Krrish

Papa Roshan always has something special for his son. Like their previous two movies, Krrish too is an out-and-out entertainer, which has something in it for everyone.

As many of you are aware, Krrish is a sequel to ‘Koi mil gaya’ and Hrithik plays the first official Indian super-hero. His role and actions remind us of Superman, Spiderman and Batman (even Neo of Matrix and our own 'Anniyan')..The ‘conflict’ of the movie has been inspired from the brilliant and intelligent ideas of ‘Paycheck’ and ‘Minority Report’. Enough for the story…

The screenplay is very tight, racy and nicely woven.. There are some loopholes in the story but then which Indian movie doesn’t? There is humour, love, sentiments, action and heroism blended very well to make it a feel-good masala movie. It isn’t as moving as its original but fares better than what most sequels have managed to do. The story has few twists and they appear quite late in the movie, making the climax a very hurried affair.

Hrithik is back again with a powerful performance.. He looks very handsome with long hair in the three different costumes he uses. That he is maturing well as an actor is exemplified here as well. He carries the movie well on his strong shoulders. Priyanka Chopra does her role of dancing and romancing OK. Naseerudin Shah is as usual reliable. I wish he got more screen time.

Technically very sleak too.. Santosh Thundiyil’s cinematography is excellent.. whether on the beautiful natural locales of Leh or in the amazing Singapore, his camera matches the energy of Hrithik. Rajesh Roshan delivers some nice hummable tunes as usual; and this time he has added some South Indian flavor in a couple of the songs, probably to target the audience in Southern states. Stunts are in grandeur scale too, some of them reminding us of Anniyan.

A great movie-watching experience, that is if you are willing to forgive the crew for their various inspirations.

Laugh or cry?

Recently, our group's graduate student from Pakistan asked me a qn...

He: So, which part of India are you from?
Me: I am from South India...
He: Really? but u dont look like a South Indian...
Me: Bcos I dont have a mush?
He: No... bcos u dont have a tummy.. I have seen all south indian heroes with big tummies...
Me: ?!?!??!

What a match !!

Who said that test matches are boring .. Like the third test of last year's Ashes, the just-concluded Ind-WI test was a humdinger.. the fortunes swung wildly from one side to the other.. and in the end, 1 ball out of some 2600+ could have changed the result.. All hopes of a result were lost during tea time, when we could get only 3 of WI wickets.. and when I checked the scorecard a little later, we only needed 3 more!! We almost got them, but the history would tell that the test ended in a draw.. it wont tell how it would have been different if Mohd. Kaif, again and again infamously plaecd at the crucial short-leg position, was jumping in the air when an edge flew towards him. Damn.. too much of 'human element'..

Anyway, another of those painfully close victory slipped out.. Some stats, which you would find elsewhere:

* In the first innings, all the proper 'batsmen' of India scored below their career average.. And, all the 'bowlers' (except Patel) scored above their average.. what does it mean? A below-par first innings total..

* In the second innings, all the Indian batsmen scored more than their first innings numbers.

I thought that instead of Kaif, Dhoni should have been sent to open up the match with his lusty hits.. The match situation was safely in our control.. even if he had failed, we still would have had no pressure, since Kaif et al. can do the damage control.. Nevertheless.. a great test match.