May 21, 2010 02:27 PM
1588 Views
(Updated May 22, 2010 05:20 PM)
A film is a kite which gives a colourful vision to audience, tied on a story. Like in kite, if it not connected by a strong enough thread it cannot reach to the higher sky of audience's mind. For a kite, the thread is not a chain but its life.
For love, language is not a barrier. Even if you say, 'you are a monkey' with love, that can pass the message and feeling. Kites tell a story of two poor people who marry in 'fraud' but start loving in 'real'. Language was a hurdle when they were in need, but greed takes a smooth entry to their individual dreams and the exit was not that easy.
Best thing first. Kite is one of the beautifully shot bollywood films. No doubt on that. There have breathtaking and fascinating scenes which can take audience for a trance in its beauty. The producer/director deserve applauds for giving birth to such beautiful moments for bollywood.
Next best thing is the special moments created in the film. There are some funny moments and romantic moments which will remain in audience mind for long. Let it be 'Linda/Natasha giving her coat and bra for 42 dollar debt, or asking a million dollar from the bank or says 'you seduce me'. The funny moments sticks. There are some beautiful romantic moments between Linda/Natasha. Even though we don't understand a word at times, they are beautiful. The dance scene (Hritik/Kangna) was breathtaking.
Hrithik Roshan is the saving grace of Kites. His presence added a lot of value to the movie. Hrithik's performance is very good. At times one may feel the character is been over acted but then, it may be that I didn't conceive the moments in its full depth. Barbara Mori makes a beautiful entry to bollywood and man, she rocks! Nicholas Brown impress. Other characters, all including Kangna didn't have anything to do in the film and they simply appeared and disappeared as asked.
It is not an easy task to make a bilingual love story; that too in the absence of translators. Director of Kites needs special applauds on making this huge task and succeeding to a great extend. He indeed succeeds in rendering the feeling of love breaking the language barriers. However, have to agree that by depending much on english the film lost its 'bollywoodness' to a great extend.
The Kite however is not flying so high because:
The thread which connects all the beautiful scenes in a movie is the story. This kite lacks its tail, i.e. a tale. Whatever the story is there is not convincing and forced. The writer(s) took lot of convenience for granted and the result is all those beautiful moments become meaningless. Beautiful moments need the gum of emotions to stick to the minds of audience. Sadly, for Kites, that doesn't happen. Any director's first duty is to visualise the story as a film. Here, the director failed to see that there is no story.
The hero & heroine lack character or reason. The hero was a fraud and so was the heroine. Then, when things are moving on their way, they turns saints overnight is too much to digest. More was confusion with the sub casts. Let it be the billionaire casino owner happily agree to marry his two children to two frauds, or the daughter who push her way to the fraud's house and beg for love or the son chase all the way to Mexico to hunt down a cheat by paying millions.
Another problem is that the writer/director was undecided of the genre of the movie; whether they want to produce a romantic movie, comedy movie or an action movie. It was mix of all but could not give importance to one. Also, the art v/s commercial element also shows projected difference, especially in the climax. What was that, the director gone for an artistic attempt in an otherwise commercially treated film? The subject had huge potential to work as a good romantic movie if they had reduced the external elements to minimum and focus on the language barrier/culture. It had huge potential as a comedy, if the second half was of any example. It could have been a better action film if they focused on that front. As of now, it becomes a mix of all but heart of none.
Editing looks wonderful for scenes but as a film, I fear in the name of internationalising, the editor has taken too much liberty and cut away important moments from the film. It is visible.
Songs are ok and choreography is good.
The movie is a visual treat for its good locations, excellent cinematography and some extra brilliant moments. It lacks a soul to relate, reason for characters and above all, a story.
This is a very beautiful kite, but sadly it goes out of the child's hand.
