Kites - as good as the publicity promised.....

Ok....I am just back from the first-day show of Kites....And what a movie !!! Worth every penny spent,in fact only within the first 15 minutes of the movie I proclaimed that all the money spent on the movie was worth it...u see,Hrithik danced an awesome bone-less dance on the Fire track...if the clapping and the catcalls and the whistles from the 'decent' crowd was any indication,the movie was already a superhit in its first 15 mins...And trust me,every woman in the hall who watched the movie today,whether a school girl,a college teen,a young woman,newly-wed,young mom or middle-aged aunty,everyone was lusting after Hrithik in the hall,we all had our eyes on him,literally,and clapped with his every move.....not a stir in the crowd whenever he was on the screen..I have never seen such strong devotion in any other movie yet...I wonder how much he will be hiccuping in the coming few days.. ;)

Cast: Hrithik Roshan(J), Barbara Mori(Natasha/Linda), Kangana Ranaut(Gina), Kabir Bedi(Bob Grover), Nicholas Brown(Tony), Anand Tiwari(Robin), Yuri(Jalaan).
Director: Anurag Basu
Producer:Rakesh Roshan
Music Director:Rajesh Roshan

Plot: J is a LA-based hustler who is looking to make some quick bucks,waiting to hit the jackpot. He teaches dance in the day and sells pirated DVDs and does other odd jobs, and for a fee, marries illegal immigrants who are desperate for a green card to the US. His best buddy is Robin.Gina is one of his students who is besotted with him and one day lands up in his apartment professing his love,which only freaks out J and he throws her out. But when she goes away in her limo,he realises what a chance he has lost,and without wasting any more time,he gets back to winning her affection. Gina is the daughter of Bob,who is a casino-owner in LA and soon J is a part of the big rich family. Though he has no love for Gina,he is happy that life is finally smiling up at him... And just as everything seems perfect and things cannot get any better, in comes the twist and everything turns upside down.

The first word that comes to mind when you watch this movie is 'WOW'..and there are many reasons and occasions for that.

1. The movie is beautiful in the way it has been shot. It flits between time, the past,present and the in-between have been shown in such a way that they all merge perfectly with each other and do not create a confusion in the viewer's mind.An event in 'then' is perfectly synced with the event that is happening 'now'. The largest share of credit for the movie's superhit status has to go to Hrithik and Hrithik alone. Be it his superb dancing skills,his super-toned-and-tanned body,his expression,his smile,his stunts,the way he emoted with his eyes,the cute little things that he does and which actually elicited 'wow' and 'so cute' from even the middle-aged aunties... it all goes to him..He is THE ULTIMATE in this movie....

2. The movie is exotic. Maybe it is the exotic Spanish dialect that makes it so,but it clearly gives KITES a really international feel. Not only the dialect and accent,and you simply cannot miss skipping a heartbeat when Hrithik speaks in Spanish!!! but also the fact that a lot of the movie has been shot in Mexican landscapes and we get to see a realistic 'sprinkling' of cowboys in the movie... It lends a whole new exotic and westernised feel to the movie.

3. The music is beautiful and soothing and meaningful and has a mix of romantic and peppy dance numbers. Once again,you could feel how much the audience loved the movie when they were singing along with the songs and nodding and moving their bodies to the dance numbers.

4. The cinematography is mind-blowing. If you have the eye of a photographer,watch this movie for its sheer capturing of landscapes and shades. Be it the rugged plains or the dessert or the hills or the dusty roads,there was beauty everywhere. In one of the fight scenes that was shot in pouring rain,you could actually see each and every drop of rain as clearly as if it was not pouring heavily but had been captured in time just for you. The water jerking off the head,the rain drop falling,the rain on the eyelashes.. everything came out in such detail that I couldn't but help giving it a special mention here.

5. Every scene was well thought and shot.. when the characters were stuck in the dry dessert,their lips actually were shown cracked and caked with dust,the hair was matte and their skin,even the lady's,was patchy and dry. This would never have been the case if it was an out-n-out Bollywood movie... our heroine would have had her mascara and her blush and her lipstick in place no matter what...

6. Barbara Mori is,yes,for the guys very very hot,I found her to be extremely cute. Of course she has a figure to die for and her accent was so exotic. Lovely. And even when she was covered in dust and blood she managed to look most beautiful in that earthy way,if you know what I mean.

7. Kabir Bedi had a charismatic personality as always,the typical one that comes with a casanova-image....a ladies' man (no pun intended).

8. Nicholas Brown(I hope I got the name right)who plays the villain has done a great job.

9. Yuri was to-the-point as always and it was a joy to see him again.

10.The one sore point of the movie was.....yes...our own Miss Kangana Ranaut. Seriously,whats with her and the psycho roles... though she does a fantastic and most natural job of it and maybe thats why she is every director's first choice when they think of someone to play a psycho.. One more thing.. she CANNOT dance.. and that too paired with HRITHIK??? What were the creators thinking? Remember I mentioned the FIRE song in the first 15 mins when Hrithik danced so amazingly as if he has no bones in his body? Poor Kangana was his partner in the same.. All she had to do and could eventually do was come dressed in an almost-non-existent skirt that amply showed off her under-things and the chunky thighs and she just moved her hands and head left-right-left-right... and was picked up in the air by Hrithik a couple of times (WOW!!!!).. that's all the credit she can take for the movie.. that and a few more scenes where she has to show her legs all the way to ...... In one of the last scenes she turns to being her true psycho self... she sits at the dinner table with a spoon in hand and looks at her image in the inverted spoon. It seems as if her spirit or ghost will just jump out of the spoon any moment... Kangana Ranaut is the only sore point in the movie and very wisely has hardly any role to play... can be totally ignored...

11. And one of the sweetest thing about the movie is the way Hrithik and Barbara have connected. Despite language barriers,one cant speak Spanish and the other cant speak English,Hrithik manages to come up with sweet little gestures and acts that help them communicate... Truly sweet and a refreshing change.

Kites is a refreshing movie in a time when movies like Paathshaala and Housefull have made us stay away from the movie hall..... Thanks to Hrithik again... ya I HAD to mention him again... maybe it will fade off from my mind a little in the next few months....

Though I see many people are condemning the movie just because they have seen this kind of a plot before, it is really unfair to draw comparisons here with other movies. Kites has been made on a totally different level and in a totally new and experimental way.As with any new thing,there are ’takers’ and then there are those who have to criticise it simply because it does not follow the set patterns that they are so used to...But that is their loss..

Go with an open mind, not one that has already been cluttered with pre-judged ideas about the movie.... Watch it with no strings attached and you will come back happy. Watch it with a set pattern and a yearn for a 'stereotype' in mind and you will be sorely disappointed... If you are the kind who likes the nonsensical KJo movies and the SRK ones, please stay home.... Kites has many fans already and not having someone in the audience who has the mind to understand this 'offering' will actually be a big help to the movie......

VERDICT: GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO WATCH IT RIGHT NOW.....