Krrish

I got to watch Krrish at the preview screening last evening at Four Frames, the state-of-the-art studio of director Priyadarshan. The movie was crass. The narrative was un-inspiring and so cliche’d that sometimes make you wonder why people make such movies in the first place. Krrish is a movie that “might have clicked” somewhere in the mid 90s.

Krrish put briefly, is a blend of superman, spiderman, batman and zorro slightly garnished with minority report. The film was screaming with Special FX. Almost every frame in the second half had some special effect or the other that diverts the attention from the story. I get the feeling that they have used all types of special effects available to make the movie and thats certainly not the way a movie should be made.

I’ve always admired movies that used Special FX in subtle ways that adds more realism to the story. Infact there are movies that use Special FX without you even realising it and thats definitely how it should be made. Unfortunately, thats not the case with Krrish.

The story – no spoilers

The story begins with a little boy named Krishna and his grandmother. Krishna appears to be a genius at school and is even caught doing homework for his seniors. The school principal taking note of his extraordinary intellect confronts his grandmother to have his IQ tested. Krishna is cross-examined by a panel of teachers and thats when his grandma realises that the boy is indeed extra-ordinarily brilliant. She fears for his life and decides to move away from the town they were living and heads of to live a secluded life at the mountains.

The boy transforms into a handsome young man drinking Bournvita (which surprisingly doesn’t appear in the star cast considering the amount of screen time it got) and playing at the valley with his horse and a few boys younger to him. Around this time he bumps into Priya – a television journalist from Singapore on an adventure trip at the valley. Love blossoms and the young lad is soon beckoned to Singapore by his lady love. His grandma doesnt like the idea of him going and he begins to rebel. Thats when she tells him the story of his parents (from the prequel Koi Mil Gaya) and how they never returned. Finally, grandma gives in and lets him go to Singapore to get his woman but warns him to conceal his true identity *reminds me of Spiderman here; “with great power comes great responsibility”*

At Singapore due to a slew of incidents and remembering his grandma’s words, he becomes Krrish – a masked superhero saving lives. Priya’s intentions were however different. Realizing his potential, she wants to break the news to the world and make him a phenomenon while saving her career. When Krrish finds this out, he becomes heartbroken and decides to return to his life in the valleys and thats when there is “twist” to the story.

Bottomline

Krrish gets a measly 4/10. The only saving grace is that this is a first attempt at creating an Indian superhero and after having watched it, I am sure the Roshan team would have planned a sequel.