[DVD] Krrish (2006)

I'd dare say that this is perhaps the movie which prodded me into exploring contemporary Indian cinema a little more, and to date I can only admit I barely scratch the surface of it. Shot partly in Singapore, or at least when Hrithik Roshan dons the costume and becomes the superhero Krrish, it has a Bollywood actor attempting Kung-Fu and wirework long before Akshay Kumar went from Chandni Chowk to China to do the same.

Despite some of the sci-fi parts which were lifted from John Woo's Paycheck (down to the exact same set designs), Krrish is actually a sequel to director Rakesh Roshan's earlier film Kol Mil Gaya. And if production news are correct, we should be seeing Krrish 2 in production sometime soon. Meanwhile, you can read my review of Krrish the film over here.

The 2-discs collector's edition by Adlabs Home Entertainment comes with some gorgeously designed 3D menus. Disc 1 is presented in anamorphic widescreen format, with audio available in either Dolby Digital 2.0 or 5.1 in its original Hindi language track. Subtitles are available in English, Arabic, Dutch, French, Hebrew, Italian, Portuguese, Malay, Spanish, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. Scene selection is available over 25 chapters, and the only extras here are the Songs section where you can head direct to either of these tracks: Chori Chori, Pyaar Ki Ek Kahani, Dil Na Diya, and Koi Tumba Nahin.

Disc 2 is presented in a 4x3 aspect ration, and is the Special Features disc. Unfortunately it doesn't come with subtitles, so unless you understand Hindi, you'll be left scratching your head trying to decipher what is being said, otherwise you'll only be enlightened when the speakers switch to English.

It starts with a 21 minute interview talk show Hrithik's Journey: Koi Mil Gaya To Krrish hosted by Maaninee Misshra, who chats with Hrithik on his roles in the original film, and in Krrish the sequel, and fortunately, Hrithik responds in English, where he recounts the development process of both characters, and his performing of his own stunts where he had actually met with an incident on set where one of the cables broke and miraculously managed to land on top of a canopy, which was erected because it was raining.

You don't get to see any footage on that though, even in the next feature Action Cuts (24:00) where the same incident was mentioned. This segment is presented mainly in English, which begins with an interview with Tony Ching who had summoned Hrithik Roshan to Hong Kong for 25 days of Wushu training to get him up to speed on martial arts. Hrithik is a fast learner, and the clips here shown from the training sessions backs that claim up, where he works relentlessly to get himself shaped for action, and become a convincing practitioner. The rest were some behind the scenes look at how the dances were choreographed and rehearsed before the cameras rolled, and I was laughing when they introduced the Singapore segment by a montage of "fine" notices (welcome to Singapore!).

Making of the Music (21:44) contained clips from the earlier film Koi Mil Gaya, and chats with the director Rakesh Roshan, the music director (and his brother) Rajesh Roshan, as well as Hrithik who spoke in English. Singer Shreya Ghoshal was also on hand to talk about her songs which get picturized on Priyanka Chopra, and this feature ended off with talking about the quality of the visuals used to match the song, from the mountains in India to the city skyline of Singapore.

The Red Carpet (21:34) feature has scenes at the red carpet at London and Dubai, where we get to see the reception of Krrish at these cities, complete with press conference clips, interviews with the fans and with the cast and director as well. Some behind the scenes clips showing the making of the film are also included in this feature. And Krrish related extras are rounded up by the Theatrical Trailor (sic) segment which has 2 trailers running a total of 1:42.

The rest of the features in this disc aren't related to the movie, such as the section Forthcoming (with a play all option, total of 5:45 without subs) which is a list of movie trailers for Anthony Kaun Hai, Woh Lamhe, Apna Sapna Money Money and Dil Apna Punjabi. Outnow (with a play all option, total of 4:24, and also without subs) also contains movie trailers, such as The Killer, which stars Irrfan Khan looks very curiously like Collateral, 36 China Town which I had watched on a flight some two years ago but failed to write about it, and Gangster. Wrapping things up are a Star Plus Showreel (4:25) to advertise the cable channel, and a featurette entitled Stop The Hatred (1:50), where prominent stars come and speak out against race/religious incited violence.