Hrithik Roshan dazzles in this ET-meets-Superman Bollywood movie.

Bollywood actors rarely get an opportunity to exhibit their acting skills constrained as they are by assinine, repetitive scripts.

In Koi Mil Gaya, which has an offbeat story, Hrithik Roshan brings forth a solid performance that's seldom seen in Bollywood.

Rohit Mehra (Hrithik Roshan) is a mentally handicapped young man, the son of a dead scientist Sanjay Mehra (Rakesh Roshan) and Sonia Mehra (Rekha). Rohit's father had managed to communicate with aliens using a computer he had built before his death in a car accident. A pregnant Sonia survives the accident but the foetus suffers some brain damage.

Fast forward many years.

Although grown-up, the mentally weak Rohit is still studying in the seventh grade and his buddies are a bunch of young kids. Rohit now lives in a pretty hill station Kasauli, where his mother works in a bank.

Into Rohit's life, walks in - or drives up in a jeep to be accurate - a young girl Nisha (Preity Zinta). After the usual initial fights, the two are soon inseparable friends.

One day while fiddling around with his dad's old computer, Rohit and Nisha communicate with extraterrestrial beings using the OM sound.

The aliens soon come visiting but as they hurriedly depart one of them gets left behind.

Rohit and Nisha find the alien in the woods. They quickly befriend the alien and hide it to prevent it from falling into the government's hands.

Rohit and his friends even give the alien an apt name - Jadoo (meaning magic in Hindi).

With its extraordinary powers, Jadoo quickly realizes Rohit's disabilities and not only makes him normal but supernormal. A supercharged Rohit now starts wooing Nisha and teaches his principal tormentor Raj Saxena (Rajat Bedi) a lesson.

The second half drags a bit.

The music in Koi Mil Gaya does not disappoint. The Idhar Chala Mein Udhar Chala song/dance scene in the rain with Hrithik and Preity was handled beautifully and sent us into raptures. Haila Haila was another song that we enjoyed.

As dazzled as we were by Hrithik's powerful performance, we found Preity to be charming too.

Yesteryear charmer Rekha, who delighted audiences in the 70s and 80s with a string of memorable movies, doesn't have a prominent role in Koi Mil Gaya but was a treat to watch, particularly for those of us in the evening of our lives.

For Hrithik, Koi Mil Gaya is his second whopping success after his debut film Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai, which was also directed by papa Rakesh Roshan.

In his days, Rakesh Roshan never achieved the giddy heights of superstardom but was a mere B-grade actor. But he can take vicarious pleasure now in his son's superstardom.

After all, there's even a word - Hrithikmania - to describe the swoon that people go into each time a new Hrithik Roshan movie is released. ... More ... Collapse

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