Force Fed Films: Krrish (2006)

Today for my "Force Fed Film" Puneet decided to give me another Bollywood movie. While he admitted that Robot was actually quite bad, he assured me that Krrish would be different. It's true that I do have a love for superheroes, and this is a superhero movie, so there was still hope. My biggest worries were the inevitable musical numbers; they were just so terrible in Robot, which is the only other Bollywood movie I've ever seen. On the bright side, Krrish seems to have a fairly positive reputation online. Find out if I add to it or take it down a notch on the other side of the jump. Oh yeah, get ready for a long read, this is nearly a 3 hour movie with a LOT going on!


Obviously, before I get into what I thought, I should explain what this crazy movie is about. Of course, being a Bollywood movie, the story has many smaller parts to it which I'll have to sort of glaze over to give you the big picture. The film starts out with a small boy who shows amazing talents, well beyond what any child should be capable of. His name is Krishna Mehra, and it seems some amazing talents that his father mysteriously had, passed onto the son. His father had been a super genius, but was killed in a terrible work "accident". Krishna's grandmother fears for her grandson, believing the world will only want to take advantage of him. Being the only one to raise him after the death of his mother as well, she decides to leave the city and move far away to a remote village in the mountains.

Krishna (Hrithik Roshan) climbs a mountain as if he's taking a simple stroll

Years later, Krishna is now grown up and has shown not only to be very smart, but also physically gifted. His abilities far surpass normal human abilities, and they're always improving as he keeps pushing himself. One day, a camping retreat group comes to the valley and this is where Krishna first meets Priya, a gorgeous woman who steals his heart after they spend the rest of her vacation hanging out together. However, when she goes back to the city, she finds her job at the TV station is at risk, so she promises to show them a young man with amazing abilities. She uses his feelings against him, which she doesn't share, to get him to come to the city. From then on it's a struggle for Krishna to keep his powers a secret, as he promised his grandmother he would. He also learns more about his father, and the company at which he died.

The beautiful Priyanka Chopra plays the love interest, conveniently named Priya

I know that was a long description, but I honestly skipped a lot of details! So much stuff about pretending to be a ghost, wanting to leave the valley, helping a martial artist street performer, and stopping some criminals... the list goes on and on. Thankfully, because of all the varied sub-plots, the movie keeps a good pace with all the different things going on and never seems to drag on any one thing. Smaller side roll characters, like the martial artist he helps raise money for his sick little sister, pop back up later in the film in a significant, satisfying way, meaning the time spent with them wasn't wasted. Also, this movie is a sequel to a film called Koi... Mil Gaya, which is the story of the father. There are some good recaps and flashbacks here that make it so you don't need to have seen Koi... Mil Gaya to understand Krrish. The story seems to flow quite naturally, and while there are several twists, they all seemed to fit the tone of the film.

Probably one of the cooler superhero masks I've seen in a long time

In Robot, the acting was all really extra forced and never came off as natural. That's thankfully gone for the most part here. The actors of Krrish weren't perfect, but they were much better. Hrithik Roshan (please don't ask me to say this) did a great job as Krishna and his alter-ego Krrish. He was charming and innocent when he needed to be, really coming across as kindhearted and trustworthy. While as Krrish he was a cold ass-kicking badass who was all business and pretty much unstoppable. The movie really focuses on him, but Priyanka Chopra as Priya did a good job as the love interest, especially as she warms up to Krishna, and the woman who played his grandmother, billed only as Rekha, was also good.

So how about that music? Are you curious? So it turns out that the musical sections weren't that bad this time. There weren't that many, and thankfully they were actually subtitled this time! Probably the thing I'm most grateful for was the fact that they took place in the locations where the characters were, and they actually seemed to make some sense. In Robot, everything came to a sudden stop, and even though the characters were, for example, at a small cafe table, the music video would kick in and they'd be on an Aztec pyramid with robots, and then on a beach in Hawaiian shirts or something absurd. Here, if Krishna is home in the valley and he's longing for Pryia, he wanders the valley in his regular clothes, with his friend, and is lost in his thoughts. SO MUCH BETTER! I also appreciated that they kept the singing relegated to the romantic parts when he's Krishna, and kept all the action parts and his Krrish alter-ego completely separate.

The music number were totally watchable and made sense for the situations and locations

Speaking of the action, you'll find quite a lot of wire work, similar to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and a few more scenes that will have you thinking of The Matrix, but of course in all the best ways. I thought the wire work was really well done and it was clear that Hrithik Roshan trained a lot to do the stunts. The martial arts scenes were really cool and often hard hitting. In fact with the speed and strength he hits a lot of the bad guys (in the story, not real life), I'm pretty sure most of them are probably dead! He may be a hero, but he's going to get the job done! I also just want to say that I liked how and where he got his mask and I liked that it was asymmetrical.

The action is actually pretty cool and really well done