Another ‘Kites’ Film Review

Kites is a Bollywood film in Hollywood packaging.

Jai and Linda are star-crossed lovers. Jai, played by Hrithik Roshan, is a carefree Vegas native looking for his “Laxmi” or lady luck to free him of his schemes and “poverty.” Insert, head over heels in love, Gina (Kangana Ranaut), daughter of casino owner and all together gangster, Bob (Kabir Bedi). When Jai is re-introduced to Linda, played by Barbara Mori, as Tony’s (Nicholas Brown) fiancée Natasha, the action packed race for love begins.

What sets Kites apart as an international film is the unique condition of Jai and Natasha’s love: She doesn’t know any English and he doesn’t know any Spanish, so how do they fall in love? Anurag Basu played with the moments of communication well enough that not knowing either language is never really a barrier of the film for his characters or the audience. The moments between the star-crossed lovers present a unique dearth of dialog through which director Basu’s stoic style shines.

Unfortunately some of these moments are lost to over powering clichéd moments with the background score of the film. Luckily enough for the Hollywood audience the song and dance is muted, to a degree (although if you are really interested in a version without any song and dance you might want to hold out to watch “The Remix”). It doesn’t seem like the same attention was delivered in the background score, albeit beautiful, it gives away moments of the film before they come to fruition.

Mori’s climatic scenes are perhaps her best while Roshan’s best are definitely his first and final. Roshan brings the progress of the character to life within these almost distinct characteristic moments. However Ranaut tops both in her few scenes, especially in the climax of the film. Which distinctly presents the major problem with the film, why is Gina’s character so stinted and Tony’s do loud?
So Kites has love, music, and Action! The chase sequences make up about half the film, most of which are pretty farfetched. If you try to make any sense out of those moments all the holes in the film start to present themselves. But if you just enjoy the pumped up action Kites is a fun way to kick start a summer at the movies. It has its fair share or romance, comedy, and action that is sure to be a good time.