Krrish 3: **1/2

The festive season, long weekend (as this Monday being holiday in many cities in India) and no major release for 2 weeks (Ramleela being released on 15^th Nov), there could not have been a better time to release Krrish 3, which is 3rd installment of India’s most adorable superhero franchise from the stable of Rakesh Roshan.

The movie is set 7 years post Krrish’s climax where the protagonist reunites with his father Rohit Mehra (Hrithik Roshan) and now lives peacefully as Krishna Mehra with his TV journalist wife Priya Mehra (Priyanka Chopra) and continue to save the city from occasional anomalies as Krrish, albeit in a concealed identity.

Kaal (Vivek Oberoi), the wheelchair bound antagonist posses the power to move objects with is mind (Wait a minute, Professor X was wheelchair bound and his arch rival Magneto had power to move objects, right? ye to easy hai boss) and is busy experimenting on DNA of men and animals for bone marrow that can revive his paralyzed body in a high tech laboratory stationed at some unspecified location atop snowy mountains. He has created his own species of mutants called Maanvar (Maanav+Jaanvar, sandhi of grammar solved, 1 mark pocketed!!).

Everything seems fine until Kaal sends one of his mutants Kaya (Kangana Ranaut, who has ability to assume the form of any humans she touches) to kill a scientist who has found antidote for the deadly virus developed by pharmaceutical company of Kaal, which he uses to spread the killer disease in countries and then sends his antidotes to make the mullah. One other mutant (frog man) gets caught by Krrish (as the poor fellow indulged in stealing ice-cream, thank heavens, he did not say “Him-cream”, phew! job pe focus kar na yaar), and the father son duo traces the cure of the virus in their own blood and saves the city. This alerts Kaal and he sends his team to destroy Krrish and his family. And what follows is how Krrish destroys Kaal and saves his family and the city.

Plagiarism is not new in Bollywood and Krrish-3 is no exception to it. Koi Mil Gaya was inspired from ET, whereas Krrish-3 has taken almost entire theme from X-men series (Kaal’s power of Professor X, and Magneto, other mutant’s abilities are taken straight from X-Men with some patches of Spider-man, Superman here and there. I wish it also had the screenplay of these movies!). The screenplay is very weak and Roshan Sr. fails to develop the plot to a level which could have made the movie an edge-of- the seat thriller. (I mean, come on, after all why did he spend 3 long years in writing and developing this script? For this script, he could have done it in 3 months). There are some serious flaws in story which fails to establish any logic viz., Kaal’s motive to destroy human race with viruses and at the same time making money by selling antidote (Dude, who will buy your medicine when there won’t be any human), and were the Maanvars created only for that bone marrow? I mean, what is the connection of bone marrow and animal like characteristics?) The weak screenplay does not allow any character to evolve except Krrish and other than Kaya most of the mutants are wasted.

HR is the best choice of any superhero flick with his suave style, Greek-god looks and enviable body. Roshan Jr. is spot in Krrish-3 both as a mentally challenged father Rohit and his gifted son Krishna. His carries the mannerism of a superhero with such an ease that at times only his style saves some tacky graphics scenes from mockery. Priyanka has not much to do and she plays her part nicely. Kangana surprisingly gets decent length of role and does it almost satisfactorily. Vivek Oberoi as Kaal seems effective but becomes a victim of terribly tacky suit and weak dialogues.

Dialogues of the movie are painfully mundane. Vansh ka Ansh, Kaal ki Kayanaat, Baba ka ashirwad, I mean come man, its a sci-fi thriller and not a TV serial of Doordarshan! Music of the movie is below average and does not create any impact. Salim- Sulaiman’s background score is not impressive and do not live up to the expectations. Visual effects are decent as per Bollywood standards and Redchillies team has done a good job (However, there are some very tacky sequences which should have been avoided).

Krrish-3 is victim of a weak screenplay, weak dialogues, weak characterization, and mediocre music but deserves an appreciation for Rakesh Roshan’s courage of breaking the current norm of masala movies trend and doing something different. Krrish 3 is our own super hero and the audience especially kids are going to like it!