It's been quite the year so far for Bollywood sequels. For a film industry three times the size of Hollywood, the concept of sequels, surprisingly, did not take root until fairly recently.

A couple of sequels that come to mind:

Darna Mana Hai --> Darna Zaroori Hai
Hera Pheri --> Phir Hera Pheri
Koi Mil Gaya --> Krrish
Munna Bhai MBBS --> Lage Raho Munna Bhai

I haven't seen any of the sequels except for Krrish, which I watched today at the movie theatre, and surprisingly I was actually quite impressed.

Contrary to popular belief (read: Vishal), I actually enjoyed Krrish! Sure it was full of holes (see below), the music was so-so, and the choreography was a little too 'let me leap around like jungle boy and jungle girl' but nonetheless it was still pretty entertaining. I was quite engrossed in the plot, the special effects were really good by Indian standards, and Hritik gave a wonderful performance as Krishna, Krrish and *SPOILER ALERT* the aging Rohit in vegetative state. Priyanka Chopra was less irritating than usual (now that she's finally decided to shape her eyebrows a little more far apart, she looks less bhaingi) and it was a relief to watch Rekha finally play her age.

I know, I know - the movie was a mish mash of Minority Report, Independence Day, Tomorrow Never Dies, George of the Jungle, Spiderman, Batman, Superman and every other major sci-fi/fantasy movie of the past 10 years. S commented that all that was missing was the influence of Lord of the Rings, and if Rohit - in the end - summoned Jadoo and went off with him in the spaceship, it would be akin to Frodo going off with the elves and Gandalf at the end of LOTR3, and the imitation of all things Hollywood sci-fi would be complete. But still I have to give kudos to the Roshans for imbibing these influences to create something quite unique in Indian cinema and actually using great special effects to create a seriously credible superhero out of Hritik (who is probably the only guy in B'wood who could carry it off). Yes, it's a little cheesy for us to see a patchwork movie like this, but for the ordinary Indian masses this is going to be BIG. And different. And I hope it rings the cash registers, for poor Hritik's sake. He's a fine actor, but he has such terrible taste in picking movies.

Ok, so while it is super cool by Indian standards, the film contains the usual HOLES that come with Rakesh Roshan movies:

1) How come when Rohit goes abroad, Arya has already done innovations in wireless technology, people can watch cricket on their cell phones, and Rohit talks to his mother on a cell phone? 20 years ago there were no mobiles in India and we couldn't watch cricket on them. Ok, so assume Rohit went to Singapore in real-time since Koi Mil Gaya came out in the 2000's. In that case, Krishna should be hanging out in the 2020's and by that time I should hope there would be more than one STD phone in rural Himalayan villages and pedal pushers would be out of fashion.

2) How come Rekha has Rohit's trench coat with her? Shouldn't it have been with him in Singapore when he died? Did they fed-ex back his belongings after he "died"? Somehow Arya doesn't seem so polite.

3) Is it really that hard to recognize hunky Hritik Roshan in a black plastic mask that barely covers his face?

4) Indians create technology to see the future?

So, yeah. Plenty of holes integral to the movie's plot. But I still liked it anyway!