Krrish, oh Krrish!

Krrish 3 is disappointing. The so-called record box -office gross just doesn’t tell the true story, if there is a good story to tell at all.

Rakesh Roshan’s superhero sequel has come seven years after Krrish (2006). Times have changed but the mindset clearly hasn’t. There is superficial gloss, for sure. A truckload of visual wizardry has been dumped on the movie, and it doesn’t disappoint. The special effects are in the best Hollywood tradition but for anyone familiar with Hollywood’s superhero history, Krrish 3’s VFX are only an imitation.

Imitation can flatter but not if the flattery is insincere. If Rakesh and Hrithik Roshan were serious about paying tribute to the best of superhero Hollywood, then they would have also worked on a great story. All the best Hollywood creations of this genre have had a great story to tell: from Superman (1978), Batman (1989), Spider-man (2002), The Fantastic Four, The Mask, Hellboy, Iron Man, to their newer re-imaginings, they have all been compellingly and convincingly told. 

That’s where Krrish 3 fails. A vapid story of a paralysed scientific genius unleashing mutant viruses on the world and making a killing selling antidotes, and trying to eventually take over the world, is made worse by Krrish’s cardboard-cutoutness. 

Back in Krrish, he was an innocent village boy discovering his unusual qualities to his own amazement and then struggling to use them in the best way possible to save the world. It had struck a chord and created expectations that the sequel simply fails to live up to.

Krrish is India’s first screen superhero (if we discount Supremo, the comic book alter ego of Amitabh Bachchan from the 1980s, and the TV hero Shaktimaan) and its creators should have taken the trouble to write a backstory for him. What Krrish has been doing since his first outing in 2006 and where he is now in his life and how he has got there. That would have helped tell a good story.

Instead, we find Krishna (Krrish’s Clark Kent persona) getting fired from jobs for disappearing without explanation to carry out his superhero duties, but also living the good life, with birthday parties in a discotheque thrown by his TV journalist wife. This is mindless Bollywood at work.

Why not make Krrish a medical salesman or an author/blog-writer or a social activist, who will have the leisure to break into action whenever danger beckons. 

Priyanka’s character, too, is stunted, still stuck in 2006. She dresses sexily (no argument with that), dances in an oddly 1990s way, and acts as if she never grew beyond age 16. Come on, Krrish creators, this is Junglee Billi of ‘Don’ (2006) and Jhilmil of ‘Barfi’ we are talking about. Give some respect to the actor beneath Priya (now Krrish’s wife). Surely, you can create a mature woman character, someone like Mary Jane Watson of Spiderman.

Vivek Oberoi, as the villain Kaal, is shortchanged because for nine-tenths of the film, he is bound to a wheelchair (shades of Stephen Hawking, I dare presume, or maybe Shakaal from Shaan). And when he does walk, he gets into an abominable steel suit and flies. As for the twist (yes, there is one), the least said the better. This is a waste of an actor who has proved himself a great anti-hero.

The only actor who manages to grab eyeballs is Kangana Ranaut as the villainous mutant Kaya. She is sassy, sexy and seductively dangerous or dangerously seductive (take your pick). Even Krrish/Krishna comes alive opposite her in the only entertaining but decidedly 1990ish song, Dil tu hi bataa. Rajesh Roshan, please retire.

If inspiration was needed, Krrish creators could have turned to our two epics that abound in superheroes, gods, goddesses, scholars, saints and villains. That they did briefly think along those lines is evident in a climactic scene where Krrish’s father, scientist Rohit Verma, takes on a Vishnu-like aura.

So, why would you spend time and money to watch Krrish 3? For Kangana, maybe, or to see how close the FX are to Hollywood, or to drool over Adonis Hrithik. Whatever the reason, be warned that you will leave the theatre unmoved.

Krrish 3 scores a 6 on 10. Watch only if you must.