India's first superhero creates song and dance

Pedestrians sit in front of a poster of the forthcoming Bollywood film 'Krrish' in Mumbai. Picture / Reuters

DELHI - India has its first homegrown superhero in the form of Krrish, Bollywood's answer to Superman - an Indian with remarkable powers who travels to Singapore, saves the world from a mad scientist, gets the girl (played by Priyanka Chopra) and regularly breaks into song and dance numbers.

The opening of Krrish in cinemas at the weekend attracted extraordinary attention, with India's 24-hour news channels giving over entire evenings to preview the movie.

It was all too much for one fan, a hotel worker now in hospital in Delhi with multiple fractures after he got so excited during the movie that he leapt from the balcony to the stalls beneath in an attempt to emulate the on-screen stunts of actor Hrithik Roshan.

Bollywood movies have always had a touch of the superhero about them; they are full of improbable scenes in which the hero single-handedly defeats a dozen armed men. But Krrish is the first Superman-style superhero: a being gifted with extraordinary powers and a ridiculous costume.

In fact Krrish is more a mix of Superman and Spiderman. Like Superman he is so strong he can leap over buildings; like Spiderman he can climb them. His costume - ill-advised given the heat in India and Singapore, where the movie is set - is black leather, complete with a face-mask.

Krrish is the work of Rakesh Roshan, a Bollywood director at the vanguard of attempts to emulate Hollywood. He cast his son, Hrithik - a big star in his own right - as Krrish.

The film is a sequel to Roshan's 2003 hit Koi Mil Gaya, India's first science-fiction movie, which gave extraordinary powers to Rohit, an ordinary Indian. Krrish is the story of Rohit's son, Krishna.

- INDEPENDENT