‘KITES’ – A Review
‘Kites’, I think, is the face of the new global Indian film industry – fast-paced, fast-moving and completely at home on the world stage. From beginning to end, it has the look and feel of a big international film, and moves flawlessly and boldly, from glittering Vegas casinos to raw desert terrain to fabulous mansions.
The story is about J, a handsome, savvy con artist in Las Vegas who also poses as a husband-for-hire for illegal immigrants seeking a Green Card. He meets Linda, a Mexican who speaks little English, that way. The two later connect once again when both are committed to other partners – a wealthy brother and sister from a ruthless casino family – and their attempts to break away and find love together is what keeps ‘Kites’ flying.
The locales are breathtaking, the stars are gorgeous and the cinematography captures it all perfectly. Anurag Basu’s edgy direction and fast paced action keep you thoroughly engaged, and the climatic scene set in a downpour is particularly stunning.
Yet somehow you just don’t connect on an emotional level – your heart is intact as the end credits roll off the screen. While the love angle in some Bollywood movies keeps you aching for days with its intensity, with ‘Kites’ you rarely get involved on that level. To some extent, it is the language barrier – how can two people connect deeply when they can’t even communicate at the most mundane level? It’s fodder for comedy scenes but not for earth-shattering love. Nor was I fully convinced that their attraction is a mad, magnificent obsession – if it was there should have been some sparks when they first met as a fake husband and wife. Each went their own way until they met again, involved with other partners.
Hrithik Roshan carries the movie on his gladiator shoulders – he is India’s best looking actor and a very accomplished one – he’s in almost every frame of the movie and it’s really a pleasure to watch him. Barbara Mori, as Linda, brings freshness to the screen and a raw energy and beauty to many dramatic scenes. Kangana Ranaut is ethereally lovely in the dance sequence but is thoroughly wasted on a role which has not been developed at all.
In fact, I think I’ve finally put my finger on it – these characters don’t have a past, aren’t three-dimensional. In one rare scene where we see Linda’s poverty-stricken family back in Mexico, she immediately becomes flesh and blood and you feel for her and understand why she is in America, ready to take on a marriage of convenience to a rich man she doesn’t love. So a little bit of J’s past would have helped viewers empathize more with him. What makes him so amoral, where did he spring up from?
All said and done, ‘Kites’ is a great way to pass your Sunday but later one remembers the movie as a flash of high adrenalin scenes, of car crashes and helium balloons, and fast action, and the love story is lost in all the surrounding sound. The truth is it seems to be several movies rolled into one – action, comedy, romance and gangsta – and you really don’t know where to direct your emotions. Maybe this is what a desi ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ looks like because Bollywood traditionally has given filmgoers every emotion imaginable – the ‘paisa vasool’ theory.
‘Kites’ brings Bollywood to the global arena with all its melodramatic touchstones but with a technical perfection that can match any Hollywood blockbuster.
And we have yet to see Brett Ratner’s version, ‘Kites Remixed’, to see what Bollywood remixed looks like.
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