Kisna is a really big film, the kind that hasn't been seen in Bollywood since Lagaan or Asoka, and one can arguably say that it has better period detailing than both those films.

A young Indian, Kisna [Vivek Oberoi], defies his family and brethren and shields a British girl Catherine [Antonia Bernath] from an enraged mob of nationalists. Catherine happens to be the young daughter of a ruthless British Deputy Commissioner [Michael Maloney].

Kisna decides to escort Catherine to the British High Commission in New Delhi, but before that he has to face opposition from his uncle [Amrish Puri], elder brother Shankar [Yashpal Sharma] and a scheming, lusty and power-hungry prince, Raghuraj [Rajat Kapoor].

During this journey, Kisna and Catherine’s friendship blossoms into love, thereby complicating Kisna’s life further. His relations with the girl he is engaged to, Laxmi [Isha Sharvani], are strained in the process...

The film is too long and fails to keep the audience interested. To make matters worse, a number of scenes have been lifted straight out of movies like Titanic, Lagaan and Hey Ram.

Isha Sharvani dances like a dream. She is brilliant, although her character could definitely be stronger. Antonia is cute like Isha, but has a lot more scope to act. She does well too. Vivek Oberoi falls slightly below expectations because there is too much self-confidence in his face for the role, when certain portions need him to restrain his emotions rather than just give a photogenic face. Otherwise, he does well in the role of the warrior poet. Om Puri is wasted. Amrish Puri and Yashpal Sharma do well. Sushmita Sen is lovely although strictly speaking, she wasn’t needed in this film.

Subhash Ghai is back in form after the disastrous Yaadein. Kisna is a well crafted story that is Indian in concept and Western in execution. Also there is lots of exotica.

On the whole, Kisna is a return to form by a director who knows exactly what he's doing.