Some time ago, Rohit Mehra (Hrithik Roshan) was born with a mental disability, and though he tried to keep up with other people he always felt at a disadvantage. That was until a space alien gave him special powers and made him a genius, but now his biggest regret is not being there to watch his son Krishna (also Roshan) grow up since Rohit had been kidnapped by a villain who kept him away from society for years. But now all is fine, as he sees his son and his son's wife Priya (Priyanka Chopra) as much as he can, and is happy to show off his latest inventions to them, such as a way of bringing things back to life using the sun's rays and some alien technology. Well, almost...
But dark days are afoot as there is a superpowered bad guy who can move objects with his mind planning to take over the world (isn't it always the way?) and the sole person who can stop him is the even more superpowered Krrish, India's leading superhero who happens to be Krishna in disguise, the alien abilities running in the family. This was the much-delayed third entry in this story, the first, Koi... Mil Gaya laying the groundwork for the following movies which also followed something else very closely: the superhero franchises coming out of Hollywood. Bollywood, as with many other film industries, tended to have a magpie sensibility when it came to picking their influences, so it was only natural this genre should be adopted with the customary musical numbers added.
After all, in the twenty-first century superheroes were big business, and given Bollywood could afford the major effects setpieces that the American movies boasted why not put that generous budget to good use? Here the imitations were rather shameless, only with various twists to mix all the plot elements up into a new flavour of adventure, so there was a Professor X combined with a Magneto by the name of Kaal (Vivek Oberoi), except he wasn't a goodie he was a baddie, and he had used his experiments with genetics to create the X-Men, only they weren't really for they simply had similar powers, including from a character who the production had been a lot more impressed by than anyone else who saw the American efforts, Toad.
Yes, that henchman with the very long tongue had quite the workout here in his guise as Frog Man (completely different to Toad, patently), but where the works this was inspired by were somewhat lumbering and elephantine (no, there wasn't an Elephant Man - Rhino Man, however...) this was bright and fun, in spite of that Bollywood trope of indicating there was serious drama going on by having its hero burst into tears which was by now rather overused. Compare Krrish 3 to Man of Steel, which seemed to be its main competition judging by the way the Indian film was trying to best it, and this was far more enjoyable, far more of a pulpy sci-fi comic book runaround than anything Zack Snyder had morosely and bombastically presented for our edification.
Roshan - the only movie star in the world with three thumbs, remember! - was by this time very comfortable in this leading role, in fact both leading roles as through the magic of special effects he was able to share the screen with himself playing father and son, even more notable because son was about twice the size of father thanks to his musclebound appearance. It was never afraid to be ultra-sincere, with Krrish's message that being human is not a weakness, it is a strength just the kind of slogan that would have gone down so well in the superhero comics of yore, and managing not to sound too cheesy in the process. Some critics thought Bollywood should stick to what it knows and not try to take on Hollywood at its own game, but if Krrish 3 was not up there with the classic variations of the form - seasoned viewers would find themselves too often marking off the influences - it did at least prove you didn't need Western expertise to pull off an enjoyable blockbuster. Among the product placement was a billboard for "Clean, Green Mumbai" - um, not after Kaal had finished with it.
