Written and directed by Rakesh Roshan. Written by Robin
Bhatt, Honey Irani, Irfan Kamal, Akarsh Khurana, Rakesh Roshan, Sanjay Masoom,
and David Benullo. Starring Priyanka Chopra (Priya Mehra), Hrithik Roshan
(Krishna Mehra/Krrish/Rohit Mehra) and Amitabh Bachan (Narrator).
Bottom line: As one who has little experience with Bollywood
action movie or the Krissh series, I
wouldn’t recommend Krrish 3 because
it’s too clichéd, too over-the-top, and too long.
Krrish 3 is the
third in the saga of Krrish; the
superhero of Mumbai. It’s everything I expect from a Bollywood big budget action
movie. I’ll get more into what I mean by that in a bit. The first few minutes
of the film are dedicated to a review of the story so far. As if we needed a
refresher, am-I-right? I’m willing to bet that you need so allow me to
elucidate.
“This tale began with the birth of a mentally challenged
boy, Rohit…” He grew but his mental age remained to that of a child. He was
bullied. He prayed to Krishna and then, one night, a spaceship landed in his
homeland. He made contact with the aliens who gave him super intelligence. He became
a scientist, met a pretty lady and had a son (named Krishna). He went to Singapore
to work with another super scientist and disappeared! Meanwhile, Krishna grew
up with his grandmother (Rohit’s mother) in a secret location. He joined a
circus, donned a mask and became a superhero. He learned that his father was
held captive in Singapore. And now we can start the movie.
After writing all that, I’m exhausted of plot summary so let
me speed up the general plot of this film. Kaal (Vivek Oberoi), a paraplegic
with telepathic abilities (no, not Professor X), holds the world hostage by
releasing a super-virus. He has the only known antidote. His ultimate goal is
to get enough money to fuel his research to cure his paralysis. He splices his
DNA with animal-DNA to create animal-human hybrids he calls “Manimals.” He has
a frog hybrid, a shapeshifter lady, and a super strong guy. Will Krrish save
the city and the world?
Bollywood continues to baffle me. A while ago, I tried watching
Dhoom:3 and couldn’t get more than a
half hour through the nearly three hour epic. Krrish 3, on the other hand, is a reasonable two and a half hours
and it even has an intermission. Both films are the mixture of over-the-top
action sequences, over-the-top dialog, and musical sequences. I didn’t
understand if I should internalize the tap dancing sequence like I internalize Die Hard. Now I know I’m writing about Krrish 3 but I tend to use Dhoom:3 as my point of Bollywood
reference. Krrish 3 presents the same
sorts of questions.
There’s a fight scene between a villain and Krrish. They are
indoors, mind you, and whenever the camera does a close up of Krrish, his hair
is blowing in the wind. They are indoors! There is no wind! Even beyond little
details like that, just the level of similarity between X-Men and this movie. I can’t be the only one to ask this, right?
And yet, Krrish 3 broke all sorts of
Bollywood records. I wonder what was lost in translation that captured the
Bollywood imagination.
Would I recommend Krrish
3? I don’t know, man. It’s one of those things where it could be fun to
watch because it’s silly. But, I feel kinda bad saying that because I don’t
really understand it. I feel like I’m laughing at a culture and their cinema, you
know? As far as comic book action movies go, I don’t recommend it. There have
been a ton of comic book movies in recent years and this one isn’t quite worth its
two and a half hour runtime.
But I can’t seem to let it go as simply a “no” review. It,
and Bollywood as a whole, continues to confuse me and I think it’s because I am
too uninformed as to the culture. I can see how The Twilight Samurai, which I watched not too long ago, could have
been equally confusing if I was clueless about Japanese culture and cinema.
As it is the New Year, this seems to be a good time to
make a resolution to learn a thing or two about India and it’s cinema. Surely
then I will be able to appreciate or at least have a better idea as to what is
going on in the major Bollywood films that will undoubtedly come in the future.
Have you had any experience with Bollywood? If you have,
please leave a comment! And, feel free to leave a comment if you have any
questions or concerns. Thank you for reading!
