Look up in the sky...it's Krrish!
I finally got to do something I've wanted to do since I got here, see a Bollywood movie at a local cinema. While the TV is saturated with local movies all hours of the day and night, it's not the same as going to see it with a crowd on the big screen. So for the princely sum of 40 rupees, I went to the Padma Theatre in Cochin to see the premier of Krrish!
The place was absolutely packed, two tiers, probably four or five hundred in all and the cinema really wasn't that different to one you might find back home. A little more run down maybe, but if you can imagine a cinema that you might see in country Australia, the kind that had been built in the 50's and not quite looked after the way it might have been, you get the idea. Except packed full of rowdy and enthusiastic Indians patrons.
Krrish is the story of Krishna, a boy born of Indian parents in Canada (although probably shot in northern India) who has suddenly developed an amazing artistic talent and apparently other mental and physical abilities as well. As he grows up it becomes clear that he is some kind of superman and after accidentally saving paraglider while swimming through the trees (no, not swinging, swimming; think Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) he falls in love, goes to Singapore and becomes the masked superhero, Krrish.
In fine Bollywood (and superhero) tradition, it's all a bit ridiculous, with the usual Bollywood mix of action, romance, melodrama and dancing, but it was really entertaining, even if it was a bit uneven. The major villain gets about three minutes of screen time in the first half of the movie and you forget that he was even a threat until his sudden reappearance in the last act.
And, no, I didn't understand a word of the dialogue, which means the comedy relief character was a complete loss to me, but it says something about the skill of the storytelling that I still had a very good idea of what was happening. Of course it didn't hurt a bit that the heroine was an absolute stunner even by Bollywood starlet standards, which is saying something. For the girls, the star, Hrithik Roshan, is built like an Indian Schwarzenegger and has a chin you could carve stone with.
The crowd added hugely to my enjoyment of the movie, Krishna's first appearance on screen, racing a horse home for dinner, was greeted with a deafening roar. They cheered the hero at every turn, especially when he was chasing the girl and jeered the villain, played with enough ham to make Gary Oldman blush by Naseeruddin Shah, who I was surprised to recognise - but eventually pinned him down to Monsoon Wedding (and apparently The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but unrecognisable under Captain Nemo's beard).
As a side note, the movie cost a record 800 million rupees (say A$23 million), which will almost certain never be recouped, even if the movie does as well as expected. I'm told that the Mumbai Mafia uses some Bollywood movies to launder money, so the loss is preferred. Certainly the director, and father of the male lead, was shot by mob-linked assailants a few years back, supposedly for resisting their attempts to gain distribution rights to his films. But it does mean that the production values are very high, it wouldn't look out of place in Hollywood. At least, it wouldn't if the star didn't break into a song and dance routine every ten minutes. All very Indian. Think Cole Porter meets MC Hammer.
I'm looking forward to comparing the sub-continental superman with his American counter-part when Superman Returns gets to local cinemas.
The place was absolutely packed, two tiers, probably four or five hundred in all and the cinema really wasn't that different to one you might find back home. A little more run down maybe, but if you can imagine a cinema that you might see in country Australia, the kind that had been built in the 50's and not quite looked after the way it might have been, you get the idea. Except packed full of rowdy and enthusiastic Indians patrons.
Krrish is the story of Krishna, a boy born of Indian parents in Canada (although probably shot in northern India) who has suddenly developed an amazing artistic talent and apparently other mental and physical abilities as well. As he grows up it becomes clear that he is some kind of superman and after accidentally saving paraglider while swimming through the trees (no, not swinging, swimming; think Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) he falls in love, goes to Singapore and becomes the masked superhero, Krrish.
In fine Bollywood (and superhero) tradition, it's all a bit ridiculous, with the usual Bollywood mix of action, romance, melodrama and dancing, but it was really entertaining, even if it was a bit uneven. The major villain gets about three minutes of screen time in the first half of the movie and you forget that he was even a threat until his sudden reappearance in the last act.
And, no, I didn't understand a word of the dialogue, which means the comedy relief character was a complete loss to me, but it says something about the skill of the storytelling that I still had a very good idea of what was happening. Of course it didn't hurt a bit that the heroine was an absolute stunner even by Bollywood starlet standards, which is saying something. For the girls, the star, Hrithik Roshan, is built like an Indian Schwarzenegger and has a chin you could carve stone with.
The crowd added hugely to my enjoyment of the movie, Krishna's first appearance on screen, racing a horse home for dinner, was greeted with a deafening roar. They cheered the hero at every turn, especially when he was chasing the girl and jeered the villain, played with enough ham to make Gary Oldman blush by Naseeruddin Shah, who I was surprised to recognise - but eventually pinned him down to Monsoon Wedding (and apparently The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but unrecognisable under Captain Nemo's beard).
As a side note, the movie cost a record 800 million rupees (say A$23 million), which will almost certain never be recouped, even if the movie does as well as expected. I'm told that the Mumbai Mafia uses some Bollywood movies to launder money, so the loss is preferred. Certainly the director, and father of the male lead, was shot by mob-linked assailants a few years back, supposedly for resisting their attempts to gain distribution rights to his films. But it does mean that the production values are very high, it wouldn't look out of place in Hollywood. At least, it wouldn't if the star didn't break into a song and dance routine every ten minutes. All very Indian. Think Cole Porter meets MC Hammer.
I'm looking forward to comparing the sub-continental superman with his American counter-part when Superman Returns gets to local cinemas.
posted by David Brennan + Anne Swart at 4:17 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home