BIG SCREEN GOES BOLLYWOOD!!!

What the hell else could we do that would be radically different? We've reviewed most genres of films except porn...Wait...We coulda done porn!?

DAMMIT!!!

Ah, well. Post 100 can't be too far in the future, right? In the meantime, Green and I took the advice of...um...some...person...and reviewed a film made in India. For those who are laughing, India produces and exports as many as and sometimes even more films than the United States! And I didn't choose some silly musical for Green's delicate little taste buds to ingest. I chose...well, read the reviews and see for your-damnselves!

SCRIBE'S JUST IMAGINE REVIEW:

I must confess to having had an ulterior motive when I jumped on the idea of reviewing a Bollywood film for our fiftieth post. I’d actually seen the film I recommended we review and loved it.

For those of you now laughing and hurting my feelings, SHUT IT!!! There is an undeserved stigma attached to films made in India, due in no small measure to the spontaneous musical numbers and Hollywood’s conceit that no one except them and possibly Europe and Hong Kong can produce a quality product. Krrish is proof that they are wrong.

This film is a sequel to a very popular Indian film in which an ET-like alien arrived in a small Indian village and imbued an awkward dork with his essence before departing to dimensions unknown. You don’t need to have seen the first film (I didn’t) to understand what’s happening in this bigger, flashier, action-oriented sequel.

Again starring the same guy now playing his own son as a simple-minded country hunk, the sequel picks up many years later as Krrish, now living with his disturbingly hot grandmother, does the Smallville thing and tries to live a normal life. His grandmother is deathly afraid of his secret getting out because of what happened to her son…a rather disturbing fate that isn’t revealed until later in the film.

The earlier portion of the film is sure to alienate some Western viewers because of its light-heartedness and forays into goofiness. There are a few songs as well because, apparently, it’s a requirement. This seems to be a continuation of the tone of the previous installment. But the dark foreshadowing of the opening scene is enough to keep you hooked if you are susceptible to the mythology.

Like Luke Skywalker and George W. Bush before him, Krrish is bored out of his mind doing what he’s told and seeks adventure and excitement. It comes one day in the form of a Hindu hottie who lives in Thailand with her adorable Thai friend Cookie. They are reporters and are part of a tour bus passing through. It’s love at first sight for ol’ Krrish as he runs around showing her he’s much man and saving them from natural disasters. They fall in love, or maybe she falls in like, and Krrish is crushed --did I just write Krrish is crushed? -- when she leaves.

His rite of passage is now twofold. His love and lust for a woman compels him to see the world outside of his small village, and his disturbingly hot granny tells him what happened to his father. Apparently, Krrish senior (not really his name) got more of an intellect boost than his son, whose powers run more toward the super-hero variety.

Suddenly all the goofy dialogue and musical numbers were worth it, because the second and third acts come down with a thunder. Not only is Krrish looking for his new love, he is also about to meet the evil Indian equivalent of Bill Gates whose aspirations of godhood and weird tendency to speak to the camera as if he’s a news anchor make him the perfect villain for a newly emerging hero.

The special effects are good, the acting is surprisingly good and the story is compelling, especially in its second half. This is a film for fantasy fans and people who are fascinated by mythology, but more importantly it is for people with an open mind.

***** out of *****

GREEN’S BEAUTIFUL WOMEN FALLING FROM THE SKY REVIEW:

Once it was suggested to us that we go Bollywood for review #50 and we agreed that was the way to go, it was only a matter of which film to do. I, being totally clueless when it comes to movies from India, gave way to the wisdom of the scribester when he suggested this movie, simply because I didn‘t know any better.

Unlike the subject of our last review, this film actually looked interesting from the get go. Then the relevant question became, where am I going to get me grubby lil' hands on a copy of this here mooo-vie? Much to my surprise, my local library was able to get it for me via inter-library loan.

My heart sank immediately when I read right on the cover that this movie was a sequel to “Koi Mil Gaya,” a movie I'd obviously never seen. I feared that I wouldn’t be able to follow the story fully without seeing the first film first. Then when I saw that "Krrish" had a run time of 175 minutes (five minutes short of three hours, people), I rather colorfully wondered what in the heck I agreed to.

I really don’t want to give away any of the story because you really ought to see this masterpiece for yourself. Lets just say that it's about a boy named Krishna, who inherits special powers from his father… and thus the adventure begins… (Incidentally, AG and I knew a kid in our high school daze named Krishna.)

This film is not perfect. There are some confusing parts in the story. Stuff that probably makes more sense if you’ve seen the first film first, which I have not, yet. Stuff which I hope will be explained in the first film and expounded upon in the next installment.

"Krrish" has mostly everything you could ask for in a movie: A superhero, a subtly evil bad guy, beautiful women, exotic locations, love, romance, excitement, fear, discovery, beautiful music, dancing, singing, superb production values, excellent acting, top notch directing, state of the art “Matrix”-like special effects and a really good, compelling story. The two things this movie lacks are a car chase or three, gratuitous female frontal nudity and love/sex scenes of any kind. Heck, there isn’t even any substantial lip contact!

Unlike Mel Gibson‘s “Apocalypto” and “The Passion of the Christ,“ where subtitles weren’t needed to understand the story, most of us will have to make use of the English subtitles to understand the dialogue, spoken in Hindi with a smattering of English words thrown in. Still that didn’t take away from my enjoyment of this film. You won’t know the actors from anything else they've starred in, actors like Hrithik Roshan (Krrish/Rohit), Priyanka Chopra (Priya), Rekha (Sonia, [the disturbingly hot grandmother.]) and Naseeruddin Shah (Dr. Arya) but you really don't need to.

In short, this really is a great movie, even without seeing the first film first. Dare I say that this film is better by far than some of the crap that comes out of Hollywood, USA these days?

I’ve even begun my search for the first film, “Koi Mil Gaya" (2003) and was excited to learn that a sequel, “Krrish 2,” is tentatively set for release sometime this year.

Look for this movie in the foreign films section of your library and sign it out. I think you'll enjoy "Krrish" as much as we did.

****½ out of *****