Krrish

This was supposed to be one of the first reviews to come out for Krrish; Unfortunately, I didn't get enough time on Friday to complete it, so I'm posting it today. On Thursday, I was at one of the premier shows of Krrish in Bangalore (cost me 250/- for a ticket), with a couple of my friends - we'd booked the ticket on Monday itself, so that we'd be one of the first to watch what had been one of the most awaited movies of 2006, and for which we'd been waiting with bated breath. In the plush multiplex theatre, as I waited for the movie to start rolling, there were many questions running through my mind.

I had of course read that Krrish is Rohit Mehra (Hrithik in Koi Mil Gaya)'s son, but what I really wanted to see is what sort of superhero would he be in this movie. Would he have the immense likeability of Rohit in Koi Mil Gaya? Would we cheer to see him bash up the villians, and cry when he'd be disadvantaged? Would Krrish really herald the new-age Indian superhero, and would we have Indian kids jostling to get their Krrish Masks, Krrish dolls and Krrish comic books, instead of Superman, Spiderman and all the other foreign men out there? And then, as the movie started, I put the questions out of my mind and settled back comfortably on my chair, hoping that I'd get my 250/-'s worth and maybe much more.At the outset, let me say, Krrish does not really match upto Koi Mil Gaya. The movie is definitely a step in a new direction, and Rakesh Roshan needs to be lauded for trying to achieve something not many directors/producers will even dream of. Superhero stuff is not your everyday bowl of cereal, you know. The locales are terrific (Singapore looks squeaky-clean), the camera work is distinct, the stunts/action are classy - in fact the places where the superhero gets to do his act are really amazing (I never knew Singapore has such mind-boggling structures; and also, it must have been tough work to actually shoot on those structures, and the roads).  And of course, there's the super-hero. Hrithik's looking uber-cool in some of the shots, and he's made a real earnest attempt to portray the unwilling Superhero, who can hop, skip and jump amidst skyscrapers and busy traffic on the road, swim seas, swat enemies as if they were mosquitoes, perform kung-fu style action and yet be child-like, innocent, loving and caring. The positive aspects of the movie stop there though. Hrithik tries hard with his histrionics and with the action, but the script lets him down considerably. I also wasn't impressed by his packaging vis-à-vis his clothes and super-hero look. The dirty vest/salwar he wears in the first half makes me wonder what got into the designer. I mean who wears such stuff in a village anyway? The vest is obviously intended to show off his muscles, but the salwar desperately needs a wash, and is out-of-place, considering his granny (Rekha) is dressed in immaculate designer sarees teamed with expensive shawls of the same color (in fact looking like she's got a makeover, esp. from the Koi Mil Gaya period, where she was in subdued muted tones with minimal makeup). In Hrithik's Singapore tryst, one particularly ugly t-shirt looked like a ladies top - orange with yellow borders - *yuck*. However, the man is good looking, so he forces you to ignore his unfortunate wardrobe. His mask is cool (I'm a little unsure about how he fixes it to his face), but I didn't like the black overcoat. His muscles will put any regular gym-man to shame, and may have women drooling, but I for one, don't care much for rippling muscles, so that didn't add value to my money.  Krrish as a whole let me down. The comparisons to Koi Mil Gaya are inevitable; as I watched the movie, I tried to remember why it didn't keep me engrossed the way Koi Mil Gaya did, and I failed. However, over the weekend, I watched Koi Mil Gaya on Sony Max, and I understood why. Both the movies have different story lines, but Koi Mil Gaya was very fluid and integrated as a movie - had a single purpose, and had some very loveable characters, all of whom were relevant to the storyline. Krrish unfortunately has a lot of unnecessary side-plots and characters that I just wished would get out of the screen. The editing is patchy, and there are evident flaws in the story, which could have been avoided (for eg. the school principal never seemed to have aged). Koi Mil Gaya had a hero we could sympathize and empathize with. His infectious laughter brought a smile to every face, and his tears would have us reaching for the hankerchief. We understood and felt emotionally tied to the guy who was the typical underdog, and unfortunate victim. And when he rose to heroism, we were there, cheering for him, and egging him on. Krrish has none of those advantages. Here we have the hero, a genius at birth, who has more powers than we can count. But instead of him being the archetype of the hero of the masses, he ends up being a whimpering, confused and at times stupid boy with too many emotional hangups, and whose genius IQ levels never grew up with him. Many times during the movie I felt that Krrishna(esp. when he went into the angst mode)'s voice started to sound like Rohit, and he was walking a thin line between the portrayals of Rohit and Krrish. I wouldn't blame Hrithik for it though - it was most likely that Rakesh Roshan got confused which movie he was directing. Or probably he was suffering a hangover from Koi Mil Gaya.  Priyanka Chopra was a huge letdown. Although she's not one of my fav actresses, I however appreciated her spunk in Andaaz, liked her quite a bit in Aitraaz, and could bear her in Bluffmaster. But in Krrish, what irritated me most about her was her overtly done makeup. I don't know what it is with the Indian love-affair with fair skin. Priyanka Chopra and Sushmita Sen are dusky beauties, who've been accepted and felicitated even by international panels where you get the best in fair skin and clear complexion. Yet, in Indian filmdom, they're made to paint/cake their faces with so much makeup to match up to the Indian (and very dumb) perception of beauty. In Priyanka's case, I also think its because she would have looked quite contrast to Hrithik's very fair coloring. But then, so what? Was it better to make her look like she's dipped her face in whitewash, than to retain her dusky beautiful color? In the movie, her close-up shots are unbearable. Priyanka has as her friend, a very irritating Maninee (I know her from Nach Baliye) who lisps, shrieks and is very annoying. Again, I suspect that Maninee is a choice for a friend because Maninee is also dusky and the makers musn't have wanted Priyanka to look darker in contrast to any other fairer 'sakhi'. Priyanka also needs to have another look at her Krrish wardrobe - her clothes were horrific. While Preity Zinta looked so glamorous and beautiful in Koi Mil Gaya, Priyanka looks crass and out-of-place. Her role does nothing to improve her situation, and all she has to do is widen her eyes, scream, look confused or sing and dance - there's not a hint of sophistication in her character, and it would have been better to pass her off as a village belle. The poorly done makeup seems to have claimed other victims - Rekha is another case. In Koi Mil Gaya, she was superb as the harassed single mom, whose life revolved around her half-wit son. I had really appreciated her choice of toned down sarees and neat but distraught appearance in the movie. In Krrish, she's completely made-up (blush on her cheek, deep eyeliner, and lots of mascara and eyelash-curler/falsh eyelashes), and refuses to look like a grandmother, except for the white strands in her hair, and a slight stoop.  All the other characters are badly written and are not even worth remembering (unlike say, Jadoo, Johny Lever and the kids in Koi Mil Gaya). Naseeruddin Shah is wasted, and his villainous act is more comic than scary. There are lots of questionable scenes, and the plot is poorly contrived, and has no suspense at all. Another *very* irritating factor is the amount of product placement in the movie. Each scene seems like an ad for a particular product, and you have product labels flung at your face almost every moment, and prominently so. I just wish film-makers like Rakesh Roshan would have some restrain and atleast try to disguise/minimise the visibility of their sponsorship strategy. Marketing and money seems to be corrupting all creative instincts. Unfortunate. The music in the movie does nothing to salvage its entertainment capacity. Its boring, not very hummable, and doesn't have recall-value. Just barely makes the grade for melody, and is mostly distracting and not well integrated into the movie. So I don't think it is going to help the movie attract viewers. BTW, just for trivia, when I saw Koi Mil Gaya again, I also realized that Rajesh Roshan had used the tune "Aao Sunao Pyaar Ki Ek Kahaani" as the background score for when Rohit is thanking Jadoo for giving him his powers.  Speaking of Jadoo, I also just realized that Koi Mil Gaya not only relied on Hrithik's superb performance but also on Jadoo. Jadoo is the most huggable alien I've ever seen, and probably contributed equally to KMG's success as Hrithik did. Krrish unfortunately has no jadoo… either as a character in the script, or in the story itself. So its your typically over-rated but under-performing sequel. I don't know what will be the fate of the movie at the box-office, but it didn't really please me in any way. Except of course, for Hrithik's superhero antics, which is the only paisa-vasool factor. The stunts are worth a dekko (although they've been definitely seen before) and Hrithik (with his sleek,taut movements) make them believable, and even enjoyable.  I just wish that Rakesh Roshan had toned down on the typical Hindi film melodrama and given more time n situations for the super-heroic stuff, because those are all that are worth watching. Unfortunately Mr. Roshan believes in a super-hero, who has to be first proved as the ideal grandson, ideal son, ideal boyfriend (how clichéd can it get - he even has to bash up goons who 'ched-chaad' his girlfriend) etc. etc. So there are loads of emotional baggage scenes that we're pilloried with, and you sit and twiddle your thumbs through them (since your sympathies lie only with you, and not with any of the characters in the scene) and wish you could get to see your hero doing his flying, running, swimming, jumping acts. Let me also digress here a little bit - one of my friends had an issue with all the things the superhero could do - there seemed to be too many of them. He was a bit of Superman, a bit of Spidey, a bit of Batman and lord knows who else. Come on now. We want Krrish to be the first Superhero. Not the only one, for heavens sake. Anyway, a review full of complaints later, I can only say that it was obviously a good effort, and I still do appreciate Rakesh Roshan for having the tenacity to do a film like this. I only wish he'd put in some more efforts and tied up the loose ends, and gotten a better script (and possibly better makeup men and dress designers), because it would have really been worth the effort then. Now, as I exited out of the theatre screening Krrish, I only felt a little bad that Hrithik had put in so much effort into a movie that could have easily been one of the best, but turned out to be nothing but a children's film with some good stunts.