Krrish (2006) - Reliving the 80s

Years ago when TV was just young in India and Doordarshan was the only channel. Years before when DD was the only source of entertainment after Vividh Bharti, weekends were like family event with everybody sitting in front of the TV waiting for the weekly movie. This was the time when Raj kapoor to Anil Kapoor would dance on the TV set with 12 channels and a single speaker. Remote control was a luxury.

Years ago, I was a small boy and me and many boys from our building including my brother would ride the bicycle on an almost lonely road. After the evening news which only had the news about Minister inaugurating something, it was the turn of the climax of the movies and we children would never miss this part. One of us would look at the watch and shout “fightingggggg” and we would rush to the nearest house and watch the goody good hero trashing the villain and then the police would come and say “Kanoon ko apne haath main mat lo” (Don’t take the law into your hand). We didn’t care what the story or music or anything about the movie. We cared only about the last fight, the last dhisum-dishum of the movie.

Years later, I went to watch Rakesh Roshan directed, Hrithik Roshan acted, the first Indian super hero movie, “Krrish” precisely for the above reason, “Fightinggggggggg” and also to take my mind off from the fight I had with my boss that evening.

This movie was a walk down memory lane. “Krrish” relives all my childhood. The goody-goody hero, the goody-goody heroine who first uses the hero and then as predicted fall in love. The evil scientist who wants to control the future and be “GOD”.

So “Krrish” is the much awaited sequel of the first Alien movie of India, “Koi Mil…. Gaya”. How many first Rakesh Roshan is going to make. So getting back, the new improved Hrithik Roshan or Krishna in the movie is the son of Rohit who has got power from the alien, Jadoo. Krishna inherits power from his father and as power to jump, run very fast and has lots and lots of strength.

His parents die at his birth and is taken care by his grandmother, Rekha again. To keep him safe, she takes and keep him safe at Manali. He grows up to be Hrithik Roshan with bulging biceps and amazing strength and with a dress sense which is stuck in the old ages.

Enter Priyanka Chopra who visits the place and then what happens is 1 hour of love story. She goes back to Singapore and some days later he follows but not before being warned by her grandmother to keep his power a secret. Something like Spiderman’s “With great power comes great responsibilities” By the tme, its already interval. Now here after a fire in a circus, he wears a mask to hide his identity and becomes Krrish. The remaining movie, he turns his coat and then has misunderstanding about his love and jumps around beating bad guys.

Meanwhile Naseerudin shah plays Dr. Siddhant Arya who wants to build a computer that will see the future with the help of Krrish father, Rohit. He wants to control the world and become “God” by changing and controlling the future.

So what we have is a superboy romancing a seher ki ladki, followed by Krishna taking to superhero and becoming “Krrish” and then taking revenge in the climax. I could have ended the story in these three sentences. But then “Krrish” is a classic and deserves more than that.

Saala! Even the poster is copied. This looks like the “Daredevil” poster

The story of Krrish is a brave attempt. No, I am not talking about adapting the story to the movie but somebody actually taking credit for the story is a brave attempt in itself. The love story is what we saw in the 70s and 80s. The goody goody hero who has no friends because he is ‘different’, the bumbling, beautiful heroine and the ever protective but loving grandmother, everything reminds of the 80s. After many years, I heard Priyanka Chopra mouthing the famous dialog;

“Main Kahaan hoo?” (where am I?) What nostalgia! There is no novelty in the love story. The dialogs are clichéd and the song treatment nothing extraordinary. So the first half of ‘Krrish’ is a combination of love stories of 70’s and 80’s. Its been a long time since I saw a movie like that.

I waited and waited for Krrish to appear but no he was going to take time after the interval too. Rakesh Roshan movies are distinct in their style. There is a difference between the first half and second half. If the first half is comedy, then the second would be action, if the first is love then second has to be high on emotion. So after the first half as a done-to-death love story, the second half is action-cum-revenge drama.

In a circus fire, Krishna remembers that he has to hide his powers and so he just wears his coat the other way around, pick up a circus mask and ta da, Krrish is born.

The remaining part of the movie is a case of love story, action and revenge drama which see little of Krrish.

There are too many characters and none of them come across as well etched. All characters seem half-baked. Priyanka Chopra does not do anything except look beautiful although she is the second most important character after Hrithik Roshan.

Rekha plays Krrish’s grandmother and although she does not have scope, she does ok job. And then there is Naseerudin Shah, who plays lex luther inspired character of Dr. Siddhant Arya. He neither looks menacing nor evil. His attempt to do comedy falls flat. He hardly has any scene in the movie in terms of him being the villain and all. A superhero’s foe has to be of his caliber but unfortunately Naseer’s character is nowhere near. Then there are also small insignificant characters that come and go as they please.

The special effects of the movie, now that’s a story of its own. My friends and I were comparing the scenes with many action movies like “Crouching Tiger, Hidden dragon”, “Spiderman”, Matrix and many more. When they employ special effect experts from ‘phoren’ country atleast let them be innovative. The special effect appear amateur but nevertheless a good job done in terms of the efforts taken.

Hrithik Roshan is Krrish and the efforts he puts to become Krrish is truly commendable. He still carries the half-baked character on his shoulder. He lives Krrish. Watch out for the older version of Hrithik Roshan. He is the only best thing in the movie and probably every frame of the movie.

Music is forgettable and the great computer is really pathetic. So with so many problems and inspired stunts, scripts and characters, does Krrish succeed? Ofcourse this is the best comedy seen in many days, much better than “Phir Hera Pheri”. Don’t believe if the promo says its an action movie. You get your expectation just right when you see it as a comedy. Do you see Krrish? Yes because hopefully then the Indian filmmakers will make a better product which just might give the foreign superheroes a run for their money.

Another reason for Krrish being a smart superhero is that unlike the batmans and supermans, our desi superhero does not wear his underwear over his pants. Now that’s call a sense of dressing for a superhero.

Rating: 5/10