Krrish
 
    
Director: Rakesh Roshan
Year:  2006
Music:  Rajesh Roshan
Duration: 154 minutes
Rating: 7.0
Three years after Koi . . . Mil Gaya the Roshan father and son team returned with a sequel that became a big hit. It is by every measurement a much better film. Great production values, a fine script, lovely location shooting, good special effects, solid action choreography and a memorable super hero. Krrish. It still has its faults - a slowish first half where the focus is on romance and at times cartoonish action scenes - but for a three hour film it goes by pretty quickly and unlike many Bollywood films I did not have to break it between two days. Rakesh Roshan brought in special effects people from Hollywood and he turned to Hong Kong for the action choreography - from the great Tony Ching Siu-tung who was behind many of Hong Kong's classic films. Hrithik Roshan again has the lead but they add Priyanka Chopra, hold on to Rekha and as the villain they bring on one of the great actors of Indian independent film, Naseeruddin Shah (also Captain Nemo in The League of Extraordinary Gentleman).




It is a plush film. Everything looks great. The first half is shot in Manali, near the top of India among the snow capped mountains and stunning valleys while the second half is shot in Singapore. Everything shines. There is no gritty here. Everything sparkles. I sort of felt like I was taking a warm bath. This picks up about five years after Koi ... Mil Gaya in which the alien has safely returned to his spaceship and Rohit has become a hero and in the end retained his abilities given to him by Jadoo - superior intelligence and great physical strength. But by the time of this film both he and his wife (Preity Zinta) have passed away and the grandmother (Rekha) has taken their son Krishna to a secluded part of India and disappeared off the grid to protect him. It should of course be against the law to ever have Preity Zinta die in a film. But they do. We don't find out till much later the circumstances of their deaths when the Grandmother finally tells Krishna.



In the meantime Krishna grows up like every Indian boy - racing horses - on foot - climbing mountains, talking to the birds, becoming friends with the fish, jumping from the mountains into the lake far below, leaping enormous distances and becoming a genius. He can watch anything for a minute and understand it - even martial arts. He has of course inherited the Jadoo Factor - even more so than the father. But he is a man alone other than Grandmom and so when a group of tourists come into the valley he is gobsmacked by one of them, Priya (Priyanka) and who can blame him. After basically not seeing any women during his life he falls for her like a colliding comet. Not so much on her part - she thinks he is cool and is incredibly impressed by his physical feats - like smashing a volleyball through the net and cracking a rock with the ball - but she is a city girl living in Singapore with a job at a TV station. Living out in the boonies with the birds and bees isn't her idea of a fulfilling life.




Back to Singapore she goes - where she and her friend are fired  for being away too long - but they get the idea to bring Krishna to Singapore under the pretense of her being in love with him and then film his ability and get their jobs back. Oh boy. That does not go well. Until a fire in a circus threatens the lives of children and he finds a broken mask on the ground to protect his identity and goes into action. He takes on the name Krrish. And more adventure is to come obviously  - a madman scientist (Shah) who has built a computer that can see into the future and thinks he is God. Krrish may have something to say about that. This was followed by Krrish 3 in 2013 and a fourth is underway but covid put it way behind schedule. I am actually interested in where Krrish goes after this. A quiet life in the country? A husband and father? I sure hope not.