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Title: Krrish
Year: 2006
Director: Rakesh Roshan
Leads: Hrithik Roshan, Naseerudin Shah, Rekha, and Priyanka Chopra.
Producer: Filmkraft Productions, Rakesh Roshan
Genre: Drama/Fantasy
Krrish is the Indian film industry's answer to Hollywood's superheroes such as Superman, Batman, Spiderman, Hulk, and Green Hornet.
A product of current times, the character Krrish is a kind, good-looking, multilingual, smart, IT-savvy, do-gooder with expertise in martial arts thrown in. Krrish would be your regular Indian film hero, were it not for his innocence due to which he tends to trust people completely.
With scenes ranging from the picturesque Himalayas to the sanitized streets of Singapore, from racing horses to programming supercomputers, Rakesh Roshan manages to tell the story of a prodigy with extraordinary powers who has not lost his innocence and whose very gifts make him both powerful and vulnerable. What the director manages to bring out by juxtaposing Krrish with his father — a mentally disabled youth who with the help of a friendly alien manages to become a genius — is that whether one is mentally challenged or a genius, the experience of isolation and exploitation remains the same in society. Interestingly, while one is ridiculed for being mentally challenged and the other respected as a genius, both father and son are essentially seen as freaks. This makes one wonder if being a genius is a blessing or a curse.
The story goes something like this: As a young boy with presumably dead parents, and in the care of his grandmother, Krrish Mehra proves to be a whiz at school. Mrs. Mehra (Rekha) is told by his school principal about her grandson's extraordinary abilities in his first grade. The grandmother immediately removes Krrish from school and takes him to live in a secluded village in the Himalayas as she is afraid her grandson would be considered a freak in the same way her mentally disabled son and her genius space-scientist husband were treated.
Krrish (Hrithik Roshan) grows up to be a gentle youth and falls in love with Priya (Priyanka Chopra), a tourist from Singapore, when her tour group visits his village as a part of a mountain expedition. He wants to marry her, though she does not even know that he loves her. He convinces his grandmother, goes to Singapore, and manages to locate her. While she is flattered by his attention, Priya does not want to marry him. Priya watches a video where Krrish saves people from a burning circus tent and his mask falls off, revealing his true identity. Then, Priya actually tries to exploit him. Krrish realizes Priya is actually pretending to love him so that she could use him to further her career as a TV journalist. He feels let down and is ready to go back, when he discovers that his father is not dead but is alive in Singapore, having been held prisoner for 20 years.
Krrish decides to save his father; in the meantime, Priya learns about his father as well. She slowly begins to fall in love with Krrish, but will he forgive her and take her back? Will Krrish be able to save his father and destroy a supercomputer before the evil genius Dr. Arya (Naseerudin Shah) uses it to unleash havoc on earth? Watch the movie to find out.
Not Your Regular Movie
Krrish is different from the regular Indian movie fare and Hollywood version of Superman or any of the other superheroes because of the following reasons.
First, Krrish — the Indian superman — is neither from another planet like Hollywood's Superman who is from Krypton, nor is he the result of a lab accident like Hulk. Krrish does not get his powers from insects like Spiderman, nor is he a rich man who doubles as caped crusader like Batman. Krrish is human and, in fact, tries to prove he is not a ghost when people assume him to be one because of his incredible flying abilities. This makes the story not only refreshing but also unique from the various superhuman yarns that have been dished out over the ages in both print and in movies.
Second, Krrish uses no fancy automobiles like the Bat mobile used by Batman. He does not fly with a raised hand like Hollywood's Superman nor does he have spring nets like Spiderman. Krrish uses regular transportation means like us. In addition, there are no evil nemeses, like the Joker in the Batman series, who are constantly plotting to steal jewels or destroy cities or take over the world. Rather, the villain, Dr. Arya, is a smart techie interested in super computers. Since Dr. Arya does not have the brains to do all the work himself, he hires others to do it for him.
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| Priya (Priyanka Chopra) and Krrish (Hritik Roshan) |
Third, Krrish's powers are not something known only to him. His grandmother, some of his friends, and the girl he falls for, Priya, know his secret. The twist in the tale comes when Priya actually tries to exploit him and almost exposes him to further her career! This is unusual in the storyline, as the lead actress or the love interest in superhero tales is usually a likeable next-door girl as in Spiderman, or a beautiful work colleague as in Superman, or the temptress-villain as in Batman, all of whom go weak-kneed when they meet the superhero in costume but disregard him when he is in normal clothing. Priya is beautiful but also a strong-willed woman who does not care much for costumed superheroes and prefers the real Krrish. This does not necessarily make her a bad person, just a career-oriented woman who is more sensible than romantic, making her completely different from other types of heroines.
The fourth aspect that separates Krrish from the regular fare is his costume, which is by far the best. Unlike Superman and other caped crusaders, Krrish does not wear colorful underwear atop his dress or long-winged capes. Rather, Krrish's dress is not only stylish but is extremely wearable. You will probably think it was something taken off a runway. Krrish wears a stylish black dress and nevertheless is a symbol of good, though in Western cultures, black is associated with mourning, death, night, or the dark side. He wears a mask over half his face, so people do not recognize him.
Fifth, Krrish is not some adopted or orphaned rich kid like the usual superhero, but his family is human and is alive and well. He has a good relationship with his family, especially his grandmother who teaches him everything — from mathematics to medicine.
Sixth, Krrish does not live in imaginative cities like Metropolis or the superhero's favorite and exclusive city — namely New York — and save only New Yorkers or, at best, Americans. For a change, he lives in India and actually travels to another country, Singapore, and saves people of all races; Indians, Chinese, Malays, Westerners, etc. and people of all religions. This is something that sets Krrish apart from the usual stable of superheroes, making him a truly worldwide superhero. Krrish is probably unique in avoiding a narrow focus on America as the world, by including many parts of the world in the story itself.
Seventh, the antics and stunts provided by Krrish are almost like those performed by any regular Indian movie hero, except his are more spectacular and performed in a mask and a cool dress. The only difference is that with Krrish, his antics are almost believable because of the storyline as opposed to the regular Indian movie hero. In addition, the movie Krrish has very little violence and no mindless machine-gun fights.
Finally, the movie has gone beyond the silver screen in its sales. "The Indian film industry has definitely opened up to exploring various innovative revenue streams," Siddharth Roy Kapur, marketing and communications chief of UTV Software Communications, a leading Bollywood studio, told Reuters. The film has spawned a range of merchandises from Krrish dolls, superhero masks, dartboards, and Rubik's Cubes, to school stationery.
The jarring scenes in the movie are ones having Krrish do the song-and-dance routine, considered an essential Indian movie ingredient. Dances were avoidable here, despite the fact Hrithik Roshan is a very good dancer. Imagine a superhero, running around dancing and singing; it just stretches the limit way too much! The director-cum-scriptwriter could have completely done away with these song-and-dance sequences which are neither smash hits nor used to advance the story. Rather they prove to be completely unnecessary, acting as speed-breakers in the film.
Despite its refreshing storyline, the stunts in this movie could have been even more spectacular as we are used to seeing Indian heroes pull out impossible stunts all the time — be it fighting away 10 armed men all together, saving people from burning buildings even though not being firefighters, etc. To distinguish itself from the regular fare, Krrish needed to be seen with more impossible stunts than normally shown in Indian movies.
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