Kites (2010)

Instant Favorite.

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Just saw the international remix and thought it was amazing! Years ago I saw the original version and really had negative emotions attached to that one although I can't remember why. I had some conflicting emotions to this one at times but nothing like the original version. Great cinematography, really beautiful!

Jai (Hrithik Roshan) is a dance teacher in Las Vegas, Nevada. As a sideline, he marries immigrant women to get her green cards. When Gina (Kangana Ranaut), the rich daughter of a powerful casino owner Bob (Kabir Bedi), falls for him, Jai goes along to marry into money. He discovers that his future brother-in-law, the vicious, homicidal Tony (Nicholas Brown), is about to marry a Mexican woman named Natasha (Bárbara Mori), whom Jai knows as Linda, the last of the immigrant women he married. On the night before "Natasha" and Tony's wedding, Linda and Jai spend a romantic but chaste night, humorously agreeing to a "divorce". A jealous, gun-wielding Tony arrives at her apartment while Jai is there. After he hits her, Linda impulsively knocks him out with a heavy object while he tussles with Jai. Linda and Jai go on the run toward Mexico, with Tony and police in pursuit.

I have discovered Bollywood movies 2 years ago and I have seen plenty of them (almost quitting western movies !) So I have been used to very long movies, sometimes too long.Reading the reviews, it seems one half have liked Kites, the other half have disliked it. I clearly belong to the first group ! I have been able to see the "Remix" version (by Brett Ratner who is not Mr Nobody) and it is the first time we can see a movie in a Bollywood and a Hollywood version.The Hollywood version is shorter and has canceled few useless "crime" scenes but on contrary has added some intimate scenes at the end of the movie (Linda speaking of her treasury box when she was a child) that comfort me in the feeling the movie is too short : 2 hours and 15 minutes would have been correct compared to Bollywood standard and would have given more density to the love story between Jay and Linda/Natasha.It's a pity (for those who like the movie naturally) and I hope once there will be an extended Bollywood version

Anurag Basu is an awesome director and saying that this film is the worst I have seen from him is actually a compliment because this film was not that bad. It had its moments but I think it suffered from a poor script. The casting was great and the premise of ill-fated lovers never gets old so what went wrong? I'll tell you what wasn't right, too many unbelievable action sequences (though I have to give lead actress Barbara Mori her credit because every one of her action scenes were spot on, especially the bank robbery scene), too many coincidences (the guy at the train station just happens to have a charger that will charge your phone, the guy you carjack happens to speak Hindi and Spanish to cater to both protagonists who are Spanish and Indian, hot air balloons, conveniently placed props to benefit the actors in their action sequences, I mean I could go on and on) ace actors being wasted in the roles (Kabir Bedi, Kangana Renaut) and not to mention one too many flashbacks. Nevertheless, the film was beautiful shot in Las Vegas and parts of Mexico and the underwater scenes as well as the soundtrack were magnificent. I should also point out that I watched the Hollywood remix version (yes the film has two versions) which is shorter than the original and geared towards a Western audience.