Film: "Krrish"; Starring: Hrithik Roshan, Priyanka Chopra, Rekha, Naseeruddin Shah; Directed by: Rakesh Roshan; Rating: * * * * *

Krrish is a full-fledged compendium of The Things That Hrithik Can Do. He can dance (oh my, can he), he can move (like greased lightning), he can wear his heart on his sleeve (lord, those eyes). And in this sequel to Koi Mil Gaya, he also gets to fly—treetop to treetop, crags to rocks, building to building—flowing black cape, long locks, ziggy mask in place.
It's not enough to say that Hrithik is one of the best actors of the country. Extraordinary is the word for the measured manner in which he glides through the air to the beat of Rajesh Roshan's rather-vapid songs... or cuts through the breeze to the stunning special effects created with a verve so-far unknown to Indian cinema.

Krrish’s first half is set in a remote hillside village, and the director doesn’t fail to remind us of the surroundings, with lines like ‘‘yeh pahaad, nadiyaan, vadiyaan’’ and the rest of it. 

Krishna (Hirthik), attired in a strange Arabian Nights sort of costume, hidden from the world’s prying eyes by his protective dadi (Rekha) prances around with local kids. 

Priya (Priyanka) and gang show up on a trekking holiday, which allows Roshan to go the whole hog in terms of clichés—a buffoon with a Nepali accent, the girls in undersize Ts and silly giggles, and tired situations. You’ll have to wait, post-interval, for the superman bits. But when he gets started, Hirthik really revs it. Krishna, now known as Krrish, goes about, first, saving little girls from circus fires, then graduates, like all good supermen, to saving the world. 

The evil Dr Siddharth Arya (Naseer, bringing some verve to the movie with his affected leer), is the man whose dreams of a supercomputer which foretells the future is coming to fruition: he is also the man behind the mysterious disappearance of Krishna’s father. 

The last 20 minutes have sizzling action, the kind that gets routinely performed in Hong Kong martial arts movies, especially in the kinetic Stephen Chow’s films, but has never been attempted in Bollywood before. But the climax comes with altogether too much creaky emotion and forced drama. Hrithik’s fierce commitment to the role shows up in each frame, but Roshan Sr flubs it.

Rakesh Roshan , the movie’s writer, producer and director, has made a quality product – a film that lays foundation for other films of similar ‘superhero’ genre. Although some stunts could be depicted graphically more realistically, but that would require a very huge budget.

‘Krrish’, quite an expensive movie by Indian standards, heralds the ‘superhero’ genre creditably.

The film is worth a watch, definitely.