Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Maggie Noodle Review - Kites

Ten years ago Rakesh Roshan launched his son Hrithik in a movie that was tailormade to showcase all the actor's assets. Kaho Naa...Pyar Hai successfully launched a phenomenon. Unlike most other star-sons, Hrithik did have the talent to justify the launch. A few days ago, Hrithik's career was relaunched, this time aimed across the Atlantic with Hollywood firmly in its sights.

Kites is a Hindi movie that tries very hard to be something different, all the while placing Hrithik front and center. The only time the camera even seems to go away from him is to showcase Bárbara Mori, a Mexican actress, in agonizingly long and drawn out slow motion scenes. Hrithik exudes a lot of energy but tries too hard. Odd as this may sound, Hrithik needs to watch a few Sharat Saxena movies before facing the camera again.

Hrithik has worked hard on building a muscular body and spends most of the movie displaying that. The director, Anurag Bose, probably believes in equal opportunity so the heroine is not left behind either. Along the way, however, all of them forgot that eye candy can only take you so far. The storyline is actually a pretty interesting one (not original but interesting) that could have been exploited a lot better. Instead, after a fairly decent first half hour, it degenerates into a loooooooooooong commercial for Hrithik, full of suspense-killing slow motion that telegraphs the plot twists minutes before they should.

It may have helped if the supporting cast featured better actors. I am told that Kangana Ranaut is a good actress but I will have to wait for a different movie to evaluate her. Kabir Bedi is wasted in a small role while the guy that plays his son (I am not interested in trying to find out what his name is) is atrocious. On top of his awful acting, the fellow is saddled with a whole slew of terrible scenes that would make a seasoned actor cringe.

Pardon the pun, but this Kite should have been reeled in a long time ago.

(Memo to Indian movie-makers: If you are going to film scenes in an American setting it would be a good idea to read up on some of the laws and rules of the country before portraying the cops in the movies as being no different than in Hindi movies. This is especially true if your ultimate intended audience is an American one.

Hrithik: Muscular, good-looking guys who are also good dancers are dime a dozen in Hollywood. I would not make that my MO if I were you. You have considerable acting chops. Focus on showcasing that before you lose your shirt. (Forget my note on Sharat Saxena...take a look at Chiranjeevi's first Hindi movie - Pratibandh. For a fellow whose calling card in Telugu movies was his dancing ability, he very smartly chose a strong story to showcase his acting talents and did not have a single dance number in the movie. After Pratibandh became a big hit, he showed his other skills in Aaj Ka Goonda Raj. Now, that was a smarter way of trying to make a first impression).

4 comments:

Leela said...

I was so looking forward to this one but decided to stay away after reading Khalid Muhammed's review (of this film) titled "Phati Patang"!!!

BTW, Kangana is a good actor; watch Fashion

Jaunty Quicksand said...

L, I will look up some Kangana Ranaut movies but I fear it will not be Fashion. Priyanka Chopra's dialogue delivery grates on my nerves and I cannot stand it one bit.

KR was wasted in Kites, literally and figuratively.

Megha said...

Leela,

Tbh, the only thing I have seen KR do is act like a psycho and screech "Baastids!!" (Fashion/Metro/that Parveen Babi one whose name I forget now)...but I gotta admit, I haven't seen Gangster (which is supposed to be one of her good ones...)

JQ,
I'm curious about your Sharat Saxena reference :).

Jaunty Quicksand said...

M,

Hah! The Sharat Saxena explanation is going to be an embarrassing one for me. Serves me right for mentioning it...oh well, here goes:

In the movie "Zulm ki hukumat (I know, I know :-) ) Sharat Saxena plays a goon, a typical role for him. All through the movie he is this tough guy who goes around beating people up. So far, so good. In the climax he has a one-on-one fight with the hero (Govinda). Until then, in the movie Sharat is always fully clothed - in full-sleeves shirts, suspenders, a coat, etc. During the climactic fight, he takes off his shirt and it was a "wow" moment as the audience realized that the fellow is going to be a harder nut to crack. He WAS tough.

Ever since then, anytime I see a hero (*cough*Salman Khan*cough*) show off his muscles right from the start I can't help but think that the mystique of the physique has been under-utilized.

That's all. :-)

Would you believe it...the video is up on youtube? Check it out from the 8:30 mark. (By the way, in the movie, I distinctly remember the scene being longer as Sharat Saxena gets ready for the fight. Here, it appears to have been choppily edited for some reason at the very point that I was trying to make.)

Click on this link to see the youtube video.