NYAFF Report: Krrish Review

Two days in New York so far, two films from India, two radically different approaches. If Ram Gopal Varma's Company represents a break from the traditional approach of Bollywood films, then Rakesh Roshan's Krrish is a film that revels in those same traditions. Yes, this is the film that brought in legendary action director Ching Siu-Tung but while Ching's touch is very evident he is only one part of a much larger whole and that whole is purely Bollywood. Krrish, at its core, is a full on Bollywood romance and you get everything that comes with that: the gooey eyed youths, the song and dance numbers, the saccharine sweetness, stunningly shameless product placement, and a seemingly endless supply of clothing and cosmetics. I kid you not, the lead actress completely changes costume for every single scene with no piece of clothing ever being repeated. Yes, the superhero element is there, and strongly there, but it exists purely in service of the larger romantic thrust of the film. Take it on its own terms and Krrish is a bubbly good time, but if you try to force it into the North American super hero mold you will be in for a world of hurt.

Right. Plot. Krrish A sequel of sorts to Roshan's E.T. knock off Koi ... Mil Gia, Krrish tells the story of that earlier film's son. The hero of Koi was a brain damaged youth who encounters an alien who, in turn gifts him with special powers - making him a certifiable super-genius in the process. This story picks up five years later. Abused and exploited Koi's hero has perished in a laboratory fire, followed in death days later by his distraught wife, leaving their newborn infant Krishna in the care of his grandmother. Her only wish is to raise the child in seclusion, but that wish is shattered when a school administered IQ test - a scene played and scored hysterically as a horror piece - confirms what she has suspected: that her son's powers have now passed to her grandchild who seems to have surpassed his father in strength. Fearing that Krishna, too, will be exploited grandma packs him up and moves secretly to a remote mountain village where she hopes to raise him out of sight. As he grows so do his powers and little Krishna becomes excluded from the village around him, the boys his age fearing his differences until finally, as a grown man his best friends are the mountain animals and the village children, easily ten years younger than he is. But this all changes when a group of adventure campers - and their inexhaustible wardrobes - arrive in the village and Krishna falls in love with the rather fetching Priya, who thinks that Krishna is a ghost. The ghost business gets cleared up, Priya returns to her home in Singapore from whence she summons Krishna for dubious reasons, and Krishna saves a quintet of children from a burning circus tent, becoming a hero in the process. Oh, and there's an evil genius scientist - daddy's former employer - intent on becoming god and destroying the world from his island fortress guarded by ninjas.

This may strike you as rather a lot of plot. Well, Krrish is rather a lot of movie, clocking in at roughly three hours, and true to Bollywood form there's not a quiet moment to be found. This thing is constantly on the move and constantly shifting genres and gears. In the early going Krrish feels surprisingly like a Bollywood Steven Chow film, with Kirshna played as a sort of naive idiot-savant, immensely intelligent and yet incredibly ignorant and childish at the same time. Until things heat up between Krishna and Priya the film goes largely for slapstick, hitting its marks more often than not. The middle third rides the budding romance between the pair - most, if not all, of the musical numbers fall in the second act - with action split between India and Singapore, with the film finally shifting into full on action mode as it nears the end and Krishna is hit with not one but two stunning revelations. And a fire extinguisher.

Is the length of the film a problem? Not really, though it is certainly a good stretch more than an equivalent story would get in Hollywood. A bit more of a problem, however, is Hritihik Roshan's performance in the early going. To be fair he is given virtually nothing to do in the opening act but smile vacantly and act silly so you can't really pin it on him, but his early work as Krishna is more irritating than charming, and things don't really turn for the character until he arrives in Singapore at roughly the half way mark. But, frankly, there's more than enough loopy energy in that front section to carry you through the weak character, even if much of that energy comes in the form of "Hey, was that a product placement? Hey! There it is again! Wow, those labels are really well exposed ... and look! She's changed her clothes again! And again! Why would someone bring that skirt on a mountain climbing trip?"

Where Krrish excels is - no surprise here - Ching's action work. Though he's given less to do here than he would be in a Hong Kong production Ching owns all of the films best moments with the Bollywood approach to film making pushing him into some interesting new directions. I was curious to see how he would mesh with this sort of production and the answer is very well indeed. There's no attempt at realism whatsoever with sequences left deliberately cartoony but the stunts are very inventive and very fun. Roshan also proves himself to be more than capable in the action department - Ching has apparently gone on record saying that he was one of the very best non-martial artists that he has ever worked with - which really shouldn't be a surprised considering the amount of physical discipline and choreography that goes into Bollywood dance numbers.

Krrish will not be for everyone. It is wafer thin and flouts many of the film making conventions we're used to in this part of the world. Many will, no doubt, be put off by the emphasis on romance rather than action. But I've always been a believer in judging a film by whether it acheives the goals it sets for itself more than whether it meets the goals others may wish to impose upon it. And by that standard Krrish is a total success. This is a film that clearly knows exactly what it wants to be and - with only a few mis-steps along the way - it gets there. Wafer thin, yes, but it's a pretty tasty wafer.