Krrishy Darshan. Review on Krrish

From the very first shot of the eponymous character racing a stallion with the camera lingering lustfully on his sweat drenched biceps and pecs, it's plainly obvious that this movie is a phantasmagoric Hrithikapalooza. Everything else is dressing, which is good because Naseeruddin Shah is famished and needs some garnish on the scenery he's voraciously chomping down. Krrish is presumably director Rakesh Roshan's idea of minimalist cinema, focussing only on the physical attributes and CGI embellished gymnastic abilities of his protagonist while dispensing with such trifles as plot, editing and direction. And why not, since all it apparently takes to cobble up a screenplay is a trip to the local video rental store to procure DVDs of the latest big budget superhero movies, sci-fi actioners or the odd Bond flick and the willingness to piece together scenes shamelessly nicked from them. This is the sort of unwholesome pastiche which if it took itself a little less seriously, could easily be the next installment in the Naked Gun or Hot Shots series.

Rakesh Roshan seems determined to pitch sonny into the same league as action demigods Jackie Chan and Jet Li and proceeds in all earnest, setting up callisthenic showpieces where junior gets to dazzle us by leaping, lunging, somersaulting and doing backflips all over the screen like Spiderman on crack. To give him his due, Roshan Jr. seems a total natural, performing all the hyperkinetic stunts with effortless ease and it’s safe to say he’s left the competition at the starting line in this particular department. Akshay Kumar has nothing on this guy. It’s the rest of Hrithik’s acting that’s a problem in this movie. He alternates between wide-eyed man-boy and swashbuckling himbo, both of which start getting schticky after a while. Hrithik, the actor is certainly capable of much more but daddy doesn’t seem interested in letting him indulge in any serious histrionics.

The rest of the cast stumbles from one product placement op to another, mouthing inane lines and feeling left out of the action. Priyanka Chopra is the standard issue bimbo-on-call who pouts, preens, despairs and clumsily tries to dance in step with the hero when required. It’s a role that demands very little and PC gives it even less. Naseeruddin Shah chuckles all the way to the bank while sending himself up in a display of Shatnerian overacting. Here’s a man who’s clearly decided that if the dream-merchants of Bollywood think they can tarnish his legacy by making him ham it up in the most ridiculously cartoonish roles ....well, it’s gonna cost them. Rekha, as the protagonist’s doting grandmother employs every cliché in the actors’ old-lady guide book - the hunched gait, the trembling hand, the slightly quivering voice and the glasses perched on the tip of the nose. Despite, more than thirty years in the business and several “performance-oriented films” like Umrao Jaan, Ijazat and Utsav, one gets the impression she still hasn’t got the hang of the whole acting thing. The most annoying performance comes from the woman who plays Priyanka Chopra’s friend and is probably one of the less talented members of the Balaji telefilms actors’ guild. This is the most irritating sidekick this side of Jar Jar Binks.

The CGI is passable but the wide-angle shots make it evident that it wasn’t ILM but some chop shop in Australia or Hong Kong that was hired on this gig. The music director (Rajesh Roshan?) does not display any prejudice against either Batman or Spiderman, borrowing liberally and in equal measure from the scores of both those movies.

At the end of the day, when the dust has settled, the awards have been handed out and the cash registers have stopped ringing, people will see this movie for what it really is – a father’s labour of love for his son.