Kites- soaring high and dipping low

I have been away from blogging for past few months. Reasons have been many. Just for this time I won’t blame it on work. Because despite truck loads of things to do at work, if I had the will I could have taken out some time to post a new blog. Also, I had no dearth of topics- new novels and movies, lots of political issues that I really wanted to write about, and many a issues about which I had not much idea(like the Greece debt crisis).But somehow the lethargy crept in. And then there was twitter (and FB), where you get instant feedback on your 140 characters, so that instant gratification in a way overtook the desire to write a lengthy blog post (and as such most of the times my blog posts are very verbose). But then again friends asked me why I was not writing anything these days. The fact that at least some people read my blog motivated me to write again. And as a comeback post, nothing could be better than a movie review. (it’s like my area of interest;)

It’s been almost two years that we have been hearing about the movie Kites. After it finally released on 21^st to very disparate reviews, Kites has been soaring high and dipping low across the globe. Some praised it lavishly, others dismissed it as trash. One of my friends even compared it to maha-disasterous Tashan. I didn’t hate the movie, I didn’t love it either. It was okay and watchable. The story of two lovers on the run, who don’t understand each other’s language, makes for a decent viewing. The opening scene in kites would remind you of the movie “kite runner”. And it’s true of most of the scenes in the movie, which look very hollywoodish. My problem was the super hyped chemistry between Mexican mori and greek god. There wasn’t much of it. For starters, barbara is not as beautiful (read HOT) as claimed. Hrithik, He looks absolutely great, like he always does, blessed with the natural good looks and an amazing persona. As far as dance is concerned, well, I would say he has done much better in the past. I used to be a total Hrithik worshipper till some time ago. But in my opinion Hrithik might lose out to the likes of Shahid because his body of work in dance is very limited. Kangna, the girl who is always meant to play those psycho roles, gets a raw deal after her “fashion” ka jalwa performance. She gets harly 5-6 scenes in the movie. Before Kites, Basu, the director has made a very identifiable film named “Life in a metro”. And that emotional connect with the characters is totally missing here. And one of the characters who played kangna’s brother (somebody named Nicholas brown I guess), gives an awful and irritating performance as the villain. The film is shot in style across beautiful barren landscapes. But the slow speed of the film is a dampener of sorts. The songs are average.

Indian audience as such is not adept at reading subtitles, and half the film is in Spanish. The end point is- it doesn’t cater to the traditional bollywood market. It is primarily targeted at western audience with a lot of bollywood glamour and masala thrown in. Like Hrithik said in an interview-“kites is pasta, not biryani”. But that’s what they have tried, adding biryani masala to bland pasta. The end dish is tempting, good to eat in portions, but doesn’t end up to a gourmet experience.

P.S: Don’t feel guilty if you have booked tickets already. It’s fine as one time watch:)