Krrish trilogy

Weekends are good for trilogy viewing... Never been much of a Bollywood fan but Koi... Mil Gaya ('I found someone') was the launch for Rakesh Roshan's sci-fi series, so worth indulging curiosity for. KMG is typically artless fare by Indian standards. It happily mixes lowbrow humour & witless romantic songs (the entire first hour!) with special effects for CE3K-style visitors. The director's son Hrithik almost wins sympathy playing man-child Rohit (a better dancer than Forrest Gump?), before using scientist dad's computer for contacting daft aliens. Space smurf with glowing brain does psychic magic tricks for a bunch of kids, then gives Rohit superhuman powers. Blue Jadoo enables hero's quickening by sunlight (basketball “match is getting existing” says English subtitles), but ET-culty wonders won't fool brutal authorities all the time. Time to phone home, OK? 

Priyanka Chopra brightens up sequel Krrish (2006), a mostly graceless fantasy about superhero Krishna, when Rohit's grown-up son is played by Hrithik Roshan whose dad, director Rakesh, maintains generational tale's focus on family & kids playing in mythical hideaway (rural India's Smallville?) until his mid-air 'just imagine' catch of screaming skydiver Priya. Campy romance, with first song delayed for 40 minutes, is giddy prelude to Superboy-like antics. Adventure-camp boss seems like Windsor Davis' Sergeant (from TV's It Ain't Half Hot Mum) in all but 'lovely boy' catchphrase. Amusing that Krishna's glam granny Sonia is played by famous Rekha, only 20 years older than Hrithik. Krishna visits Singapore circus where he saves kids from burning tents (did I say how campy this is?). Who was that masked man? Although dismally contrived - if compared to Singer's under-valued tribute Superman Returns (also 2006), Krrish was & remains a Bollywood mainstream milestone as entry-level genre picture that succeeds probably only as live-action 'toon suitable mostly for little sprogs. Although deceits & betrayals by mad scientist Dr Arya, before Matrix-fu action, add some vaguely mature themes to its finale. If nothing else, Krrish is a vast improvement on sickly KMG. 

Chopra returns for Krrish 3 (2013) as the Hindi Lois Lane. Hrithik plays Krishna + dad Rohit, a bit like muscly Kal-El & boffin Clark Kent. Guess which saves the stricken airliner? Main super-villains are shape-shifter Kaya (Kangana Ranaut), and disabled psychic Kaal who makes evil GM hybrids – Rhino, Scorpion, Cheetah, Frogman. Yes, it blatantly rips-off X-Men movies. Horror arrives with plague in Mumbai, spread by Kaal's gang that Krrish fights on city streets while Doc Rohit makes antidotes. Blissful smiles with inspid song & dance routines diminish any aesthetic values possibly claimed by impressive visual effects, when traditions of Indian musicals undermine modern standards of subgenre cinema, but abstract ideas like Mahabharat-mutants bring welcome diversity from DC or Marvel comic-book movies. Very like Olivia Munn's sexy Psylocke in the later X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), Ranaut's appealing Kaya steals every scene she appears in. Easily the best of its genre trilogy, K3 triumphs when it exceeds expectations of showdown menace after evil Kaal's transformation into a Dr Doom / Magneto monstrosity for city-wide battle that reflects Man Of Steel (also 2013).