REVIEW: Kites

FLYING LOW

A post-Kites observation -- Bollywood technicians are far superior to its actors, and actors are far superior to its writers and directors.

A question: Exactly who is Kites for? A large chunk of the film is in English and Spanish, the Spanish bits have English subtitles, so that leaves out many Indian viewers. If it is meant for an international 'crossover' audience, then why would they want to see their own locations and style with a stale story packaged and offered to them, with just a bit of Bollywood garnish?
 

As it often happens with films that have ambitions bigger than capacity of delivery,  Anurag Basu's Kites falls between the two vehicles it tries to ride -- it is neither truly Indian, nor truly international; when you see it as Indian, you are annoyed by the oft-repeated story, and when you see it as international, you are embarrassed by the loudness and melodrama.

 
Nothing is known about the 'hero' except that he is a hustler who wants to get rich quick. He has an odd name J Ray, and is Indian, or maybe half-Indian. If Basu expects the audience to care for him and condone his actions (that involve a huge body count or innocents and stupendous destruction of expensive props), a bit more of a background was essential
 
The Mexican girl Linda (Barbara Mori) is given more of a backstory, and you do end up feeling sorry for what she has to go through because of her poverty and misdirected love.
 
A part of J's hustle is to marry green card seeking women and she is the 11th he marries. Is it that easy to con the US authorities? Let that pass, it is after all a Bollywood film, and hence notoriously contemptuous of logic or authenticity. When he meets her again, she is the fiancee of the nasty son (Nicholas Brown) of Las Vegas casino king (Kabir Bedi), and J himself is dating the daughter (Kangana Ranaut).   
 

He can't take his hungry eyes of her, and they end up on the run with Nick's hoods, cops and bounty hunters after them.  The second half of the film perks up a bit and then falls into a predictable pattern of every moment of reprieve being quickly followed by a tragic one.

 
If it weren't for Hrithik Roshan's traffic-stopping good looks, Barbara Mori's effervescent sex appeal (the much-touted chemistry is very watered down in the Indian version of the film), and Ayananka Bose's painstaking cinematography, the film would be unbearable.
 
Too bad then, with all the effort and expense put into it, Kites simply doesn't soar high enough.  Give up these ridiculous crossover dreams and trying to please goras.. just come back to Mumbai, Bollywood.. we promise not to demand an Oscar... not even a Palme d 'Or or Golden Lion.    

Comments

[Rajeev Agarwal]

Dear Deepa,

As a professional scriptwriter, I strongly object to your statement about the lack of talent among our scriptwriters. Please bear the following in minds before you make such statements:

1. The Bollywood producers have learnt a big lesson from Hollywood in recent years. They have learnt that the writer should produce a complete shooting script for his script to be even considered for a purchase. Gone are the days when writers used to get signed on the strength of a story and turned in into a script while getting paid in installments for their scripts.
However, Hollywood seems to have forgotten to tell the Bollywood producers what kind of money their writers get for their labour - and talent. The biggest of producers in Bombay would often offer a writer Rs. 5 lacs (I am talking of real writers - not the DVD copiers. In fact, they get paid in millions.) - to be paid in installments over three years or so (while the writer is supposed to complete his work BEFORE the beginning of this transaction). And more often than not, a substantial percentage of this money will never reach him.
And on this kind of money, the writers are supposed to produce world class scripts.

2. The writer has no real authority in Bollywood. No matter how good a script a writer comes up with, the director; the producer; his wife; the hero and his make-up man (if not his dog) will form a grand alliance to force him (the writer) to make a hash of it. I only wish that the original scripts of some of the most cricised films of the recent times were available for public perusal. Sh. Uttam Gada had the courage to go public with his grouse because writing films is not his full time profession. the professional script writers can't even do that.

And then the critics mourn the low standards of writing in Hindi cinema. One doesn't know whether to laugh or to cry.

[Deepa Deosthalee]

Dear Rajeev,

Am butting in here to speak on DG's behalf. I think what she's talking of are scripts as seen on screen. There's no doubt in anyone's mind that there are capable script writers who can perhaps change the course of Hindi cinema. But their work rarely shows on screen and that's the collective tragedy of our film industry.

[Deepa Gahlot]

Dear Rajeev,

Point noted... but I was obviously talking of the existing lot, not the vast talent pool waiting to be discovered and given breaks; but producers too mean or cowardly to take risks with new talent, and too niggardly to pay writers their due.

And we know that talent exists, because, in spite of no money and little expsore at the end of it, we have very good play scripts coming up, and world class literature too.