KITES - Movie Review : Once again a big movie plays with the viewer's precious time and money. (Review By Bobby Sing)

The promos were shaky, the music was not picking up and thus the doubts were there before the release of Anurag Basu’s mega venture KITES. Still, the expectations were steep high from this most awaited movie of the year due to its quality international look and the in-news affair between Hrithik and Barbara Mori. But after spending two hours in the theater with this gorgeous couple, I was once again feeling sorry for all those faithful fans, who unconditionally  devote their non-demanding love, time and money to their favourite stars and in return get such unentertaining, weak and script-less movies to watch.

Frankly speaking, I also had my own doubts for KITES, but never did I expect such unconvincing, feeble and non-interesting project coming from the house of Filmkraft productions lead by the midas man Rakesh Roshan. How could he even approve of such spineless film with Hrithik Roshan at this crucial time of his career, when all the other major stars of Bollywood are coming up with consistent hits in the recent years.

For me, KITES is a big disaster from the very word Go, cause it simply fails to take you in and entertain. To be specific, there is not even one scene in the whole movie which impresses you or stays with you while walking out of the theater. It starts with a shocking scene where Hrithik is shown badly injured and then goes into the flashback explaining the reason about his current state. First he is shown as a selfish brat, who starts romancing Kangna Ranaut only because she is the daughter of a big Casino Owner Kabir Bedi. And later he finds his true love in a Mexican Girl who majorly speaks Spanish and is also wishing to make it big in Las Vegas.

Theme-wise KITES is a die-hard romantic movie, but that’s only the weakest department of the film because the romance shown on the celluloid, completely fails to impress or touch the viewer’s heart. Actually a romantic movie works only when the audiences also fall in love with the loving pair, playing their innocent games on the screen. But here, neither the Hrithik-Kangna romance, nor the Hrithik-Barbara love angle makes you feel for the couple suffering in all those painful situations. Somehow the characters in the storyline are not able to relate with the audiences and till the end they keep on functioning as some alien people playing their assigned part in the script. Not even once the movie makes you sit straight or feel the emotion with your eyes filled with tears. And if a romantic movie cannot generate such kind of impact among its viewers then it surely is a failure for everyone associated with it, right from its director to all the actors and script writers.

KITES is no doubt a costly venture, shot entirely in foreign outdoor locations with beautiful unseen landscapes captured magnificently by the Cinematographer. It has some high quality action sequences too which are at par with the Hollywood standards. And along with that it has the Greek God of Bollywood romancing a charming Spanish actress Barbara Mori who has also given some hot steamy scenes with Hrithik in the movie.

But here the million dollar question is that, “Is this what a common man is looking for in one of the most awaited movies of the year? Isn’t it a responsibility of the makers to entertain us along with these additional added elements in the script? Do we visit the theater only to see some new foreign locations and few good action scenes on the screen or we are there seated in the hall, simply to get entertained and forget our other worries of the life”. I think we are sure there to get entertained and that’s where KITES fails miserably.

The director’s overuse of the Spanish language (with Hindi Subtitles) remains the most irritating factors of the movie along with its same old routine kind of storyline which has nothing new to offer till the climax. Music, which always used to be a strong ace in all Filmkraft productions movies, is not that impressive if compared to Rajesh Roshan’s previous works. The songs are not able to strike the right connect with the audience in absence of some interesting proceedings happening on the screen. Moreover, the film appears to be too long, even in its short duration of around 2 hours.

Performance wise, Hrithik is fine but he is not able to make a relation with his viewers mainly because both his romances with Barbara and Kangna appear to be flat without any depth. His act doesn’t have any novelty which used to be a key feature of his every new movie. But he simply excels in his last scene crying at the hill top. Barbara Mori looks stunning, but again fails to create an emotional aura around her simple act. Also her Spanish dialogues after a while turn intolerable. Kangana Ranaut is simply wasted and I couldn’t understand what forced her to sign this movie for such an unimportant character. Now I also get it, why she was not used in the film’s promotional campaign? Kabir Bedi, Nick Brown and Yuri Suri are strictly routine.  

Looking at the track record of Hrithik Roshan, Rakesh Roshan and Anurag Basu, a very polished, well worked upon and entertaining movie was being expected from the trio. But sadly, I have to admit here, that KITES falls way short of what was being projected by the Roshans. And since they are also releasing this movie in the West in English, so it seems that they may have made this venture only to launch Hrithik Roshan in that part of the world as a leading man with foreign looks.

If that was the real intention behind making “KITES”, then I would only like to say that be it West, East or anyplace else, movies are meant to provide Entertainment along with their other added flavors. If you fail to entertain your own Indian audiences then you can never be successful in entertaining the viewers residing in any other part of the world.    

In short, KITES is unexpectedly a forgettable venture from Filmkrafts productions and Hrithik Roshan. It’s once again a proven example of how big projects play with their viewer’s precious time and money. Comparing it to some of the recent famous big disasters, it looks like Hrithik Roshan has jumped onto Akshay Kumar’s path.

Rating : 1.5 / 5