Krrish 3 (2013)

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Don’t feel sorry for those walls — they had spoken ill of Krrish’s mother.[/caption]

Twitter Plot Summary: Krrish, Indian superhero, must save Delhi from an insane disabled villain with telekinetic abilities.

Genre: Action/Sci-Fi

Director: Rakesh Roshan

Key Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Priyanka Chopra, Vivek Oberoi, Kangana Ranaut

Five Point Summary:

1. This film is brought to you by… BILLIONS of sponsors.
2. So, a cut price X-Men. Hmm.
3. Intermission?!
4. Er, it’s somehow become a music video…
5. Worst Iron Man/Mr Freeze costume ever.

There’s a specific area of cinema that I’ve never really dabbled with before, and that is Bollywood and/or general films made in India, which seems both daft and sensible in equal measure given the amount of material their film industry puts out each year. There’s a lot of films coming out of that region these days, and as the local crowds demand value for money, they’re always 2.5–3 hours long apiece. Bearing in mind how little time I usually have to watch everything that’s on my already epic movie list, perhaps limiting my exposure to Eastern cinema to one or two movies now and again is a wise choice. Krrish 3 seemed like a good film to ease myself into the world of Indian cinema as it’s a superhero movie and I’ve been known to be partial to some comic book action in the past.

This is, obviously, the third film in the series, but thankfully there was an extensive recap of the previous films in the opening that gets you up to speed — I’m not sure how easy it would be for me to locate the first two films without paying an exorbitant amount to get them with subtitles, but I might get round to it eventually. The plot is typical superhero stuff — an evil villain, paralysed from the neck down except for his index fingers, wants to take over the world and simultaneously find a cure for his paralysis. The twist is that he also has psychic powers which he can aim in a specific direction using his fingers. He’s been busy splicing human DNA with animals to create a small army of mutants, but the ultimate aim is to find a cure for his disability. Meanwhile Krishna is dealing with the news that his wife Priya has a baby on the way. Yep, completely mad stuff, yet strangely compelling. By the time you reach the intermission (because, as I said previously, it’s about 3 hours long) you’ve given up caring how insane the story actually is and you just go along for the ride. Krrish is an entertaining superhero character, and his message that “we can all be Krrish” is a blatant Peter Parker moment, but it works. The same goes for the songs too, of which surprisingly there are only 3 throughout the entire film. They all serve the plot and are catchy as well. That’s a win in my book.

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He’s the villain. Can’t you tell?![/caption]

Whilst the plot is somewhat out of left field, the special effects are surprisingly competent, in fact in most cases they’re more competent than what most of Hollywood is currently churning out. Even when it’s clearly a CGI event taking place, it still feels real. The same can’t be said for villain Kaal’s outfit for the final reel. Yes, I can understand the thinking behind it, but it looks terrible. I mean, really, really bad. Without wanting to spoil it, it’s like they took the notion of “Iron Man” literally. Just… see it for yourself, I guarantee laughter. On the subject of special effects, I didn’t notice that Hrithik Roshan was playing Krishna/Krrish and his father Rohit Mehra as well, although in hindsight it’s actually rather obvious. So it goes.

It might rip off a number of Western superhero features (X-Men, Superman, most of Marvel’s recent output, amongst others) but Krrish 3 tells a good story despite that, and other than some slightly less than impressive costume choices it’s worth a pop if you can stomach subtitles.

Favourite scene: Oddly enough, the Raghupati Raghav dance routine. Catchy song, some fun dance moves.

Quote: “Being human is not a weakness. It is my strength.”

Silly Moment: That final outfit worn by Kaal. So very, very silly…

Score: 3/5