If you are familiar with Anurag Basu’s drama of desperate passion (Gangster, Life In A Metro) you’d know that this sensitive filmmaker knows how to slice through the moral fibre of contemporary relationships to arrive at the core truth of human existence. Everyone lives for him or herself. But if a like-minded soul#mate shows up, you don’t mind losing your isolated individualism to include another entity in your universe of self-absorption.
The two handsome human beings in Kites who love each other start off on an entirely materialistic platform. Early in the film, when Jai (Hrithik Roshan) runs into Linda (Barbara Mori) in entirely unromantic circumstances, you know these two desperate souls will make a run for love even if it means losing their lives.
Basu’s finely written film walks a very delicate line between a romance and a crime-caper. If the first quarter of this handsomely evocative drama echoes Woody Allen’s Matchpoint, the rest of the high-octane adventure saga pays a nudging tribute to Arthur Penn’s Bonnie & Clyde.
To the film’s credit, the couple’s desperate passion is never represented through scene after scene of torrid love scenes. The kisses are furtive, feeling, and fleeting. Hrithik is the kind of actor who can express urgent passion with the narrowing of his eyes and the clenching of his jaws. In this strangely uncharted film about lovers on the run, Hrithik creates quite a tangible graph for his character, who starts off as a self-serving green-card hungry ogre and then rapidly moves into the embrace of desperate passion for a woman who is engaged to marry into a very dangerous family.
The crisscross of commitments and relationships is achieved in an easygoing sweep of drama and crime. The rest is taken care off by heart-in-the-mouth car chase sequences and stunts that seem to be done with an expertise uncommon to Hindi cinema.
Plenty has been said and written about the chemistry, or the lack of it, between the fugitive lovers. However, looking at a couple for sexual compatibility in a film that seeks to champion empathy and companionship during times of screeching tyres and sanguinary stress is somewhat silly and unjust.
Perhaps if the couple had lived to have children, they had promised each other, we’d have seen the sexual frisson. Not this time. Not here. Director Basu has carved the two lovers’ individual death sequences in a fusion celebrating an operatic self-annihilation. Hrithik’s plunge to death reminded me of Kangna Ranaut’s steep fall into death in Anurag Basu’s Gangster. Death becomes the drama.
Ayananka Bose’s cinematography is, at times, too flashy to underline the protagonist’s passion as seen in the bustle of hedonism. Akiv Ali’s editing, especially of the final 20 minutes, is evocative and energetic, making words unnecessary, as the lovers are fluent in two different languages that are incomprehensible to one another.
You wish there was more time for the lovers to get to know each other, and for us to watch them grow within each other’s space. Kites does not allow its protagonists or the audience the luxury of familiarity. Hrithik and Barbara are gone out of sight before we fully absorb or even observe their mutual passion.
And yet! The stolen moments between the pair linger long after the deathly denouement. That longish sequence where Hrithik and Barbara, engaged to marry for money, show off their luxury goods to each other underlines the inherent emptiness of a life lived for materialism.
The writing is as clever as the looks and lines that the lovers exchange. Barbara and Hrithik take care of the rest. As said earlier, Hrithik carves out a charted course for his character. He is in exceptional shape every which way. Barbara looks somewhat more mature than Hrithik in some scenes. But her vivacity and natural ability to grasp the essence of human bonding makes us forget the age factor.
Shot in the most eye-catching casinos of Las Vegas and the toasted-brown deserts of Mexico, Kites is a minor feast for the senses. Yes, it has its over-cute, annoying interactive moments. But these pass quickly. And we are left with a feeling of having witnessed an exhilarating excursion into a terrain where the heart meets an intersection and swerves dangerously into a self-destructive zone.
Love never seemed more dangerous or worth the risk.
When the Spanish beauty Barbara Mori agreed to star in Kites, the flop film’s producer Rakesh Roshan and leading man Hrithik Roshan raved about Ms Mori being the Next Best Thing.
The film proved a huge embarrassment for all concerned. Barbara left India, promising to return with many big Bollywood projects. We are still waiting.
Hrithik’s embarrassingly close relationship with his Mexican co-star of Kites, were been laid to rest with the Filmistan’s resident stud taking a London vacation with his then wife Sussanne and sons.
To no avail. Hrithik was, of course, aware of all that had been said and written about his relationship with Ms Mori. All fuelled by the fact that they have done some steamy scenes onscreen and he’s been spending an inordinate amount of time with her offscreen. One rumour had it that Hrithik skipped the Filmfare Awards (where he was judged Best Actor) after a row with Sussanne over Mori.
The decision to take two weeks off before he starts work on Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Guzaarish with Aishwarya Bachchan was apparently taken by the Roshan household to allow Hrithik, Sussanne, and the children some time to bond.
The rumours of an affair were fuelled by the steamy kissing between Hrithik and Barbara in Kites.
When this writer asked Hrithik about the onscreen intimacy he had replied angrily, “Why are we even talking about kissing? Is that such a big deal? Hasn’t our cinema grown up? Yes, there are kissing scenes in the film, but nothing to make me squirm. In fact, I’d be more than happy and completely comfortable watching those kissing scenes with my wife, son, and parents when the film is released. Kites is a love story. It’s about people in love. And what do people in love do to express their mutual feelings? In fact, Barbara Mori made me realise how silly we look on screen while shying away from expressing love naturally.”
It happened while Hrithik and Barbara were shooting a tough and dangerous action sequence in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in the US. “We were both supposed to jump off from a rooftop at an impossible height. Before we did so, our director, Anurag Basu, suggested I kiss Barbara since we were doing something death-defying and dangerous and potentially lethal. I reached out and kissed her on the cheeks. Barbara turned around to ask why I had kissed her on the cheek. ‘Given the same situation with your real-life wife, Suzanne, would you kiss her on the cheek?’ I was floored by her logic. And this time, I kissed her the way real-life couples would in the situation. On the lips.”
Amen to that.
When I had spoken to Ms Mori on the rather underwhelming response to Kites, she blamed the audience for not getting the point in Kites. Said Ms Mori, “It’s a little different from Bollywood films. Kites has got a lot of Hollywood mixed with Mexican culture and then packaged in Bollywood. It’s a different experience,” she argued. True, but then the language in the film is an uncomfortable challenge for audiences. It’s 90 per cent in Spanish and English, with subtitles in Hindi, and Indian audiences aren’t used to reading subtitles. The problem IS what the film is about. Kites is about two people who cannot understand each other. She’s from Mexico and doesn’t speak English. He’s from India and he doesn’t speak Spanish. And they fall in love. My brother thinks it is my best film to date. Friends in New York enjoyed it too.”
Sadly, the Indian audience didn’t agree with Ms Mori’s brother.
