he’s in.
Sure enough, the gang members attack, but because of Raja’s spatial awareness, he is able to get the gang members to chase them all the way to a warehouse. When all the gang members are in the warehouse, Raja turns off the lights, allowing them to enter Raja’s world. From there, Raja easily defeats the gang members, as none of them have experience fighting in the dark like Raja does. Though a little exaggerated, the movie shows that if you have a disability, you’re not supposed to let that get in the way of your dreams as you have other gifts that can be focused on in reaching your goal.
Raja the Great reiterates childhood lessons in a beautiful way. It reiterates the fact that you shouldn’t judge someone’s capability based on their appearance. I think it sends an inspiring message to younger audiences and other people who may be visually impaired as well as reminds them they are able to do anything they put their minds to. This movie does a great job of representation in an inspiring way as many movies lack representation for everyone.
While this movie does seem exaggerated, it does show how people with disabilities are usually not treated the same as people without disabilities. Raja is given the job of the cook which basically degrades him to a servant to the other cops. I do not know about the experiences of someone who is blind, so I would be interested to know how much of Raja’s actions were realistic versus exaggerated for dramatic effect. Oftentimes in films or shows, people with disabilities are not represented well, and this has become a growing issue in the media.