In Koi Mil Gaya we had Rohit Mehra (Hrithik Roshan) whose father(Rakesh Roshan) was a scientist that managed to make contact with aliens but died in a car accident. Rohit grows up with down syndrome and gets ridiculed by those around him until one fine day using his dad's machine, he makes contact with the aliens. One of them comes to earth-Jaado and Rohit befriends him. Before leaving Jaadoo gives Rohit super-powers and they all lived happily ever after? Well not quiet!
Krrish starts off where Koi Mil Gaya ended. We find out that Rohit and his wife Nisha have both passed away, but before they did they had a son named Krishna (Hrithik Roshan again). Krishna's grandmother (Rekha) comes to learn that Krishna has been blessed with the same superpowers that Jaadoo blessed Rohit with and he too is a unique child with super human abilities. Scared that Krishna might face the same cruel fate as her son, she moves deep into the mountains with Krishna where he lives a lonely and solitude life away from the rest of the world. Once again his friends are all little kids as well as nature itself. Along comes Priya (Priyanka Chopra) and Krishna falls in love with her. Priya thinks that she can use Krishna to get her job back and decides to invite Krishna to Singapore where she lives and pretends to love him back. After much hesitation Krishnas grandmother finally lets him go to Singapore under the one condition that he will not show his true face and use his super powers in the front of the world.
In Singapore after a series of events Krishna saves a whole bunch of people from a fire-but not to break his grandmas promise he wears a mask to cover his true identity. Krishna now becomes Krrish, a masked super-hero who is a saviour to those in need. Krrish becomes a overnight sensation with the media and tabloids all wanting to know who the masked man is. Krishna even keeps the secret from Priya.
There is also a eccentric, evil and psychotic scientist Dr.Siddhant Arya (Nasseridian Shah) who dreams of "playing god" by inventing a computer that can show the future. Dr. Arya started work on this project with the help of a certain Rohit Mehra (Yes - the orignal Hrithik Roshan) but after Rohits sudden demise Dr. Arya hasn't been able to have the computer re-made until now...
At this juncture the film takes a twist and what started out as a simple love story which turned into a super-hero movie now turns into a revenge story of a son carrying on his fathers legacy and the ultimate fight takes place between good and evil...
In terms of a story FULL CREDIT must be given to Rakesh Roshan who has done a wicked job at continuing the story from Koi Mil Gaya forward. He understands the concept of a sequel perfectly and by incorporating constant references to the first part as well as the return of a few loved characters not to forget some memorable flashbacks he has kept the essence of a sequel truly alive!
The screenplay on the other hand could've been a lot tidier. The film works as three separate parts and the team of writers (Sachin Bhowick, Akash Khurana, Honey Irani, Robin Bhatt, Sanjay Masoom and Rakesh Roshan himself) could have done a better job at joining all three parts together.
As a director Rakesh Roshan on the whole does a decent job, although Krrish is NOT as good as Koi Mil Gaya in my opinion! The movies focus needed to be entirely on the track of Krrish finding his identity as a super-hero and also the Krrish / Dr. Arya tale but the love story in between acts as a speed breaker and doesn't gel with the viewer.
The first part is essentially a love story with the entire focus on the introduction of Krishna, his surroundings and background as well as a romantic/comedy track. The romantic and comedy scenes however come across as annoying and don't entertain the viewer that much. Ideally these scenes have been canned keeping in mind Hrithik Roshans young fan following and, like Koi Mil Gaya, here too Hrithik has a ton of child friends. There are scenes which spark up thier proceedings like Rekha telling Hrithik what happened to his father and why she doesn't want him to go to Singapore, but this scene comes too late into the first half by which time the viewer is on the verge of being bored. Tighter editing was the need of the first hour!
The second part is the emergence of a super-hero - Krrish! This is basically lifted directly from SUPERMAN and SPIDERMAN and merged into one. The manner in which Krishna transforms into Krrish (the whole circus sequences) needed to be more expertly canned. The sequence feels rushed and even how Hrithik Roshan got the mask should've had more meaning behind it. What director Rakesh Roshan has done is copied various Hollywood super-hero films and tried to create a Indian super-hero who is larger than life and invincible. For a Hindi film, this is all very novel and something quiet new to Indian audiences (a lot like how Koi Mil Gaya was ), but for someone who is aware of Super-hero films and the ideology behind it, the entire Super-hero aspect of it may come across as lame. Also once again the countless romantic scenes between Hrithik and Priyanka get tedious after a while and one just sits there and waits for the movie to MOVE FORWARD. There are enough interesting moments here to keep the viewers interest alive including some superbly canned fight sequences as well as the introduction of Nasseridian Shah.
The third part of the movie is the trump card and the masterstroke of a experienced and veteran storyteller and here the viewer is completely taken aback by the turn of events once Sharat Saxena finally finds Hrithik Roshan. Here the story of Koi Mil Gaya completely merges with that of Krrish and the viewers are taken for a exciting journey of good versus evil as Krrish decides to bring a stop to the gleefully evil Dr. Arya. The pace....the turn of events...the special effects..the performances...everything is FANTASTIC here and if the viewer walks away remembering anything it is this third chapter of the movie. Right up to the winning climax and the end scene, Rakesh Roshan gets it right . . . and this third chapter in my view SAVES what could have been a complete and total disaster.
In summary, the first two chapters don't live up to expectations, although they do have their moments, but it is the third chapter which is the winner and holds the entire movie together! Mr.Roshan will need to re-think his entire strategy carefully if indeed he is to make a trilogy out of this (more on that later).
Now to the performances..
Hrithik Roshan once again slips effortlessley into his character of Krrish and delivers a brilliant performance. Though his saccharine coated smile and slightly feminine dance steps to tend to get on the borderline of annoying-its his confidence in the character he is playing that keeps the movie alive. His performance is no doubt crowd pleasing and Roshan's delivery, emoting, facial expressions, body language and dancing are all just fantastic as expected. Once again his portrayal of Rohit is the real winning performance here and Hrithik plays that winning character extremely well (in fact, in the entire third chapter of the movie he is excellent and one must give him a standing ovation for such a convincing portrayal in a dual role). My only request to Hrithik is that he now try something completely different and away from the magical land of "Jaadoo" before/if he starts work on the next sequel.
Priyanka Chopra plays the typical hindi film glam doll and the movie doesn't offer her much scope to perform as such. I found her downright annoying in the first half, and barely adequate in the second half. Beautiful she is, but her comic timing is loud and delivery is not up to mark at times.
Rekha is BRILLIANT! Infact she completely steals the movie in a few of the scenes at the start of the movie as well as the sequence after the confrontation scene. As the doting grandmother, Rekha sports grey stripes and is extremely convincing in her part. No doubt Rakesh Roshan and Rekha, right from Khoon Bhari Mang to now Krrish, have chemistry as actor/director and it translates well on-screen.
Now to Nasseridian Shah...he is just divine as the villain! Evil...cool...calm...calculate....sadistic..psychotic but above all...a wicked sense of humour which had the audiences in splits. In fact his take-off of news readers as he talks to the audience is just HILARIOUS and Shah plays his part to utmost perfection. Given the genre of the movie this is a Nasseridian Shah performance I really enjoyed and one I will definitely re-visit as there are some priceless dialogues/comedy here!
The supporting cast all have limited roles but play their parts adequately. Sharat Saxena is as dependable as ever. Puneet Issar and Akash Khurana are as expected. On the other hand Hemant Panday, Archana Puran Singh and Mainee Mishra are irritating.
Preity Zinta is back for one scene. Rakesh Roshan also appears in a flashback which is taken directly from Koi Mil Gaya.
Technically the film is one of the finest and polished products to come out of India to date and is akin (at times copied) from a Hollywood film although I was VERY annoyed with the action sequences which in my view were no great shakes as they for the most were replicated from Hollywood films.
Santosh Thundiyil's camerawork is fantastic and the film has a bright and slick look throughout and captures the mood and essence of the film superbly. The action scenes by Sham Kaushal and Tony Ching Siu Tung from Hong Kong are no doubt excellent for a Indian film, but the mere fact that they have been ripped off from films like The Matrix triology as well as films from Asian Cinema won't excite people who have seen the former films. The fight sequences in the climax where Hrithik makes way to Nasser's den I actually cringed at as I thought that whole "lets copy Matrix action scenes because we know how to" had passed over after films like Mission Kashmir, Awaara Paagal Deewana, Shakti - The Power, etc. did them to death. Here we have Hrithik fighting up to 20 men at once, slow-mo dodging bullets etc which don't actually come across that great. The sequence where Hrithik chases the helicopter is superbly canned though, and quiet innovative although once again very similar to Spiderman. The Special Effects are superb and very well done. Rakesh Roshan has spent a large amount of money on recreating something very "International" from India and he does succeed with the look and feel, however I felt originality was the need of the hour here.
Rajesh Roshan's music disappoints. I have been the BIGGEST Rajesh Roshan fan from films like Khudgarz, Khoon Bari Mang, Kaala Bazaar to Kaho Naa Pyar Hai and Koi Mil Gaya, but here the music for the most just fails to connect with the viewers. Also the picturisation of songs are not exciting and the placement is poor. Only Dil Ne Diya and Koi Tumsa Nahin stand out, though the latter needed to have been placed elsewhere. Pyar Ki Khaani and Chori Chori bored me.
Salim-Sulaimans background score on the other hand is excellent and really heightens the impact of the movie throughout. The duo are no doubt masters in their own right.
All up where does that leave Krrish? Well it has its moments but overall I felt the movie was a disappointment. Being a fan of Filmkraft and Rakesh Roshan's brand of cinema, I must say Rakesh Roshan has stood the test of time, especially when Subhash Ghai is delivering Kisna's and Sooraj Barjatya is delivering Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon's. Innovative, imaginative as well as a risk taker in some ways which I admire however I just wished that he had been more original here and not seeked so much inspiration from Hollywood. The overall product suffers and the need of the hour was a tighter screenplay in the first half. However for fans of Koi Mil Gaya, this is no doubt a must-see even if it is only for a brilliant last half and also for fans of Hrithik Roshan and Nasseridian Shah, who shine in their roles. And YES . . . if Rakesh Roshan concentrates on the above aspects I do feel that there is enough for a Trilogy!
Final Rating: * * * ½
