Kites

As star vehicles go, Kites is up there with the best – Papa Roshan’s gift to beta Hrithik is this smashing entry into Hollywood - a beautifully photographed love story that tries its best to pose as an epic romance. However, the catchword is ‘tries’ – because beautiful lead actors or superb cinematography cannot salvage a non-existent script. Rakesh Roshan even signed up X-Men 3 director Brett Rattner to make a shorter, sharper version for the international markets – with a running time of 90 minutes instead of the 130 minutes of the Indian version. However I doubt if Rattner’s editing skills can fix Kites’ fatal drawback – an excruciatingly slow and overtly simplistic screenplay.

Which is quite a pity because barring the listless story, Kites is almost unrecognizable as a Bollywood product. Shot extensively in the US (and with some Hollywood technicians, no doubt), Kites feels and looks like a classy Hollywood movie. Especially since there are very few hindi dialogues in the movie – its mainly English and Mexican. Hrithik looks fabulous as usual – and the dancing at the beginning of the movie is breathtaking - though some of his emotional scenes in the climax felt a little wanting. Overall, its a perfect vehicle for him to showcase his toned body, fighting skills & dancing.

But the surprise package of the movie is Barbara Mori. Not only does she look great in bikinis, but she has a glorious smile which brightens the screen. AND, she can act as well. Acting-wise, the movie has everything well covered – except for the guy who plays Tony – he seemed a bit over the top. Kangana Ranaut repeats her psychotic persona from Gangster etc – but she really has just a 2 min appearance.

There is a lot going on for Kites – gorgeous lead pair, decent acting, beautiful locations, fabulous production values, not-too-bad music – everything, except for a good script. What is essentially a two-line story has been stretched into a movie of more than 2 hours – the story moving at a languid pace and nothing seems to happen most of the time. And some scenes keep happening too many times – like the numerous chases and narrow escapes these two have.

The other slight failing of the movie is the lack of a chemistry between Hrithik and Barbara. While they both perform well individually, barring a bathroom scene between the two, they do not evoke the same feeling that other famous romantic movies do – they fail to make you care for their characters. That, combined with the insipid screenplay makes Kites a very middling offering.