Hrithik as Krrish and as Rohit put in a good effort, but for me, it wasn't enough to make up for the shortcomings of the film. First of all, the film's first mistake was calling itself a sequel. The moment a movie is called a sequel, people will already have a notion of what they want to see and what they expect. The fact that this movie is the sequel to Koi Mil Gaya I expected it to surpass the first movie. Krrish only surpassed Koi Mil Gaya in terms of the special effects.
I'll talk about the songs first. In Koi Mil Gaya, the songs (with the exception of perhaps one) did much to further the plot. More than that, they were catchy and truly showcased the brilliance of Rakesh Roshan. In Krrish, every time I saw a song number, I just felt the movie dragged on even more. The songs weren't at all catchy, with perhaps the exception of the circus number. In my opinion, the songs just served to drag the film longer.
OK, now on to the leads. I liked the character of Krrish a lot. He had a lot of that Clark Kent innocence and Superman values that truly makes him a hero. What I didn't like though, was the character of Priya who was so utterly selfish that from the moment Krrish followed her to Singapore she did nothing but lie to him. She was too easily influenced by her best friend that you wonder if this girl even has a spine. Not to mention there were so many instances where she showed a total lack of common sense. This is such a step back from the character of Nisha from the first movie who was a strong female character and guided Rohit and did her best to protect his innocence from the harshness of the world. In Koi Mil Gaya I totally understood why Rohit fell in love with Nisha. In Krrish on the other hand, you get a feeling that Krrish only fell in love with Priya because she's the first woman his age that he's seen all his life until that point!
*SPOILERS* ahead:
As for the plot, I felt that they didn't need to connect Krrish to Koi Mil Gaya. All it did was ruin the sweet memory of Rohit and Nisha from that movie (their fate in the sequel is just so horrible). Krrish would have worked much better as a stand alone. I mean, you can't have E.T. and then have Spiderman as the sequel. The Roshans argued that they needed an original reason for Krrish to have his powers. I'm thinking, nothing about Krrish is original! The Roshans have already borrowed so much from Hollywood that it wouldn't hurt to borrow a plot point from a Hollywood movie for the origin of his powers. Sacrificing some originality would have been worth it to keep the happy ending that Rohit and Nisha had in the last film.
Also, the twist at the end where Rohit turned up alive was just so ridiculous. By the way, another thing that really bothered me was that in Krrish, Rohit in the flashbacks while he was still young looked too much like the mentally handicapped Rohit from the first film. The first film already established that Rohit was completely normal and he even looked that way after Jadoo gave him powers. I didn't understand why the movie felt like it had to change that. Perhaps they just wanted the characters of Rohit and Krishna to be really different.
Preity Zinta was good in the 3 seconds that she was in the movie. I felt quite ripped off that that was all she got. The writers got rid of her character without much thought if you asked me. They didn't do much justice to a well established and well loved character. The scene when an old Rohit returns home to find Nisha dead will bring tears to your eyes and you wonder what the point is for the tragic fate of these two.
Rekha was the gem of the film. It was only in the scenes that had her in it did I feel like I was not watching a parody of a superhero movie.
Roshan couldn't find a nice balance between the superhero aspect of Krrish and the romance aspect of it, plus having to establish the background of the film. Perhaps he could've gotten a lesson or two from the Spiderman. This is another reason why I felt that a standalone film would have been better. As a standalone Krrish wouldn't have to waste valuable time telling what happened to Rohit and then trying to bring closure to that in the same film where they are trying to establish a new character entirely.
But the biggest shortcoming of this film was that it didn't make us empathize with Krrish and Priya the way we did for Rohit and Nisha in the first film. In the first film I rooted for Rohit and Nisha to overcome all odds to be together. Since Krrish was advertised as a love story before a superhero movie, I expected the same. Unfortunately the chemistry between Hrithik and Priyanka was colder than an iceberg. Not to mention that the character of Priya was just so weak that you wonder how the hero could fall in love with her. At the end of the film I still cared more about the characters from the previous film than i did for this one. All in all the movie left a lot to be desired and I hope if they make any other sequels that they will be respectful of the legacy that their prequels established.
I'll talk about the songs first. In Koi Mil Gaya, the songs (with the exception of perhaps one) did much to further the plot. More than that, they were catchy and truly showcased the brilliance of Rakesh Roshan. In Krrish, every time I saw a song number, I just felt the movie dragged on even more. The songs weren't at all catchy, with perhaps the exception of the circus number. In my opinion, the songs just served to drag the film longer.
OK, now on to the leads. I liked the character of Krrish a lot. He had a lot of that Clark Kent innocence and Superman values that truly makes him a hero. What I didn't like though, was the character of Priya who was so utterly selfish that from the moment Krrish followed her to Singapore she did nothing but lie to him. She was too easily influenced by her best friend that you wonder if this girl even has a spine. Not to mention there were so many instances where she showed a total lack of common sense. This is such a step back from the character of Nisha from the first movie who was a strong female character and guided Rohit and did her best to protect his innocence from the harshness of the world. In Koi Mil Gaya I totally understood why Rohit fell in love with Nisha. In Krrish on the other hand, you get a feeling that Krrish only fell in love with Priya because she's the first woman his age that he's seen all his life until that point!
*SPOILERS* ahead:
As for the plot, I felt that they didn't need to connect Krrish to Koi Mil Gaya. All it did was ruin the sweet memory of Rohit and Nisha from that movie (their fate in the sequel is just so horrible). Krrish would have worked much better as a stand alone. I mean, you can't have E.T. and then have Spiderman as the sequel. The Roshans argued that they needed an original reason for Krrish to have his powers. I'm thinking, nothing about Krrish is original! The Roshans have already borrowed so much from Hollywood that it wouldn't hurt to borrow a plot point from a Hollywood movie for the origin of his powers. Sacrificing some originality would have been worth it to keep the happy ending that Rohit and Nisha had in the last film.
Also, the twist at the end where Rohit turned up alive was just so ridiculous. By the way, another thing that really bothered me was that in Krrish, Rohit in the flashbacks while he was still young looked too much like the mentally handicapped Rohit from the first film. The first film already established that Rohit was completely normal and he even looked that way after Jadoo gave him powers. I didn't understand why the movie felt like it had to change that. Perhaps they just wanted the characters of Rohit and Krishna to be really different.
Preity Zinta was good in the 3 seconds that she was in the movie. I felt quite ripped off that that was all she got. The writers got rid of her character without much thought if you asked me. They didn't do much justice to a well established and well loved character. The scene when an old Rohit returns home to find Nisha dead will bring tears to your eyes and you wonder what the point is for the tragic fate of these two.
Rekha was the gem of the film. It was only in the scenes that had her in it did I feel like I was not watching a parody of a superhero movie.
Roshan couldn't find a nice balance between the superhero aspect of Krrish and the romance aspect of it, plus having to establish the background of the film. Perhaps he could've gotten a lesson or two from the Spiderman. This is another reason why I felt that a standalone film would have been better. As a standalone Krrish wouldn't have to waste valuable time telling what happened to Rohit and then trying to bring closure to that in the same film where they are trying to establish a new character entirely.
But the biggest shortcoming of this film was that it didn't make us empathize with Krrish and Priya the way we did for Rohit and Nisha in the first film. In the first film I rooted for Rohit and Nisha to overcome all odds to be together. Since Krrish was advertised as a love story before a superhero movie, I expected the same. Unfortunately the chemistry between Hrithik and Priyanka was colder than an iceberg. Not to mention that the character of Priya was just so weak that you wonder how the hero could fall in love with her. At the end of the film I still cared more about the characters from the previous film than i did for this one. All in all the movie left a lot to be desired and I hope if they make any other sequels that they will be respectful of the legacy that their prequels established.