Raja The Great - Movie Review

What's it about!
A police officer (Prakash Raj) kills a rowdy. The rowdy's brother Devaraju (Vivan Bhathena) seeks vengeance. He kills the officer but his daughter Lucky (Mehreen) runs away. Devaraju hires people to find the whereabouts of Lucky. Some police officers send her off  to Darjeeling to save her from Devaraju. Meanwhile, Raja (Ravi Teja), a blind guy, lives with his mother Ananthalakshmi (Radhika) and his close buddy (Srinivasa Reddy) who always accompanies him. Raja is trained in all aspects; he can guess everything from the sound and smell. On the constant nagging by Ananthalakshmi, the commissioner agrees to give Raja a police job and he is sent to protect Lucky. How does he protects her?

Analysis

Director Anil Ravipudi has established himself as a movie maker who knows the pulse of common audiences with his two previous movies ‘Pataas’ and ‘Supreme’, both were hits. His third film ‘Raja The Great’ has similar elements of his previous movies with typical screenplay we see in mass dramas. 

If you have seen his two movies, you’d realize that he doesn’t give much importance to the novel storyline or different story treatment or logic, instead his drive relies on entertainment and sentiment. 

In ‘Raja The Great’, the protagonist is blind person. He can’t see anything. Despite his lack of vision, he can do anything - fighting, dancing with heroine, doing all kind of comedy expressions and mannerisms. Because he is Anil Ravipudi’s hero: a master of all tricks.

The antics displayed by Ravi Teja in the first half have provided some fun and entertainment despite regular situations. However, as the movie progresses, we feel restless as it moves on predictable manner without any twist or novel sequence. Everything can be guessed. Only thing that perhaps we don't guess is when the climax part comes. For, the movie continues even when we think it has already ended. This is again Anil Ravipudi's trademark trick. 

Logic completely goes for a toss in this commercial drama. Sample some scenes: A blind person is taken on a mission when his mother bribes a high-rank police officer with sweets, hero chases villains for more than 25 kilometers by hearing sound of gajjelu tied to their cars, government doesn't take action on a rowdy leader in a small town when he kills five police officers instead the commissioner sends heroine to some faraway place to hide her. Anil Ravipudi, like director Boyapati, doesn't care for such logic in the movies.

Even if you excuse the illogical scenes, the movie doesn't engage us enough despite sporadic entertainment. The second half is quite boring, in fact. 

For the first time in his career, Ravi Teja has essayed the role of a person who is visually challenged. Although he doesn’t see, he does all kind of acts a normal Telugu cinema mass hero does. If we ignore the fact that he’s blind for a moment, you don’t find much difference in his performance here and his previous ‘normal hero’ acting. Still, Ravi Teja’s portrayal is livelier and his energetic act is the major plus point. It is his show all the way. He makes this routine movie watchable to an extent.  

Ravi Teja's son Mahadhan debuted in this movie as a child artiste. He wins marks in his debut attempt as he has done the role of young Ravi Teja. Mehreen as a damsel in distress is pretty ordinary. Radhika as lady constable and Ravi Teja’s mother has given fine performance. Prakash Raj in a brief role is good. Rajendra Prasad's comedy is stale. Srinivas Reddy has given able support to the hero. Prudhvi appears in a silly bank robbery sequence. Posani and others have done regular acting. Tanikella Bharani and new actor Vivan Bhathena as villain have done terrific job. 

The film has good production values with quality camera work from cinematographer Mohana Krishna. Music director Sai Kartheek has given tunes that appeal to the frontbenchers, none has made any impact. The work of other technicians has nothing much to talk about.  

As a writer and director, Anil Ravipudi has just dished out what he has done in two previous films; his work is quite mediocre and routine. 

Bottom-line: ‘Raja The Great’ is a usual mass movie with template screenplay and narration. Ravi Teja as blind man steals the show. He is the sole saving grace in this routine masala drama.