Kites – Movie Review

The movie Kites makes for a seriously underwhelming cinematic experience. Despite the non favorable reviews I had gone in to see the movie with lot of expectations, particularly as Kites was being released 2 years after Hrithik Roshan’s last major film. The movie apparently has been two years in the making, but I wish the director Anurag Basu had spent some more time on the script of the movie. The script of the movie is cranky to say the least with lines like “long legs, the stairway to heaven” and the characterization of the support cast hackneyed with Kabir Bedi and Nick Brown wearing permanent scowls on their faces and shooting people with gay abandon.

The story of the movie is simple enough; J, played by Hrithik is a salsa dance teacher in Las Vegas who also marries illegal immigrants for money to enable them to get US citizenships. He is always on the look for the big chance in life and gets it when Gina (played Kangana Ranaut) the daughter of millionaire casino owner and bad man Bob (Kabir Bedi) falls in love with him. J gets involved with Gina for money but realizes that his true love in life is Linda (Barbara Mori, who else) who like J has got engaged for money to Gina’s brother, Tony (Nick Brown). J and Linda run away and the rest of the movie is about Tony and the police trying to hunt them down through the deserts of Arizona and New Mexico.

There are moments in the movie that keep your interest going like Hrithik’s dance sequences which sadly is restricted to the first 10/15 minutes of the movie, but sadly they are few and far between . The chemistry between the lead pair, Hrithik and Barbara Mori is sizzling to say the least and there are couple of delightful scenes when they try to communicate with each other across the language barrier (the girl is Spanish and speaks very little English while the guy does not know any Spanish) or when the play with shadows of their hands on a wall. But such moments are punctuated by the return of Tony with an irritating regularity to growl and kill or hit out at innocent people or trying to feel up Barbara Mori. The action sequences are good but nothing to write home about and the cinematography while being good has a distinct feel of being copied from other Hollywood movies. At the end of the day, Hrithik and Barbara Mori are the only two good things happening in this movie. The support cast leaves a lot to be desired and Kangana Ranaut has little to do except display her histrionics a few times and there is also the character of the selfless friend who dies for the cause of true love thrown in for good measure in the mix of things.

Overall this movie works as a Rakesh Roshan movie which gives Hrithik the vehicle to make an entry into Hollywood but if you are not a Hrithik fan, then the movie is definitely one to give a miss.