Usually people fear the moment they have to take back their words but when it comes to films I genuinely welcome someone proving me wrong, if it means that a film is better than I expected. No denying that I pegged Krrish 3 to be the biggest disaster of all times. Why? Well to me Koi Mil Gaya and Krrish were mega disasters so to expect the third film in the series to impress was just unreasonable. However having just returned from my viewing of the film I’m all smiles and can happily declare, I was wrong!
The film boasts of a lot of genuine creativity which I didn’t expect since the previous films have been too borrowed. But Krrish 3 sticks to the genre and brings in the essential elements we want from superhero entertainers with a bit of desi tadka. There’s a rich human and emotional element that Hollywood films usually don’t have but was essential in an Indian film if it wanted to connect with the crowd on a larger level than just a mere action film. Krrish 3 manages to do that so don’t be surprised if you find the auntyjis rooting for the man in the black mask more than the kiddos. No denying that at the same time it goes overboard at points with unneeded melodrama. The statute unveiling sequence is my biggest concern. Couple that with the impact of the lyrics in the song that follows, and you have a head ache! That entire portion needed to be scrapped completely! As did the final lines Rohit utters in the pre-climax which includes some rona-dhona types analogy of aashirwad/blessings standing the test of time! Super corny!
Corny was perhaps what I expected more of but thankfully it only came in small doses and had we had another dialogue writer the corny quotient would have been greatly minimized. Sadly for Vivek Oberoi the corny dialogues were mostly for him. The fact that he overcompensated for his character’s physical disability with overacting in terms of facial expressions and dialogue delivery didn’t help. Its great that you can move every inch of your face but you don’t necessarily have to do it every time! The menacing act came across very forced and therefore he appeared very weak in front of his nemesis. A superhero is only as good as his villain is and sadly here Krrish took a hit because his villain was not all that impressive. It was good to see a young villain and the back story was interesting but somehow Vivek didn’t manage to win me over.
However the person that was impressive in every frame was Kangna Ranaut. She walks away with the most amount of acknowledgement from me because from her make-up, to clothing, to dialogue delivery to body language, everything was carefully thought out and executed. The subsequent character development that happens when she frees from Kaal’s world and sees what her potential in the real world is is also very well written and executed.
Coming now to the superhero himself, I really was blown away at how accurately Hrithik slipped back into Rohit. We’ve seen him hold that act for a whole film many years ago so to go back and do the same and to switch between two roles so different just seemed like a very unique feat to have achieved. On the opposite end of the spectrum he underplays Krishna very beautifully which I never expected from Hrithik. He’s usually very theatrical and surprisingly he chose his superhero film to showcase that he can also do subtlety.
Priyanka does her fair share of shining in the film also, something I didn’t count on because as it had been in Krrish she was hardly given much to play with. Here though she has an interesting portion when Kaya transitions into Krrish’s world and Priyanka has to play two roles at once. She has to ensure Krrish she’s his vulnerable Priya yet show the audience what Kaya is going through at the same time. Her subsequent scene with Vivek is also very credible. She’s such a powerhouse off screen so to see her reduced to a scared demure damsel in distress and to buy into that image goes to her credit as a performer.
Needless to say the film didn’t need songs and it definitely didn’t need, or rather shouldn’t have had, THOSE songs! Rajesh Roshan has lost the plot or has won the bet of being able to create the worst songs Indian cinema has heard in a long time! Thankfully Salim and Suleiman are the ones that shine more than him because they deliver a kick-ass background score that brings the film to life!
Last but not the least, the special effects. Firstly, kudos to the makers for being adamant on having an all Indian crew. Great spirit to lead by. And it paid off because everything is pretty darn impressive. It’d be interesting to know what Mumbaikar’s think of how the city was portrayed in terms of larger shots of the city that appear during Krrish’s stunts etc. Its always the trickiest task to recreate the real world identically with all the unique landmark features. The most impressive sequences has to be Kangana’s chameleon portions and the metal attack Kaal hurls at Krrish in the pre-climax. Of course there’s room for improvement, especially in outdoor/day portions but considering that this is the first step, its a pretty big leap! (Pun intended!)
So basically, what I’m casually trying to say through this review is that Krrish 3 may just NOT end up being the movie you go to great lengths to hide from your non-Desi or non-Bollywood-fan friends. We might, just might, finally be able to say we have quite a cool home grown hero with all the elements of a good ol’ superhero and with a unique desi tadka. What I’d like to see more of in the future is a balance of humour/action/emotion. The makers got the latter two very well balanced in this instalment however humour undoubtedly is a key element in every superhero flick. And that balance can only be struck with very creative dialogue writing. Here’s hoping that along with improving the technical aspects we see this writing flaw accounted for in the next film of the series. But all said and done, I’m extremely hopeful from the franchise now and really don’t want them to go a step backwards and instead build it up from here on in. Fingers crossed!
