Mori & Hrithik help 'Kites' stay afloat.

Grade: C+

Kites

Indian Release Date: 21/05/10
CBFC Classification:  U/A
Running Length: 2 Hours 05 Minutes

Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Barbara Mori, Nick Brown, Kabir Bedi, Kangana Ranaut, Yuri Suri   
Director: Anurag Basu
Screenplay: Akash Khurana, Anurag Basu & Robin Bhatt
Cinematography: Ayananka Bose
Music: Rajesh Roshan

Enough money has been thrown at ‘Kites’ to feed the entire population of a poor country. It is yet another attempt by Bollywood to gain entry into that elusive territory outside India, the rest of the world. It’s the makers way of screaming out, arms flaying “Hey look here, no songs & dance routine, no elephants, no snakes, no lavish weddings (Indian style) blah blah blah” plus with Big Pictures foray into Hollywood, it’s but natural that they’d try and push their lavish flagship into unchartered waters on both ends of the earth.

So how does it sail or fly as kites go?

Surprisingly not too shabbily!

Yes, the movie is drenched in clichés & even at a running length of round about two hours still feels longer with its uneven crime-pulp & soap-opera mish-mash. But it’s pure good old home cooked masala with a strong layer of foreign dressing in manner that doesn’t watch to make you throw up right away.

Jai (Hrithik Roshan) is a small-time conman with a ‘heart of gold’ (the types you find only in movies) living in Las Vegas. He tries to pull off every trick under the sun to get rich as soon as he can, right from conning bartenders to marrying illegal immigrants for them to gain a green card. His luck changes for the better when a rich heiress, Gina (Kangana Ranaut), falls head over heels for him. He’s in for the money & starts to reciprocate her feelings & within no time is in the good books of her father, Bob (Kabir Bedi). While attending Gina’s brother, Tony’s (Nick Brown), engagement, he notices Natasha/Linda (Barbara Mori), who is Tony’s fiancé. Both are essentially gold-diggers but somehow find true love with each other, even if they can’t understand what each other are saying most of the time (he speaks Hindi & English while she can only speak Spanish). This leads to more than just lingual complications. Soon enough the two lovers are on the run to essentially nowhere & Tony along with his goons & the cops are hot on their trail. So what will be the culmination of their love story? The answer might surprise you.

The narrative cuts back & forth between the past & the present. This kept me in the loop for a while guessing the fate of the characters, but predominantly most of the movie occurs in lengthy flashbacks. The plot wavers aimlessly after the initial half hour but the resin that somehow holds the movie together is the chemistry between Hrithik Roshan & Barbara Mori. The chemistry is less due to the writing but thanks more to the natural charisma they seem to display & in some of the playfully light scenes aren’t afraid to make a complete fool of themselves; having near perfect bodies which neither is afraid to flaunt endlessly doesn’t hurt either. The lingual barrier is played for laughs a few times but mostly Basu uses it to remind us of another ages old cliché bout love being deep & blind & all. I can’t complain about Mori since she does put up a sincere performance & has a very expressive face, especially her fetching eyes. Hrithik on the other hand is playing a variant of himself which is not a bad thing since he maintains a subdued natural demeanor, though he seems to overact at times trying to show intensity.

Kangana has nothing but a glorified cameo & so does Kabir Bedi who completely disappears after a point. Nick Brown on the other hand has a large role but hardly comes across as menacing or even remotely threatening & this is something ‘Kites’ sorely lacks, a credible villain. Something any self-respecting masala movie should never go without.

No expense has been spared for the movie & it shows on screen. The saturated & slick cinematography goes a long way in providing a sheen that makes the movie look very attractive. Some of the barren terrain covered looks absolutely ravishing. Though I have to say the slow-mo shots become a one-trick pony pretty quickly. The same however cannot be said of the action sequences, they are limp beyond belief. Basu has little or no idea of how to stage an action sequence & all of them look like reruns of stuff you might have seen twenty years back; which kind of reminded me of all those Rajiv Rai flicks from the 80s like ‘Tridev’ & “Vishwatma’ with their sniggering Indian-foreign villains & over-the-top car chases.

The makers have pilfered from a dozen Hollywood movies, be it, ‘Match Point’ (2005), ‘Revenge’ (1990), ‘Road to Perdition’ (2002), ‘Bad Boys’ (2002), ‘Step Up’ (2006), ‘The Getaway’ (1972), ‘Thelma & Louise’ (1991), etc. Even the iconic background theme (which actually sounds pretty good) that keeps on playing again & again sounds suspiciously like Arwen’s love theme from ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring’ (2001). But this isn’t much of concern is it, these things keep on happening. Funnily Kevin Costner’s name in ‘Revenge’ (1990) was Jay & Hrithik’s in ‘Kites’ is Jai.

One of the good parts of the movie was the fact that for a Hindi movie most of the foreigners spoke their native languages & not all foreigners were Indians. Though I have to say I had a difficult time believing Kabir Bedi to be a casino owner. This could also turn out to be a bane for the film since the English subtitles limit it’s popular reach with the “aam janta’. The songs are utterly forgettable; though there isn’t any running around trees or synchronized background dancers.

‘Kites’ is overall a very slickly made Bollywood product that survives strictly on the chemistry between the two leads, some brilliant cinematography & a wonderful background score. However it sacrifices a cohesive plot & character development plus the lax action sequences & heaps upon heaps of clichés do not help matters. Now if only Hrithik Roshan had actually sent the writer on a real holiday & not to his nearest DVD library, maybe things would have been different.

Final Verdict: ‘Kites’ doesn’t quite soar but doesn’t land flat on its face either; maybe worth a watch once.

Grade: C+   

 

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