Photo Courtesy: Kites - Official website
NEW YORK: It had all the trappings: the red carpet, the fawning crowds, popcorn and soda and the hero – Hrithik Roshan and heroine, Barbara Mori a Bollywood debutante. It was the premiere of Kites at a Times Square cinema hall last Sunday and after a late arrival for the event by an hour, the duo and Rakesh Roshan, producer and director Anurag Basu spoke briefly.
Said Hrithik, “After 2-1/2 years, this is it: we offer you Kites in 2 hours” – 130 minutes to be precise. Though earlier media reports speculated that Barbara may not be able to handle speaking in English she did so with panache.
Launched on Friday, May 21 on 1,800 cinema screens in India and over 500 screens overseas, the film produced by Rakesh Roshan and distributed by Reliance BIG Pictures (Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group) is reportedly the biggest ever global Indian release. Directed by Anurag Basu who made Gangster, the international cut was edited by Brett Ratner (Red Dragon).
A well-planned and executed film, Kites is fast-paced and delightfully unpredictable. One wonders if it’s a love story with action or an action film with amorous scenes featuring Hrithik, the handsome hunk and Barbara, the Uruguan-born, now Mexican-domiciled charmer.
Considered a conman who lives by his wits, Jai (Hrithik) marries girls who are “illegals” to make them legit. One of the girls he marries is Natasha (Barbara). Jai feels the pang of emotion and love when he suddenly notices Natasha in an under-water scene that qualifies as a “Eureka” moment. Regrettably she is already betrothed to Tony, son of a Las Vegas casino owner, played by Kabir Bedi. “Everyone in Vegas calls me Bob,” declares Bedi.
Tony (Australian Nick Brown) supplies the muscle for Kites and after he realizes that Barbara is actually interested in Jai, the chases and shootings begin, the toppling of vehicles from rigs when in motion and desperate, incredible acts of bravado follow. There is so much shooting that I wondered if I had wandered into an episode of the 1954 classic Vera Cruz with Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster.
In the interim, Gina (Kangana Ranaut) who has been learning the salsa dance from Jai is mad with him for spurning her and makes clear her intentions that what she wants she gets thanks to her powerful and influential dad who is capable of fixing anything including Jai’s future, and perhaps his face.
At one-on-one interviews, Rakesh Roshan was upbeat that for the first time, an international version of Kites is being released simultaneously. The International version runs for 90 minutes without songs or dance and this version is expected to be “racier, edgier and spunkier”.
To a query why he picked Anurag for directing Kites, Rakesh Roshan said, “I loved Anurag’s work in Gangster and was keen on his working on a larger project with Hrithik. “Why pick Barbara Mori” was the next question. Rakesh Roshan said: “I was inspired by her role in the 2005 Spanish film, La mujer de mi hermano (My Brother’s Wife) and interestingly, when Barbara first read the Kites script she hadn’t known how to speak English.”
About why she chose to work on the film, Barbara said, “the script and the story; I was touched by the beautiful story between two human beings who fall in love even though they don’t speak the same language; it touched my heart and it was honest.”
For a 36-year-old, Hrithik Roshan seemed to turn philosopher early. He waxed eloquent about why he took on certain roles even if the film industry thought he shouldn’t from an image standpoint. In a refreshingly candid response, Hrithik said, “my career is not about Hollywood or Bollywood. I am an actor. If that takes me to a Chinese film, I’ll do a Chinese film. I am looking for something that reflects that side of me. If I can find a vehicle where I can vent some emotion, something that has touched me in my life, and I want to give it expression, or if I identify with the sensitivity of the language of a film, I’ll take that up, and try to explore my talent and my work, my art.”
Basu explained how kites became the metaphor for the film: Kites fly high against but not with the wind, and higher the wind, higher the flight. “I normally use a metaphor when writing, and the more the obstacles the couple faced, their love became stronger.”
Shot completely on location in Las Vegas, Sante Fe, New Mexico and Los Angeles, Hrithik said, “both of us did 90% of the stunt scenes.” To a question on why he continued to do actual dangerous scenes when he was recovering after knee surgery, the star spoke glowingly about “being honest to one’s craft” and calling. “I consider myself a slave to the vision in the head. If I can see it in my head then I have to work to make it happen, and that’s what life is about.”
Rajesh Roshan composed the music and Nasir Faraaz and Asif Ali Beg wrote the lyrics.
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[Raj S. Rangarajan is a New York based freelance writer. He covers trend stories on art, reviews books and films for media based in New York; Toronto, Canada; Seoul, Republic of Korea; and India. He can be reached at raj.rangarajan@gmail.com]
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