Let me start by saying that I did not have very high expectations from Krrish; if it was good, I’d have been pleasantly surprised, if it was bad, I would have shrugged and moved on with life. As things turned out, I did neither. Krrish isn’t good and it certainly isn’t bad. It may get rave reviews because of being the first Indian superhero movie, but judged by international standards its plot and special effects fail to match up.
The story, in brief, revolves around Krishna, a young man with incredible powers that I shan’t bore you by expounding on. He lives in a small town in the mountains (beautiful Manali) with his grandmother, an ageing Rekha, and amuses himself by playing with his special abilities. After rescuing her, he falls in love with Priya (Priyanka Chopra), for some unfathomable reason (unless it was because he’d never met any young, modern women before), and is persuaded by her to come to Singapore. Here, he generally performs many good deeds and saves lives, but all anonymously. It isn’t until nearly the end that he starts fighting the really bad guys. No prizes for guessing who comes out on top.
There’s really nothing revolutionary or remarkable about the story and the special effects are pretty average. Admittedly, they’re better than any of their predecessors, but that’s not saying much. However, it’s a start. We can always hope for improvements in future. The great climax, the twist in the tale, left me cold and cast a gloom over the proceedings. In true Bollywood style, the script-writers believed that Krrish’s (what’s with the 2 ’r’s anyway?) identity could be kept a secret from everybody as long as he wore his flimsy Batman mask. There was never a clear demarcation of his powers; they seemed to be endless. He could do virtually anything he chose - he had no Achilles heel . Come on, even Superman and Spiderman have limitations and weaknesses!
I’m quite divided on the performances, because while Hrithik’s was outstanding, Priyanka and Rekha were both just irritating. Rakesh Roshan loves to showcase his son’s talents and there certainly is a lot to show. In Krrish, Hrithik gets to play a superhero (of sorts), a retarded boy , a post-Jadoo Rohit (all in flashbacks) and, without giving too much away, a tortured prisoner. His performances were all brilliant. Priyanka Chopra, on the other hand, was exceedingly irritating. All she did was scream and look ugly. Don’t get me wrong; I normally think she’s a pretty girl, but to pair her with Hrithik, who looks like a Greek god and dances like a dream, was an insane mistake. Her acting was more or less non-existant. Rekha was annoying as the feeble old grandmother and she had the worst dialogues in the movie (which is saying something, since most of them were quite pathetic).
Overall, Krrish is not a bad movie; it’s all right for time-pass and mindless entertainment. But to hail it as a revolution in Hindi cinema is wrong. It has Rakesh Roshan’s typically old-fashioned, superficial story and a few catchy songs and adding some funky super effects can’t atone for these shortcomings. Bollywood has a long way to go before it can hope to produce a superhero film even half as engaging as Batman Begins and Superman Returns.