What do you have when you combine the elaborate musical sequences and romance of Bollywood cinema and the master choreography of Hong Kong legend Tony Ching Siu-Tung? The result is this action-packed superhero film that is somewhat reminiscent of the original Black Mask starring Jet Li. Indian heartthrob Hrithik Roshan’s training under Tony Ching Siu-Tung pays off as he gets to perform not only his usual Bollywood number, but some exciting martial arts action as well.
Krrish is a sequel to a Bollywood film titled Koi…Mil Gaya. In that film, an alien comes to Earth and gives a mentally challenged person special powers and as a result, the once mentally challenged person has become a more self-confident person. Hrithik Roshan played the role of the young man, Rohit Mehta, in that film.
Taking place years later, Rohit and his wife Nisha have had a son named Krishna, played again by Roshan. Krishna has inherited the powers his father received from the alien in the previous film, but it is unnecessary to see the first film as the plot of the first film is explained in this film. Krishna and his grandmother Sonia live out in the country, where Krishna spends his time jumping long distances and even some flying. When he runs into Priya, a businesswoman who is with a camping group, he falls for her.
When Priya heads back to Singapore, where she works, Krishna decides to visit her. When he arrives, he sees a street kung fu demonstration by Kristian, a circus performer trying to raise money to care for his sick sister. When Krishna helps Kristian raise money by doing his own demonstration, he is invited to the circus to see Kristian. When a gang of thugs start a fire at the circus, Krishna finds a black carnival mask on the ground and rescues people from the circus.
The hero becomes known as Krrish and people all over Singapore begin to rave about him. This doesn’t bode well with Dr. Siddhartha Arya, an evil genius who is on the verge of creating a supercomputer that can foresee the future. His intention is to potentially take over the world. Krrish must find a way to stop the evil genius when he discovers a very dark secret, one that may affect not only his life, but the life of his family forever.
Hrithik Roshan is clearly one of the most popular stars of the Bollywood circuit. His father, Rakesh Roshan, casted him in the role of Krishna as a man who learns of his hereditary powers and puts them to good use. Roshan spent 25 days training in wirework and martial arts under the legendary Tony Ching Siu-Tung. Despite enduring injuries while training, Ching saw potential in the actor and luckily, it is Roshan’s physical shape and prowess that helped him in the end.
The only flaws in the film lie in Naseruddin Shah and Priyanka Chopra as both the villain and love interest of the film. Shah doesn’t have much to offer in the action department. It is all the sad because Shah was able to pull off some nicely choreographed action in the Hollywood film The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Bollywood films such as Asambhav. In this film, he mugs more for the camera rather than do any action that is satisfying enough.
As for Chopra, she is mostly there for the male fans to ogle at. She is the typical damsel in distress character of the film. She’s pulled off the same type of roles in Asambhav, and doens’t really have much to offer in the dramatic department. Thankfully, she improved in that department with her role in the remake of the Bollywood hit, Don, starring opposite Shahrukh Khan as the titled character. However, here, she is just there as the love interest and nothing more. Despite his limited appearance in the film, Chinese-born martial arts champion Bin Xia makes quite an impact in his role of circus performer Kristian. Bin shows off some amazing kung fu moves in a street demonstration. Krrish marks the acting debut of Bin, who performed as a stuntman in two of Zhang Yimou’s wuxia pian trilogy, Hero (2002) and House of Flying Daggers (2004). In a turn of events, Kristian learns of Krrish’s identity, but Krishna insists that his friend takes the credit, because Krishna cares about Kristian’s sister, who is sick and needs surgery.
What many people will find interesting is Krrish’s costume, which consists of all black, including a black leather trenchcoat and an interesting looking black mask. The look may have been influenced by the Tsui Hark-produced Black Mask, which starred Jet Li as a superhuman ex-soldier who wears a costume with a black mask. The costume here looks very slick and fits Roshan very well.
Krrish is a fun superhero film in the Bollywood style. It has music, dancing, romance in true Bollywood style, but fans will love the master choreography of the legendary Tony Ching Siu-Tung, despite its over 3-hour run.
WFG RATING: B+
Yash Raj Films presents a Filmkraft Productions Pvt. Ltd. production. Director: Rakesh Roshan. Producer: Rakesh Roshan. Writers: Sachin Bhomwick, Rakesh Roshan, Akash Khurana, Honey Irani, and Robin Bhatt. Cinematography: Santosh Thundiyil. Editing: Amitabh Shukla.
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Priyanka Chopra, Naseeruddin Shah, Bin Xia, Rekha, Manini Mishra, Sharat Saxena, Archana Puran Singh, Hemant Pandey, Yu Xuan, Preity Zinta.
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