It's a bird, it's a plane, it's ... Krrish?

MUMBAI, India (Reuters) -- Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings at a single bound -- look, up there in the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane, it's ... Krrish?

Thanks to a fusillade of television promos, huge billboards and countless merchandising spinoffs, India is set to get its first homegrown superhero when "Krrish" opens at cinemas across the country on Friday.

Movie insiders say the film is set for huge success because not only can the eponymous hero tackle villains and save the world, but he can also do so while singing and dancing -- a talent Hollywood superheroes such as Batman and Superman have kept hidden under their supercloaks to date.

The $10 million film, a costly production by Bollywood standards, is a sequel to the 2003 blockbuster "Koi...Mil Gaya" (I Found Someone), considered Hindi cinema's first major science fiction film.

In it, an E.T.-like alien comes to earth and is saved by Rohit, a kind but dim-witted youth. Before returning home, the alien transforms the nervous, cocooned Rohit into a powerful hero who avenges his tormentors and wins, of course, wins the girl.

"Krrish" tells the story of Rohit's son, Krishna, who is born with all his father's superpowers and more, but is unaware of them until he follows his lady love, a television reporter, to Singapore from his pastoral idyll in India.

There he meets with Siddhant Arya, a megalomaniac scientist on the verge of changing the future forever.

Between Arya and his destructive dreams stands Krishna who must transform into Krrish -- the suave superhero in a black leather ensemble and a half mask -- to save the world.

But "Krrish," played by Bollywood heartthrob Hrithik Roshan, is no Superman. He is more.

Well-built with a heart of gold, blessed with special powers that make him fly and a superhuman intellect, he also breaks into song and dance to woo his beau.

"I have made Krrish from my heart because I know he is one superhero who is going to find a permanent place in your hearts," said Rakesh Roshan, the film's director and Hrithik's father.

The father-son team has been an Indian success story -- both with the critics and at the box office.

Hrithik, whose Rambo-like physique and dancing skills make him a hit with young women, attained superstar status with the phenomenal success of his debut film, "Kaho Na...Pyar Hai (Say You Love Me), in 2000.

A string of flops followed, but his father resurrected his career with the blockbuster "Koi...Mil Gaya."

Krrish promises to be even bigger if the slick Web site, http://www.krrishthemovie.com, is anything to go by.

The movie boasts spectacular special effects and -- in true Bollywood fashion -- also some song and dance.

"The response has been mind-blowing," said Tushar Dhingra, chief operating officer of Adlabs Cinemas, a leading chain of multiplexes.

"It's the first time I have seen this kind of advance booking for any film," he said.

The movie premiers on Thursday in Singapore, where much of it was shot.

Link to CNN

Trailer from YouTube