The Lake House is a remake of a Korean film called Siworae (or Il Mare)From director Lee Hyun Seung comes Il Mare, the 2000 time-travel romance featuring My Sassy Girl’s Jeon Ji Hyun in a starring role! This touching sci-fi love story centers on Han Seong Hyun (Lee Jung Jae, from Typhoon and Last Present), an accomplished architect who moves into his father’s beach house, only to find himself put in the most extraordinary of circumstances. After dubbing the place “Il Mare” (”The Sea” in Italian), Seong Hyun receives a mysterious letter from a woman named Kim Eun Joo (Jeon Ji Hyun). Strangely, the letter is addressed to the person who will live in Il Mare after Eun Joo leaves, a puzzling statement considering the fact that Seong Hyun is the very first person to ever live in the house!
Believing it to be some sort of a prank or perhaps just a misunderstanding, Seong Hyun initially disregards the anomaly, only to find himself drawn into correspondence with Eun Joo. But as the two begin conversing through exchanged letters, they eventually discover that their situation is as remarkable as it is downright unbelievable. It seems that Eun Joo is actually living in 1999, a full two years ahead of the time in which Seong Hyun resides! Disbelief gives way to amusement and intrigue as the two continue their correspondence, eventually falling for one another. But when these two strangers decide to meet up, they soon discover something that neither quite expected. Will there be a happy ending for these two? Can love cross the boundary of time? Find out in Il Mare, the award-winning Korean film that inspired the 2006 U.S. remake starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock!
Artist Name(s) : Jeon Ji Hyun | Lee Jung Jae
Release Date : December 27, 2001
Language : Korean
Subtitle : English, Traditional Chinese
Duration : 96 Minutes
IMDB Link : http://imdb.com/title/tt0282599/
Cho Seung Woo (Marathon, The Classic) and Gang Hye Jung (Welcome To Dongmakgol, Old Boy) star in this curious romantic drama that spans decades. One sunny day, a young boy named Jo Kang meets a curious young girl, dressed in a bright yellow raincoat. Jo Kang instantly becomes friends with Ari, and falls instantly in love with the beautiful but rather strange young girl - only for her to one day disappear!The story jumps to ten years later, and Jo Kang is now in high school. One day, completely out of the blue, Ari contacts him and asks to meet again. Although they have not seen each other in a decade, they have a wonderful time together, and the love between them begins to grow once more. But then, Ari disappears once more, leaving Jo Kang devastated. Can Jo Kang track down his true love? Will he ever discover why Ari keeps disappearing? Will he be able to do anything about it? All will be revealed in the tender story of Love Phobia.
Artist Name(s) : Cho Seung Woo | Gang Hye Jung Release Date : July 22, 2006 Language : Korean Subtitle : Korean, English IMDB Link : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0777837/
Kwon Sang Woo and Kim Ha Neul, the popular stars of 2003’s hit film My Tutor Friend reunite for writer/director Lee Han’s 2005 romantic comedy, Almost Love! The two actors play Ji Hwan and Dal Rae, a pair of friends who grew up together in the same neighborhood and have been platonic pals ever since childhood. While Taekwondo student turned stuntman, Ji Hwan (Kwon Sang Woo) wishes to follow in the footsteps of his hero, action movie icon Jackie Chan, drama student Dal Rae (Kim Ha Neul) would like nothing more than to become an actress, although her eternal shyness during the audition process continually prevents her from landing any plum acting roles.
Although the two of them bicker incessantly, there’s a mischievous, altogether playful quality to their arguments, and as the film develops, it becomes clear that they are great friends with a deep affection for one another. However, their friendship takes a turn for the worse when they each begin dating other people: Dal Rae starts seeing a handsome, athletic young man who happens to be a fellow member of Ji Hwan’s Taekwondo group, while Ji Hwan himself begins going out with a gorgeous young woman with a figure to die for. It would seem that there shouldn’t be any issue between these two about dating other people, but as soon as they embark on these new relationships, things start to get weird for these once good friends! It seems that everybody knows their relationship is so much more than friendship, except Ji Hwan and Dal Rae themselves! Will they figure out their own feelings in time, before it’s too late?
Artist Name(s) : Kwon Sang Woo | Kim Ha Neul Release Date : July 14, 2006 Language : Korean Subtitle : English IMDB Link : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0777808/
A man without a country finds himself caught between the forces of a divided Korea in Typhoon, the latest film from director Kwak Kyung Taek, the man behind the 2001 box office smash Friend and his 2002 follow-up Champion. In this story of a dangerous game of cat and mouse between two adept adversaries, director Kwak reteams with his Friend leading man, Jang Dong Gun and adds Lee Jeong Jae (from Oh! Brothers) to the mix as the nemesis of Jang’s character. In this tense, pulse-pounding adventure, Jang portrays a pirate by the name of Myeong Shin, a rebellious upstart who defects from North Korea only to find himself turned away by South Korean authorities.
Furious at this blatant snub, the fanatically motivated Myeong Shin decides to exact vengeance on South Korea, engaging in a level of terrorism that could very well result in numerous deaths across both Koreas. Myeong Shin’s opponent in this high seas adventure is Kang Se Jong (Lee Jeong Jae), an honorable naval officer who’ll do whatever it takes to bring Myeong Shin to justice. Much in the same spirit as the hit film Taegukgi, Kwak Kyung Taek’s latest is a big budget blockbuster that seeks to comment on North and South Korean tensions, but here the emphasis is not on the bonds of brotherhood, but on the inescapable showdown that will befall these two protagonists! As the highest budgeted film in Korean Cinema history, with numerous locations including Pusan, Thailand, and Russia, Typhoon is one blockbuster that’s sure to make waves among audiences everywhere!
Artist Name(s) : Jang Dong Gun | Lee Mi Yeon | Lee Jung Jae Release Date : August 24, 2006 Language : Cantonese, Korean Subtitle : English, Traditional Chinese
TV producer An Pan Seok makes his big screen, directorial debut with this gentle drama about a North Korean couple and their efforts to stay together and emigrate to the South.
Cha Seung Won (The Big Scene, Blood Rain) stars as Seon Ho, a horn player for Pyongyang’s state propaganda band who lives an affluent and privileged life in sharp contrast to many of his fellow North Koreans. He is from a good family and has a beautiful fiancee, museum guide Yeon Hwa (Jo Yi Jin from The Aggressives). However, when it is revealed that Seon Ho’s grandfather is not the dead, revered Communist hero that everybody thought he was, but is in fact living in exile in Seoul, the family is forced to flee to the South. Seon Ho is unable to take his beloved Yeon Hwa with him, and so begins his struggle to bring her across the border to join him.
The film has been praised for its realistic portrayal of life, not only in North Korea, but also as an immigrant in Seoul. Over The Border plays as both an informative expose into this oft-neglected angle of the North/South divide, as well as a romantic melodrama of two lovers torn apart by powers beyond their control.
This special edition comes with making of, behind-the-scenes footage, production diary, and other features.
Artist Name(s) : Shim Hye Jin | Cha Seung Won | Cho Yi Jin Release Date : August 3, 2006 Language : Korean Subtitle : Korean, English
From haunting all the way down to marginally amusing. The Eye films, products of those wunderkind Pang Brothers, have consistently gone downhill since 2002’s stellar The Eye, leading up to this year’s frightfully silly The Eye 10. So what’s the problem? Are the Pang Brothers only one-trick wonders? Or has the idea of seeing dead people simply run its course? The answer probably skews towards the latter, as the Pang Brothers do show enough style and verve to warrant even more money thrown at them (though maybe not in the comedy genre). Also, The Eye 10 has its merits style-wise, and the filmmakers should get some credit for trying to shake up their formula. However, if the forumla for Eye 10 is repeated ad nauseum, then Eye 11, Eye 15, or Eye 69 don’t sound very appealing.
The previous Eye films had solo female leads; not this time. The Pang Brothers (who also co-wrote Eye 10 with Mark Wu) go the youth route and enlist a passel of young actors for a supposedly creepy journey to Thailand. Wilson Chen (Blue Gate Crossing, Twins Effect II) leads the pack as Ted, a typical Hong Kong slacker vacationing with cousin May (Kate Yeung of 20 : 30: 40), pal Gofei (Kris Gu), and Gofei’s girlfriend April (EEG starlet Isabella Leong). The group is visiting the homeland of Thai buddy Chongkwai (Ray MacDonald), which means fun in the sun and plenty of teen hijinks. On a dark night, the quintet begin telling ghost stories, and Chongkwai offers up his special invitation: to make their own ghost stories. Duh, they agree, and the problems begin.
But not right away. Chongkwai introduces his “seeing ghosts” offer as a game, inspired by a mysterious book that he bought from a shady bookseller. The book details the “10 Encounters,” i.e. the ten methods enabling humans to see ghosts. The first two are “The Case of the Cornea Transplant” and the “Case of Attempting Suicide While Pregnant” - obvious references to Eye 1 and Eye 2, complete with stock footage of Angelica Lee and Shu Qi from those films. Those two methods are not attempted by the kids, but the rest - a Ouija board, playing “Hide N’ Seek” with a black cat, offering a midnight meal on the streets - are fair game, as the kids try their hardest to see ghosts and presumably scare the bejesus out of themselves.
The plan works; they see ghosts and freak themselves out, though their fright isn’t translated to the audience. The ability to see ghosts seems to be completely non-threatening, which actually echoes the previous Eye movies, where the spirits were bad mojo, but nothing more. Despite their freaky, pale appearance and accompanying pulse-pounding soundtrack, the ghosts never really hurt anyone. That knowledge wasn’t necessarily given in the beginning of those films, so tension and some fright was still possible, but in Eye 10 seeing ghosts seems like just a way to pass the time with your buddies. This doesn’t stay true for the whole film, but even then the scares barely register.
Here’s one reason why: these kids are largely uninteresting. Wilson Chen and Kate Yeung are both promising young actors, but their characters are one-dimensional and don’t engender much sympathy. The most difficult part is probably given to Isabella Leong, who brings lightweight photogenic appeal to the increasingly distraught April. She gets all freaked when bad stuff starts to happen, but still not much tension is added. Again, the characters being uninteresting is one reason, but another is the proliferation of throwaway gags and jokes that get in the way of a consistent frightening tone. Humor in horror pictures is actually welcome because it can provide some relief from the omnipresent doom and gloom. However, the jokes in Eye 10 either stretch on for way too long, or are lowbrow sophomoric stuff that would be better served in a Wong Jing movie. When the characters start farting as a way to ward off ghosts, it pretty much seals the deal; Eye 10 is a sometimes effective, but unfortunately silly motion picture.
The good stuff: production values, the overwrought and sometimes bombastic soundtrack, and even some well-directed moments. The scenes in Hong Kong where Ted and May begin to spy ghosts are vintage Pang Brothers, and echo some of the creepier moments from the original Eye. However, despite the effective direction, the scenes are completely undermined by the ultimate silliness of everything, and even the “10 Encounters” can get comical. One of the prescribed ghost-seeing methods is to bend over and look between your legs. Even in a serious horror picture, that method is probably a little too silly, but in the wacky, unaffecting world of Eye 10, it’s just more silly stuff on an already egregious silly heap. Eye 11, 12, 14, or 2046 may be better, but let’s hope they shake all the silly stuff out. (Kozo 2005).
Year: 2005 Director: Danny Pang Fat, Oxide Pang Chun Producer: Peter Chan Ho-Sun, Lawrence Cheng Tan-Shui, Jojo Hui, Eric Tsang Chi-Wai Writer: Danny Pang Fat, Oxide Pang Chun, Mark Wu Cast: Wilson Chen Bo-Lin, Isabella Leong, Kate Yeung Kei, Kris Gu, Ray MacDonald, Bongkoth Kongmalai
If there is one Hong Kong movie people are looking to this year, it’s probably this one: Dragon Tiger Gate. Based on the long-running comic book from creator Tony Wong Luk-Wong, Dragon Tiger Gate has elements that propel it beyond your average local production into something designed to induce Pavlovian responses from action-starved international audiences. Dragon Tiger Gate has it all: copious martial arts, hot young idols, righteous posturing, noble comic book concepts, and above all, Donnie Yen. At its best, Dragon Tiger Gate is an energetic action fix, and Yen is the man who makes it happen. But at its worst, Dragon Tiger Gate is uninteresting and embarrassing — and Yen gets plenty of blame. He’s not the only one at fault, but given his omnipresent status as co-producer, action director and star, Yen is the one who gets called out first. Expectations after SPL are sky high, and anything less would disappoint. But that’s just what Dragon Tiger Gate does.
Donnie Yen is Dragon, a twentysomething (!) year-old martial arts stud who used to belong to Dragon Tiger Gate, the most righteous of the local martial arts organizations. Dragon left the Gate years ago with his mother (Sherin Teng in a cameo), leaving behind younger brother Tiger (Nicholas Tse). Years later, the two brothers cross paths at a floating restaurant, where Tiger senses an opportunity to utilize his high-kicking martial arts skills to defend a hapless family from some bullying thugs. Tiger proceeds to whip major ass, annoying the goons of crimelord Ma Kwun (Shaw Brothers legend Chen Kuan-Tai). But Dragon shows up, fists flying and locks of hair blowing in the manufactured wind. The two tussle briefly before Ma Kwun lets Tiger go. The lesson: even crimelords don’t want brothers to fight.
However, the two soon cross paths again. Tiger’s friends pick up the “Lousha Plaque” from the scene of the brawl, and Ma Kwun wants it back. The Plaque is a heavy gold badge representing face, or some sort of Jiang Hu concept better understood by people versed in Dragon Tiger Gate’s comic book lore. Dragon comes after Tiger and his friends in a Japanese restaurant brawl (that’s two restaurant fights in less than 20 minutes), but proceeds to take out his own men when some of Ma Kwun’s more dastardly minions show up bearing swords. The fight attracts the attention of Turbo Shek (Shawn Yu wearing a silver fright wig), who uses nunchakus and enters the fray because he doesn’t like it when people disturb his dinner. Cue plenty of injured people and nifty slow-motion martial arts excess, punctuated by close-up glamour shots of Donnie Yen’s mug as the wind rustles his silky head of hair. Much of the wind is presumably caused by the resulting air displacement of Dragon’s punches, but we all know how it’s being caused: some guy with a nozzle blowing air into Donnie Yen’s face. Ladies and gentlemen: movie magic.
But hey, it all entertains — even with an abnormally high level of photogenic fakery. Unlike the gritty bodyslams of SPL, Dragon Tiger Gate goes for a mixture of choreographed roughhousing and obviously prettified bedlam. The artifice of Dragon Tiger Gate can plainly be seen in every aspect of its production, from casting (Donnie Yen as a man in his twenties?), to the CG-enhanced cityscapes, to the incredibly pretty way the martial arts are presented. Action director Yen gets the most out of the film’s non martial artists (Nicholas Tse and Shawn Yu), and director Wilson Yip stages many of the sequences with effective, if not too showy camerawork. But Yip’s camera is upstaged heavily by Yen’s action, which uses lots of movement to little more effect than pretty posing. Dragon spends a lot of time flailing his arms and barely connecting, the effect being that everything looks more cool than it probably really is. The fighting is a step below SPL’s bone-crunching action as it lacks a consistent sense of power, but this is a comic book adaptation, so pretty panels are practically a necessity. And at least the power-to-posing ratio is greater than in The Storm Riders.
Wilson Yip’s best works have had a keen wit and understanding of character beneath their genre trappings, but that quality is lost in Dragon Tiger Gate. For one thing, the characters are more types than anything else, and those who possess anything resembling wit are quickly shoved into the background. Shawn Yu’s Turbo Shek should have been a more fun character; he’s a wandering martial artist who wants to impress Dragon Tiger Gate master Wong Jianglong, played by Yuen Wah in the film’s only other fun performance. The two have a couple of fun scenes where they spar, and Turbo resolves to train harder, but their story disappears in favor of Dragon and Tiger’s estrangement, plus a tragic love story between Dragon and a Lousha Gate member named, uh, Lousha (Li Xiao-Ran). Their romance gets mucho screentime, but it’s more interminable than involving. The other romance, between Ma Xiaoling and Tiger, is only marginally more interesting because the actors playing them seem to be slightly more compatible. Tse and Dong make a photogenic pair, but their cutesy interludes are upstaged by product placements for Nokia mobile phones. Both Tiger and Xiaoling own Nokias, as does Turbo Shek and probably everyone else in the world of Dragon Tiger Gate. Yay, commercialism!
Knocking a movie for its obvious product placement is probably a tad petty, but this is a symptom of what’s wrong with Dragon Tiger Gate. Nitpicking on the film is easy because as a whole, it doesn’t truly involve or affect like any good movie should. The film has solid production design, effective comic book themes, and even some scenes of genuine emotion (Wong Jianglong’s showdown with Shibumi packs an effective emotional punch). But in the end, the defining memory of Dragon Tiger Gate is not how exciting the action sequences were, or how interesting the story was. No, the defining impression left by Dragon Tiger Gate is how blazingly cool Donnie Yen is supposed to look, and how hard the filmmakers try to get the audience to buy in. Aside from his extreme poses, flowing hairdo, and flashy martial arts, Yen also gets to brood like a badass, cry like a smoldering romantic hero, and hug his brother with uncomfortably exaggerated passion. Even the film’s final showdown is all geared towards Yen. Dragon shows up to take down Shibumi without the help of either Turbo or Tiger, and his exaggerated preening hits cinema overdrive during the finale. Perhaps a better title for the film should have been just Dragon, or maybe the Greatest Looking Martial Artist Ever and his Brother.
Gripes aside, Dragon Tiger Gate does have your action fix, and non-fans of the comic could write off the film’s canned story and emotions as some sort of slavish referencing of the original comic. Still, as an actual 95-minute film, Dragon Tiger Gate only entertains part of the time — and a bunch of that time can easily be called entertainment of the unintentional variety. That last gripe once again falls upon Donnie Yen, who has had his brushes with onscreen hubris before (Ballistic Kiss, anyone?). The man likes to look good, and even in SPL’s gritty trappings, Yen struts across the screen like the Hong Kong Cinema version of U2’s Bono. But to be fair, Yen is probably the only action star left in Hong Kong who understands that people out there actually like movies with plenty of kicks, punches, and moments of bonecrunching impact. We should just be glad that he’s still trying to give us what other filmmakers won’t anymore — and if he wants to look good (or try to look good) while doing it, that’s his prerogative, right? Dragon Tiger Gate is a mixed bag, but “mixed bag” means that there’s some good stuff in there. Pick that stuff out, and leave the rest. That’s what I did. (Kozo 2006)
Year: 2006 Director: Wilson Yip Wai-Shun Producer: Nansun Shi, Raymond Wong Bak-Ming, Donnie Yen Ji-Dan, Yu Dong Action: Donnie Yen Ji-Dan Cast: Donnie Yen Ji-Dan, Nicholas Tse Ting-Fung, Shawn Yu Man-Lok, Dong Jie, Li Xiao-Ran, Yuen Wah, Chen Kuan-Tai, Sherin Teng Shui-Man, Tommy Yuen Man-On, Sam Chan Yu-Sum, Tony Wong Luk-Wong, Louis Koo Tin-Lok (voice only), Ella Koon Yun-Na (voice only), Isabella Leong (voice only)
Phir Hera Pheri - A laugh riot all the way Faridoon Shahryar, IndiaGlitz [Saturday, June 10, 2006]
I managed to grab a front row seat (Minutes before the house full board was flashed by a proud usher at the ticket window) an hour prior to the second show of ‘Phir Hera Pheri’ in a premium multiplex in Mumbai. And going by the rocking public response to this laugh riot, I am quite sure the house full board will be a permanent fixture in the days ahead. It is good news for ‘Krrish’ producer-director Rakesh Roshan. For, ‘Phir Hera Pheri’ breaks the jinx that sequels never work in India. It’s a ‘paisa vasool’ film that will give you far too many gags to cherish-n-enjoy.Welcome once again to the mercurial world of the awesome-tri-some Baburao Ganpat Rao Apte (Paresh Rawal), Raju (Akshay Kumar) and Shyam (Suniel Shetty). The three incorrigible partners, who just can’t live-or-live-without-each-other. Taking a cue from Priyadarshan’s original version, the story moves forward on the bumpy terrain. The riches that the trio had acquired, courtesy the benevolence of Devi Prasad (Whose granddaughter they had rescued from the dreaded Kabira) is ‘invested’ in a chit fund scheme on the insistence of idea-man Raju who also cons a local thug Pappu (Rajpal Yadav) to pump in some of his own money so that it could get doubled in twenty five days. The simple looking Anuradha (Bipasha Basu), the manager of the chit fund scheme dupes them of their money and they are left with no option other than selling their bungalow to get back to the stinking Mumbai ‘chawl’.
Thereafter, their life is a roller coaster ride from one mishap to another. Pappu gets after Raju while Raju finds out that Anuradha is a bar dancer. He also develops affection for his new landlord’s daughter Anjali (Rimi Sen) who turns out to be Pappu’s sister. Pappu on his part is being harassed by his boss (Sharath Saxena) and his brother (Ravi Kisan) both of whom have an incredulous lisping disorder. For repaying their debt, the three musketeers rob their neighbour Munna (Johny Lever), a local thug with a big haul of expensive drugs. What follows is one dog catching hold of another one’s tail. And the tale-of-laughter marches forward. Non-stop!
‘Phir Hera Pheri’ is a winner all the way. But it’s not without its bloopers. In Mumbai city even a 1BHK at Carter Road, Bandra costs more than Rs 70 lakhs, then how can a plush swanky bungalow with a huge swimming pool can be sold at merely Rs 50 lakh while three antique guns are showed to be worth more than Rs 5 crores. Bipasha Basu’s dubbed voice defies reason as to why should her deep bassy voice be replaced by a squeaky one. The screen time given to both her and Rimi is pathetically small while Suniel Shetty’s jaded performance screams the fact that, Anna must concentrate only on character or supporting roles from here on as his time as a lead hero is up. A couple of songs are unnecessarily added to accommodate foreign locations. And producer Feroze Nadiadwala’s fixation for bikini clad bimbettes shaking their bum or two defiantly continues.
After the bad news comes the good one. Except for a few blemishes, ‘Phir Hera Pheri’ relaxes you completely. In fact, it showers more laughter than what you may have asked for. The circus climax reminds you of the Ramlila episode in Kundan Shah’s ‘Jaane Bhi Do Yaron’ for its sheer farcical comic element. In spite of a huge star cast, one man who emerges like a breath of fresh air is Akshay Kumar. He does the incredible by outsmarting even the irrepressible Paresh Rawal. His Rs 1000 rupee note antics bring the house down with guffaws-galore. It’s a delight seeing him honing his craft and at the same it’s very clear that he is having a great time doing what he is doing.
Rawal is expectedly good. The scene where he takes a bath by emptying buckets from a swimming pool tells volumes about the confidence of this gigantic actor. Johny Lever is getting back into form. His dalliance with the guerrilla in a cage is fabulous. Sunil Pal (the winner of The Great Indian Laughter Challenge) as Jonhy’s side-kick is completely wasted. The man who promised a lot fails to deliver and except for a small dialogue he does nothing in a role that any Tom-Dick-Or-Harry could have walked away with. Rajpal Yadav is a bit of a disappointment as one has come to expect too much from him. Superstar of Bhojpuri films Ravi Kisan as the bumbling-lisping don delivers the punches in style.
Director-dialogue writer Neeraj Vohra, in his second film after ‘Khiladi 420’, is in full form. The punch lines carry a lot of humorous weight. The never ending gags keep the public in splits from start to finish. And to maintain the tempo is not an easy task by any measure. Himesh Reshammiya’s thumping music is a big plus point though a few of the numbers would have sounded better on the audio album rather than stretching the film needlessly. The end leaves a definite scope for a sequel. And it would be a huge compliment if one says….Here’s looking forward to ‘Hera Pheri’ once again.
The wait was worth it. More than three years after Koi Mil Gaya , the Roshans return with the movie’s sequel, ‘Krrish’, a thoroughly entertaining film with Hrithik Roshan as its breath and soul.
Trust me, there is no other ‘super’ star who can pull off the role of a superhero as convincingly as Hrithik has done. The actor has the right mix of brawns, youthful exuberance, grit and emotional vulnerability required for the role. He can be romantic, and he can be stern. He can yield, and he can be unforgiving. By large, ‘Krrish’ remains a Hrithik Roshan movie. But that is not to undermine the performances by Priyanka Chopra, Rekha and Naseeruddin Shah.
legacy of Rohit – the imbecilic youth who transforms into a superhero and a genius after meeting an alien in ‘Koi Mil Gaya’ – has passed on to his son Krishna, who lives with his grandmother (Rekha) after the death of his parents. Young Krishna’s prodigious abilities, his physical strength and mental intelligence astounds his teachers and other children of his age. But his grandmother doesn’t want the world to know about Krishna’s superpowers. So she takes him to a nondescript village in the mountains where Krishna grows in the lap of nature into a strong, handsome, brawny young man (Hrithik).
He runs faster than his horse, jumps long distances in a single leap and climbs the mountains like a spider moving through its web. Only few are aware of Krishna’s qualities. These qualities make him special. But they also make him a sort of outcast among normal people.
Then, love enters Krishna’s life. It literally falls from the open skies into his lap as he rescues a wide-eyed, city-bred girl (Priyanka) from her faulty parachute landing atop a tree.
Their first meeting, as they keep sliding down branch after branch, with the girl in Krishna’s arms, has been shot very beautifully.
It turns out that the girl is Priya and she is a part of a group of adventure seekers from Singapore.
A few pranks follow between Krishna and Priya and her campmates. The campers also get to see Krishna’s super-abilities. While Krishna shows Priya around his scenic village, he falls in love with her. But she returns to Singapore after a mere ten-day stay.
Then she calls him to Singapore on a false pretext, pretending her love for him. In truth she wants to save her job by showing Krishna’s skills on the TV channel she works for.
The gullible Krishna is eager to go to Singapore. But his dadi (Rekha) doesn’t want to send him into the world. She fears that the clever world will use Krishna the way it used and destroyed his father Rohit.
Anyway, Krishna goes to Singapore with the promise that he will conceal his qualities from the world. In the concrete jungle full of high-rises and skyscrapers, Krishna meets both good and bad people. But, can he conceal his super powers? Is he clever enough not to be used by people for their advantage? And will he be able to stop a megalomaniac scientist from making a computer that sees the future? In all the action and drama that follows, Krishna finds more than love. He finds someone whom he had presumed dead.
Right from the opening reels to its conclusion ‘Krrish’ keeps you riveted to the screen. With the exception of a few songs, the movie flows smoothly without dragging even for a moment. There are good hilarious moments in the first half. Even the movie’s supposed villain, Dr. Siddhant Arya (Naseeruddin Shah), is not without a comic knack.
But it is the action and stunts that stands out throughout the movie. Krrish’s giant leaps, his upward somersaults in the air, his skidding through the trees in the forest and his speedy movements (faster than a bullet) reminds me of the action from films like ‘Crouching Tiger’, ‘House of Flying Daggers’ and ‘Matrix’.
‘Krrish’, the movie, fuses these stunts with romance, comedy and fights in a very digestible dose. And the credit for this goes to Rakesh Roshan, the movie’s writer, producer and director. Roshan senior has made a quality product – a film that lays foundation for other films of similar 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.
Besides Hrithik’s superb performance in the film, Priyanka Chopra holds her ground and breezes through her role with the act that doesn’t demand serious histrionics. Rekha still has a natural charm in her beauty. She provides emotional moments in the film.
Naseeruddin Shah is eloquent as usual, not just in his dialogues but also his facial expressions. I wish he had a longer role in the film.
All said, ‘Krrish’ is definitely worth a watch, if not more. The film is a wholesome entertainer that will appeal particularly to teenagers and kids.
