Kites

Film: Kites
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Barbara Mori, Kangana Ranaut
Genre: Romance
Direction: Anurag Basu
Duration: 2 hours
Critic's Rating: 2.5 stars


Story: Hrithik Roshan treads the crooked path in the by-lanes of Las Vegas. He has married umpteen girls for the coveted green card and Barbara Mori happens to be one of his abandoned wives. But sparks fly between the two when they meet again, this time under different -- and dangerous -- circumstances. The mercenary couple are all set to marry a rich brother-sister duo (Kangana and Nick Brown) for their money but they soon discover they are in love and flee the rich and powerful siblings who are hell bent on avenging their dishonour. Will love surmount all odds?

Movie Review: Where's the chemistry? Where's the story? And where's the twist in the tale? Kites could have been that cross-over film that Bollywood has been dreaming about since long. Sadly, it flounders even before it can take off and soar....

So what's holding it down? First and foremost, the film completely lacks a story (oops! it has three people credited for story: Anurag Basu, Akash Khurana, Robin Bhatt) and unfolds as an unabashed chase film. Nothing wrong with that, for we have had a number of road movies that have thrilled and chilled us. But for that, there has always been a twist in the tale to provide an edgy feel to the film. Kites, on the other hand, does have Hrithik and Barbara spending the second half of the film as fugitives on the run, but their journey is so predictable, it fills you with a yawn. If the first half is a non-happening prolonged romance that unfolds in stares, glances, looks followed by some more stares, glances and looks between our protagonists (Hrithik and Barbara) as they try and seek out covert moments of togetherness in the palatial house of their respective bethrotheds (Kangana and Nick), the second half is a hit and run case which sees the fugitives hoping to make out 'neath the shadow of the gun. Both Barbara and Hrithik decide to give up their get-rich-quick plans and opt for penniless love instead, even though they know they will be pursued till the end of the world by the ditched brother-sister duo.

But hey, do they make out? Not really, unless you call Barbara yakking relentlessly in Spanish as sexy or Hrithik stitching up her arm beneath the rocks as romantic. Which brings us to the chemistry bit....Quite unlike the pre-release claims, the Mexican-Indian mix isn't exactly red hot chilli pepper stuff. Their romance hardly sizzles, with Mori spending most of her time flashing toothy grins and Hrithik failing to match up to his hot-hot bonding with Aishwarya Rai in Dhoom 11. Even the waterfall sequence in the jungle ends up as ekdum thanda!

So what works in Kites? It's the look of the film which carries it forward. Director Anurag Basu may have dipped in the emotional quotient of the film but he does create a visual feel and texture that has an international feel to it. The cinematography by Ayananka Bose has a grand texture and creates compelling montages, specially in the rain-drenched climax sequence. Performance-wise, the lead actors are just adequate and do not exactly set the screen ablaze, neither with their emotions nor with their passion. One almost feels sorry for Kangana, a fine actor who is reduced to a speechless accessory that is left to do what Hrithik and Barbara do -- stare, glance, look as the woman scorned -- for the short span that she's on. The audio track by Rajesh Roshan doesn't linger too, because the film mostly has a loud, repetitive background score by Salim-Suleiman interspersed with maybe just one forgettable number.

Watch Kites for its kool looks. But don't expect the popcorn to remain crunchy for long.