STORY: Each time evil awakens in the world, a superhero rekindles his superpowers. This time Krrish is back, with thrice the power to destroy the demonic Kaal and his bastion of beastly mutants. REVIEW: Evil doesn’t raise its ugly head anymore. It raises a finger. But then ‘Good’ flies too. In ‘Superhero’ form – Caped, masked, winged – with muscles of steel and hearts of gold. Our comic-book phirang fantasy boys have flown high as ‘Supermen’ in Hollywood epics for eons.

In India, only one man with an audacious flight of imagination – Rakesh Roshan – has thrice-over, superbly crafted a fantastical world ‘alien’ to Bollywood, with our very own amazingly evocative superhero – Krrish (Hrithik). Leaping from where the prequel ended, Krishna (Hrithik) lives with his wife (Priyanka), and genius Dad, Rohit Mehra (Hrithik). In twirling black cape and mask, he hurtles across the city on heroic rescue operations, playing good hubby and doing odd jobs (as the alter ego). But his life is uproariously interrupted with the emergence of a dark and destructive world of an evil called ‘Kaal’ (Vivek). A maniacal villain, with special powers and a venomous will to erase inferior beings – the human race. Kaal fuses DNA, to create an assortment of evil mutants called maanvars (manav+jaanwar) – a horned Rhinoman, red-eyed Antman, a Frogman (who gives lot of tongue) and a super-shapely chameleon Kaya (Kangna).

He wants to spread a deadly virus to exterminate humanity, but Krrish uses his superpowers to save ‘mankind’ from the malignant ‘mutakind’. Hrithik is truly the stuff superheroes are made of. Brandishing his Greek-God looks and almighty powers. Displaying larger-than-life flair and flying shoulder-toshoulder with any Hollywood superman. As the prosthetically pot-bellied and ageing Rohit, he is incredible. Vivek, as a physically disabled anti-hero is menacing as a ‘hellboy’. His lunatic laugh and whitewashed make-up make him fearfully fantastic. Priyanka is good in her limited role.

Kangna in her gothic and deviously dark avatar looks stunning and pulls off an outstanding act. With a visually riveting and emotionally engaging story, intriguing characters, sweeping VFX (unseen thus far on Indian celluloid) Rakesh Roshan’s ambitious dream lives up. Yes, it’s hugely inspired (by the Bats, Spideys and Wolverines of the West), but our superhero has his own ‘X-factor’. Even with all the high-octane car crashes, explosions and ‘animatronics’, the philosophy is the force behind it all, yet, never overpowering the story.

The songs are slightly disappointing and background score (Salim-Sulaiman) is good, but unable to amp up the magnitude of the film. For sheer vision, bravado and superlative execution, this one soars to new orbits. Latch on to this cape for an exhilarating ride.