Friday, December 6, 2013

POLL 4: KOI… MIL GAYA VS KRRISH VS KRRISH 3

Dear Readers,

It’s time for another poll on this blog, but before that let’s discuss the poll question I had asked you last month:

WHICH IS YOUR FAVOURITE FILM IN THE KRRISH SERIES STARRING HRITHIK ROSHAN?

Here’s how you voted:

72.6% of you chose Koi… Mil Gaya.

14.5% picked Krrish.

12.9% voted for Krrish 3.

MY TAKE:

This one’s easy because for the first time since I started holding polls on this blog, I find my views exactly matching yours: 


Koi… Mil Gaya: My favourite from the Krrish series, this is the film with which Rakesh Roshan proved that India can make a slick special-effects-heavy film on a fraction of the budget that a similar Hollywood film would have at its disposal. It drew heavily on Steven Spielberg’s E.T., and while the original is a classic worth revisiting a zillion times, it was short of one asset that KMG boasted of: Hrithik Roshan. At this stage in his career, Hrithik was still delivering inconsistent performances on screen. Under the directorship of his father, he was uniformly out of this world (emoting with sensitivity, dancing like a dream, his looks and body captured by the camera with affection, not infatuation); but he was prone to over-acting in films directed by others. I remember asking him about this in an interview for Headlines Today and his reply was: Then perhaps all directors should handle their stars with the same love that a father gives to his son.

Fortunately since then Hrithik has been living up to his potential in the able hands of some non-Roshan directors too, most especially Ashutosh Gowariker and Zoya Akhtar. That’s now. In the year 2003 though, KMG was a much-needed reminder of how good his best could be; a reminder that was desperately required considering his embarrassingly over-the-top performance in Sooraj Barjatya’s Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon in the same year. In addition to Hrithik and Jadoo, Koi… Mil Gaya also had heart, soul, good songs, sweet children, humour and melodrama in just the right proportion, making it a quality commercial film.

Krrish: There are two ways of looking at the second film in this series. You could either say, “If Rakesh Roshan couldn’t financially afford to have action and special effects throughout the film, then he shouldn’t have made Krrish,” or you could appreciate that he came up with a script logically requiring action and special effects only in the second half, thus making his budget more achievable. Better to have world-class SFX in part of the film, than have mediocre SFX throughout its running time. There were no quality compromises on that front in Krrish. The story of an Indian superhero who could fly through the air and jump from skyscraper to skyscraper was original enough to be more than just “an Indian Superman”. The son of Rohit from Koi… Mil Gaya was a beautiful physical specimen of humanity named Krrishna (a.k.a. Krrish in his superhero avatar), the stunts – when they did enter the picture – were well designed and executed, the songs were still enjoyable, the emotions were still very much in place without being maudlin and it was still all-round fun. One complaint: why cast a star of Priyanka Chopra’s calibre and stature if you don’t want to make her character an equal partner? Ah well, if you’re a heroine in this male-dominated industry, chances are that that’s the story of your life. That being said, the truth is that the superhero genre in Hollywood too is the domain of male chauvinism and male-centricity. Sadly, Rakesh Roshan chose not to be an exception in that respect.

In our country, it’s somehow considered terribly unfashionable – and highly un-intellectual – to praise Bollywood while comparing it to Hollywood. Excuse me for not caring. Krrish was released in the same year as Bryan Singer’s murderously dull Superman Returns starring Brandon Routh. According to Wikipedia, Singer had a budget of $204 million to work with whereas Krrish was made at a cost of Rs 45 crore (approximately $6.9 million at current exchange rates). Oddly enough, the quality of Singer’s action and special effects was no better than Krrish. That can’t be the reason to like Krrish though. The happy fact is that even without the benefit of a comparison with Superman Returns, even when viewed in isolation, Krrish is a rollicking good entertainer.

Krrish 3: For me personally, the choice between Koi… Mil Gaya and Krrish is tough. I can tell you without stopping to think for a second though that the writing of Krrish 3 is a big climbdown from both its predecessors. Since I reviewed Film 3 on this blog just a few weeks back, I won’t go into details, but it goes without saying that Krrish 3 is my least favourite film in this series. For my reasons, do click on this link and read my review.

Well, that’s it from me for the moment. The next poll is now up: Taking into account star performances from Bollywood in the box-office successes of the past year, if Deepika Padukone was to be given the Best Actress Award for 2013, which film should she win it for? Do cast your vote.

Warm regards,

Anna

Photographs courtesy: (a) The Wikipedia pages of Koi… Mil Gaya and Krrish (b) Krrish 3 courtesy Everymedia PR

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