Bollywood scifi superhero "Krrish" to land in India

Snip from a bollywood.com New York Times article by Anupama Chopra, excerpted on Bruce Sterling's blog. I spent a couple weeks in Northern India last month, and spotted ads for this in Delhi:

Is the next big thing in superheroes a masked man who leaps from skyscraper to skyscraper, saves the world and suddenly breaks into song? Audiences will find out on June 23, when "Krrish" — a film that showcases Bollywood's first fully realized Superman-style hero — reaches screens.

"Krrish" is a sequel to the 2003 blockbuster "Koi ... Mil Gaya" ("I Found Someone"), which was considered Hindi cinema's first major science fiction film.

In it, an E.T.-like alien descends to Earth and is befriended by Rohit, a good-hearted young man who's not very bright. The alien waves a finger. Miraculously, the slow, stuttering, myopic Rohit is transformed into a hero who can dance, woo the beauteous heroine and defeat the bad guys.

Link to full text of article on Bruce's blog, and here's the movie website. Update: here's the NYT.com link (hides behind a paywall in a few weeks). (Thanks, Vikram!)

Reader comment: stuvey says,

Shaktimaan is a super cool Bollywood super hero that probably wouldn't be to happy about Krrish claiming the title of "Bollywood's first fully realized Superman-style hero." According to imdb Shaktimaan has a few flix in his back catalog.

Reader comment: Anil Kandangath says,

'Shaktiman' is not a Bollywood superhero. That was merely a television show that started in 1998.