Kites - A Complete Mess

J's (Hrithik Roshan), a Las Vegas based Indian dance instructor, only ambition is to become rich. He marries illegal immigrants for money and doesn't have any qualms about faking love for Gina (Kangana Ranaut), a casino owner's (Kabir Bedi) daughter, who falls for him. But everything flips around when he meets Natasha (Barbra Mori), Gina's to be sister-in-law. J is hopelessly attracted to Natasha, who happens to be Linda, one of the illegal immigrants J married. J and Natasha spend the night before her marriage to Tony (Nick Brown) hanging out together. When Tony catches them in the morning and threatens to kill J, Natasha attacks him and runs off with J. They make a dash for Mexico dodging the police and Tony. As they make a final run J is hit by Tony's bullet and Natasha leaves him. When he finally comes around three months later J starts looking for Linda. Hrithik Roshan and Barbra Mori sizzle in 'Kites'


In the making for over two years Kites was touted to be the film of the year instead it turned out to be one unmitigated disaster. It would be difficult to pinpoint what exactly went wrong with Kites simply because there is hardly anything that felt right about the film. A blatant rehash of Woody Allen's Match Point, the entire first half of the film could have been summarized in a mere 15 minutes. Instead it meanders so much in the first 45 minutes that you lose all interest.


The chemistry between Roshan and Mori has been the conspicuous focus of the film. But does looking at each other endlessly sum up chemistry? Every time the two come face to face, which is almost 90% of the film, everything else simply ceases to exist. To add to the torture every scene between the two seems like the same one played all over again- she talks in Spanish and he just says ‘I don't know'. Seeing Mori and Roshan romance endlessly and yak non-sense in the name of dialogue one can't help but wonder if there was ever a script in the first place.


Acting in Kites ends up being a bad demo tape for all the players where they provide every possible emotion for no real reason. Some times presence works more than performance but Hrithik Roshan was never that kind of an actor. After his turnaround in Koi Mil Gaya this is perhaps the first time that Hrithik Roshan so suffers the lack of a well defined role. Mori is well cast and sheepishly bites her lip every time the camera lingers on her but can someone please tell with three scenes and hardly any lines what was Kangana Ranaut doing in the film?


While in the first half nothing happens, the entire second half operates on the a pattern of chase, talk, action set piece, more talk repeated over and over again. A story, no matter how rudimentary has been the mainstay of Anurag Basu and Rakesh Roshan films and Kites has no story to tell. By the end of it, you hate the Spanish-English chatter, you hate the rugged countryside and you hate just about everything. Kites, no pun intended is at best a kati patang! Try skipping this one; instead fly your own kite.


Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Barbra Mori, Nick Brown, Kabir Bedi and Kangana Ranaut


Story: Rakesh Roshan

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