Krrish 3 Review

I’ve just seen the Bollywood movie Krrish 3. This is the latest in what has so far been a trilogy. It began with Koi Mil Gaya, the story of learning-disabled Rohit Mehra and his friendship with an alien.

Krrish 2 was a beautiful movie, telling the story of Rohit’s son, Krishna.

Now, in Krrish 3:

After defeating the villainous Dr. Siddhant Arya, and bringing his father Rohit back from the dead, Krrish continued fighting against evil and saving innocent lives. Now Krishna is living a happily married life with Priya, while Rohit is using his scientific brilliance to benefit society. And Krrish is everyone’s favorite superhero saviour. Unknown to them, a dark force is growing in another part of the world. Kaal, an evil genius, is selfishly misusing his powers to spread fear, death and destruction. And he is being assisted by an army of very dangerous beings, which he has created himself. Not long after Kaal’s plans are put into action, both Rohit and Krrish find themselves faced with a crisis of epic proportions, which only they can resolve, together. But when they finally cross paths with Kaal and his army, neither of them is prepared for what lies ahead. Kaal not only brings the world to the brink of disaster, he also puts the strength and love of Krishna and his family to the test.

The reason I’m writing about this movie here is Kaal, the evil villain. He has the mind of a superhero, but he is paralysed from the neck down, apart from the use of two fingers, and uses a wheelchair.

I would usually have been thrilled about the character of a wheelchair user with superpowers in any movie. However, this one is truly evil. He grows up unable to understand his disability or his superpowers, and sets out to use them to find a cure.

In his attempt to find a cure, he creates a race of beings from a mixture of human and animal DNA. This element strongly resembles Avatar, and the Na’vi race, except, of course that in Avatar the nonhuman race befriended and cured Jake Sully. In Krrish 3 the animals are out to destroy human lives and cities.

As a whole, the movie had more than enough science fiction to please a male audience of all ages and just enough Hindu mythology to make a perfect Divali special.

It also had just enough nostalgia for this fan of the trilogy.

However, I came out confused. A part of me- the teenage girl who loved the characters and the first two parts of the trilogy, obviously wanted a happy ending for the family.

But the disabled person in me, the one who constantly looks for positive media representation of disabled people, found herself wishing that Kaal had used his superpowers in a much more positive way.

I sincerely hope that any young children who watch this movie, disabled and non-disabled alike, realise that while it is absolutely fine for a wheelchair user to have the mind of Stephen Hawking, and through that mind the powers of Superman, any wheelchair user with that much luck should use their brilliance in positive ways. Of course, in reality, most of them do.

However, I sincerely hope that non-disabled children don’t come away from this movie with a fear of wheelchair users! Because one evil superhero in a wheelchair doesn’t make all wheelchair users evil. I promise.