Krrish

Krrish is the first movie from India that I've seen. I saw it on Youtube. I didn't have very high expectations, but after watching it, I was blown away.

Krrish is a film about India's first superhero. It starts with a young man named Krishna, who lives in rural India with his grandmother. Krishna has several unique abilities, including super-strength, super-speed, enhanced intelligence and levitation. One day, Krishna meets and falls in love with a young woman named Priya. After she goes home to Singapore, Krishna follows and hopes to ask Priya to marry him. In Singapore, he finds reasons to uses his powers to help mankind, including fighting a mad scientist named Dr. Arya. He becomes Krrish, the icon of millions of people.

Krrish is just an awesome movie. It has plenty of action, romance, humor and super-heroics. On top of all of that, I saw the movie as an up-close look at modern Indian culture. All in all, I thought this movie was great and Bollywood rocks.

If you love superhero movies you with love this movie.

The movie has since been removed from Youtube. I hope I can find it again.

This movie is extremely predictable. Thats an irony because a significant part of the plot is about building some computer that can predict the future and heres the audience doing exactly the same in relevance to the plot. Overall, its nothing great but a warm fuzzy, feel good movie for the most part. The songs sucked. The jumping sequences range from utterly fake to decently implemented but the guy shaking his hands and legs during jumping and also executing so many moves while in mid-air, looked pretty dumb, irrespective if someone taking long jumps would actually do that and they don't. The heroine proves that she cant act for nuts but was at least better than the horrible one in Koi Mil gaya.

The very first Indian movie I saw in its entirety as a kid, was Annamalai, starring Superstar Rajnikanth. Since then I was intrigued by Indian cinema, but never found the patience nor the time to sit through the standard fare of at least 2.5-3hrs of pure spectacle. On and off I caught bits and pieces of movies shown on TV, and the last Bollywood movie I saw mid-way, was Shah Rukh Khan's Asoka, and that's it.

Krrish is a sequel to the blockbuster Koi... Mil Gaya, also directed by Rakesh Roshan, but no worries if you haven't seen the first movie - you'll be brought up to speed in no time, and Krrish will also work if it stood alone. First off, it's a superhero movie combined with science fiction, so that was a plus point to have this movie reintroduce me to Bollywood once again. And it worked. With romance, action, and some comedy thrown into the mix, what can one ask for more for pure entertainment?

Those not familiar with Bollywood movies might balk at the length of Krrish - almost 5 minutes shy of 3 hours, which is quite standard runtime fare (there is a clearly marked "interval" in the movie, but it was not utilized here). But I tell you that you won't feel its length, and will actually secretly hope that it continues some more. The first hour dwelled on the introduction of our hero Krishna (Hrithik Roshan), a man born with extraordinary powers, whose grandmother Sonia took upon herself to shield him from a world awaiting to exploit his talent, if discovered. It's like a visit to the Kent farm, except that the whole grandmother- son relationship looked more at home vis-a-vis Spiderman's Aunt May and Peter Parker.

When Krishna meets Priya (the gorgeous Priyanka Chopra, Miss World 2000) by chance during her adventure holiday camp, and he becomes smitten with her, moving the movie towards a romance. She's the quintessential Singapore modern career girl, who puts career (or trying to salvage it) before love, and therein complicates matters of the heart when we get to the boy-momentarily-loses-girl bit. Plenty of drama in this area, though it doesn't dwell too long on it, increasing the pace for the action bits.

Those eager to see Krrish, the superhero, will have to wait almost 2 hours before he makes an appearance in full costume. He's like Jet Li's cousin Black Mask with the black outfit and abilities, but with a better looking facial piece to disguise his identity. But with or without costume, we see Krishna's prowess through various stunt and fight choreography enhanced by wirework from one of Hong Kong's stunt masters, Chen Siu-Tung, especially in his "qing gong" abilities to glide effortlessly through the air like Chinese martial artists. There's also a showpiece for Hrithik to demonstrate the kung-fu skills picked up, and the fights, if compared with other Bollywood movies, have toned down its cheesy sound effects and credibility issues because of its premise (if a superhero punches you, you'll definitely fly what).

And what's a Bollywood flick without song and dance? Yes, our hero sings and dances when romancing his love, from the mountains in India to the skyscrapers in Singapore, but he doesn't do so as his alter-ego Krrish (yup, just let the superhero stick to kicking serious rear). There are 5 beautiful songs in Krrish, and save for the one in the circus, the rest did not involve mass dancing by extras, which kept the focus purely on the leads. And the dance choreography was pretty amazing too, though I was surprised that Hrithik Roshan, given his muscular bulk, could dance so gracefully. Oh, did I mention Priyanka Chopra is gorgeous?

While the romance and action bit were interesting, the science fiction bit was unfortunately found wanting. Not that it was bad, but because it was too familiar. Adapting the same plot as Philip K Dick's Paycheck, the sets, premise and plot device looked exactly the same as John Woo's Paycheck movie - we have the evil Dr Arya (Naseeruddin Shah) building a supercomputer which can look into the future, and therefore becoming God himself. The evil lair too looked like Woo's underground lair in M:I2, complete with pigeons (no doves in Singapore).

For those who want to know more about the local landmarks used - Singapore Expo was used quite a bit, since it's large enough to be filmed at different areas passing off as different venues, even doubling up as Changi Airport's arrival hall entrance with smart editing. The Esplanade was another choice location as the HQ of a conglomerate run by Dr Arya, with National Library's Pod doubling as the penthouse office. There are many scenes with glass windows, which will clue you in on the location of the current setting. Other notable locations are the condos at Kallang, Shenton Way / Raffles Place, Lau Pa Sat (widely publicized during the shoot here), the Singapore River and our offshore islands.

Krrish reminded me that cinema is about the big spectacle, and I encourage anyone who's into song, dance, and especially those interested in seeing local landmarks make their way into movies, to give Krrish a shot. It made Singapore look sexy, and probably showed us a different angle in making an action movie here. While awaiting the arrival of Singer's Man of Steel, watch Krrish!

Krrish is a unique movie that combines many elements and genres. Reviewing this film is no easy task; reviewing it objectively is even harder. This is because Krrish breaks many of the expectations of a western moviegoer. It's action is unusual, its acting is often exaggerated, not to mention that its in a foreign language! Getting a good perspective on the film is hard when it doesn't look anything like the movie one was looking for. So, let me just get my bias out on the table early on in this review. I loved it! I haven't laughed that hard in any action movie ever. I haven't seen fights that good in any comedy ever. Nor have I ever seen music videos like those in any sci-fi super hero flick. I love the crazy place this movie has found in terms of genre. This film moves easily from pop music video to manga-style action to touching drama to thought provoking sci-fi. It's just great.

However, the bizarre amount of slapstick comedy, product placement/general commercialism, and constant switching of genre may very well put some western viewers off. This movie is not your usual super hero flick. Batman this is not.

It is, however, an excellent movie that combines the core elements of the super hero genre with romance, comedy, and sci-fi, and does this quite effectively, thanks to the good dialogue, great choreography and effects, and great acting and dancing by Hrithik Roshan and Priyanka Chopra.

I was thoroughly entertained and would recommend this film to just about anyone who is willing to suspend disbelief, sit back, and enjoy the show.

So it finally started. India's first super hero is finally here and is ready to take on the best in the business. Krrish opened almost together with Superman Returns and is already eating a major share of business from the legendary super hero, which is a hint enough to mark the grand arrival of the Indian. World now seems a safe place, along with Superman, Batman and Spiderman, now we have Krrish to save the world from evils. The film invests a lot of time in evolution of a super hero from a common man. But once it arrives, you wish the movie runs for some more time... Krrish could do with some more action. the film ends just when your excitement is on the peak. Hrithik pulls the act very well, and Rakesh Roshan again proves that only he can extract best out of his boy. Though the movie is good, but not as good as its prequel Koi Mil Gaya, where you had 2 things to watch out for..splendid acting by Hrithik and Jadoo... This flick certainly lacks Jadoo... both the lovable alien and the cinematic magic... But I guess arrival of Indian Super hero could not have been better. Bravo and all the best Roshans.