KAHO NAA… AMOR HAI
A cross-culture romance cum road movie is very easy on the eye, and very difficult to endure.
MAY 23, 2010 – IS IT POSSIBLE TO FASHION grand opera from a libretto based on a Mills & Boon paperback? Anurag Basu, with Kites, hurls himself ill-advisedly into this undertaking. He has material for a goodish soap opera (and this is not a snide dismissal; in the right hands, soap opera can certainly become goodish entertainment) – he strives, instead, for Great Art. Scene after overstuffed scene is modeled after a soaring aria when the more sensible approach might have been to locate the pop heart at the centre of the pulpy story, about a very pretty couple on the run across very pretty countryside. The opening frames set the tone. Two (very pretty) kites flutter against the sky, as Hrithik Roshan (who plays an alphabet named J) expounds very poetically (and rather needlessly) on the titular metaphor. His voiceover, here, is muted, but elsewhere he’s this opera’s full-throated tenor. The veins in his mammoth neck pop out like foundational pillars, upon which he builds his performance. He belts out each emotion as if playing to an attention-deficit audience in the back rows in the lunar craters. Subtle, this isn’t.
And that’s hardly the issue, that this isn’t a good film. The vexation with Kites is that it doesn’t stretch far enough in the opposite direction, that it isn’t a bad-enough film. This could have been a deliriously deranged mishmash of Ek Duuje Ke Liye (cross-culture lovers) and Dil (who run away) and Bonnie and Clyde (and begin to rob banks, and escape to the accompaniment of a furiously twanged banjo) and Romancing the Stone (and have eye-poppingly energetic escapades, leaping upon trains and into rivers and onto hot air balloons) and, especially, the commensurately overblown Written on the Wind. (From the latter is derived the dominant love quadrangle, with the spoilt rich siblings Gina and Tony, played by Kangana Ranaut and Nick Brown, and with Barbara Mori as Tony’s fiancée Natasha, whom J falls for.) And there are certainly instances of soapy sentiment that are almost worth the price of admission, if only to witness the seriousness with which they are brought to life. (J purrs, “You added colour to my life, my black-and-white life.” Natasha subsequently hints at exactly which colour he was alluding to, as she croons, “You are bleeding, my love.”)
To qualify as a campy hoot, Kites needed more lines like these, and more scenes like the one where Kabir Bedi, hamming it up in his patented silken style as a Las Vegas casino tycoon, urges J to gun down a poor sap who’s being suspended by the ankles. Or the one where a kindly old man extracts a bullet from J’s back and sends him on his way, across the desert, with a fond farewell wish (“Hope you find the love of your life”) and without bothering about tiny practicalities like thrusting a canteen filled with water in J’s hands. Intentional or not, these laughs are welcome in a film whose pulse is as parched as the environs it’s set in. The culprit is the romantic track. Kites wants us to revel in the amoral adventures of J and Natasha, but when it comes to their love, the film turns utterly (and fatally) moral. J is not interested in Gina and he throws her out of his house when she slinks in to seduce him. But when he realises she’s rich, when he lights up upon sighting her limo, he reconciles to a life with her. So too Natasha – she’s with Tony only because he has money.
You’d think that two mercenaries like these would circle warily around one another before falling in love (or at least, that they’d be in lust first, before it transmogrified into something else). In a nicely observed scene, J and Natasha compare the “gifts” they’ve received for selling out – like kids at an orphanage stumbling into presents beneath a Christmas tree, they delight in her $12,000 necklace and his $40,000 automobile. A little later, as they kiss, Natasha’s eyes wander to a photograph on the wall, of her impoverished Mexican family, and she breaks off the kiss. She knows what’s important, and it’s not the penniless J. And yet, we’re asked to believe that theirs is a true love, when we’re not even shown the falling-in-love part. (All we get is an unexplained, and hardly convincing, initial attraction.) A little more plot and a little less poetry may have salvaged this gorgeous mess – but then Basu wants his shots of slo-mo wipers pacing across a windshield in the midst of a downpour, so that he can film a conversation inside the car as the water makes lovely translucent patterns. At least, it’s pretty.
Copyright ©2010 The New Sunday Express. This article may not be reproduced in its entirety without permission. A link to this URL, instead, would be appreciated.
Lakshman
May 22, 2010
Wonder when will Bollywood get rid of this heart-of-gold-hamming-self sacrificing-dumb-friend character.
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ramesh
May 22, 2010
youre assuming it WANTS to be a campy hoot. the anurag basu version has no pretentions of lowbrow.
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Chaitanya
May 22, 2010
I haven’t read your review yet, but I can see that it is a negative one, like the ones by every other Indian critic.
What’s mystery to me, is this: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10012379-kites/
85%!!! 😀
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Manu
May 22, 2010
I know you don’t agree with star ratings but i was shocked when i saw Kites at 2 stars along with Mission Istanbul!! If kites is as bad as mission istanbul, Anurag Basu has surely fallen a long way 😦
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Vishal
May 22, 2010
Chaitanya, I think western critics have this habit of being ind to BW films. Sort of in a patronizing way too.
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brangan
May 22, 2010
Lakshman: Who was the actor, BTW? He wasn’t bad at all.
ramesh: No, no. Just wishful thinking. If a film can’t be good, then we (the audience) can still hope to be entertained if it’s really bad. This wasn’t either 🙂
Chaitanya: Also, different perspectives, no? Maybe for them, this was a change or something…
Manu: The reason I didn’t give it one star is that there were a few moments that we’ve come to recognise as Basu’s. He’s good with characters and he’s good with drama. Throughout, I felt that the film he wanted to make was something else altogether, as opposed to the film his producers had him make. About a half-hour of the film (here and there, put together) showed promise.
In the sense, this isn’t the failure of a clueless variety — like Housefull and such, where the contempt for the audience is quite clear, and no one wants to make a good film, only lots of money. This is by no means a good movie, bit it isn’t that type of failure.
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Radhika
May 23, 2010
So, was there any obvious inspiration from Matchpoint? I wondered if the 2 lovers of which at least one was a golddigger, who were affianced to siblings and then fell madly in lust with each other was lifted from that story and then Indianized.
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B.H.Harsh
May 23, 2010
Rangan :
“Who was the actor, BTW? He wasn’t bad at all”
You saw ‘The President is Coming’ right? He was the young vernacular stock-broker (“Saala people will forget the other Kapil Dev :)”)
“In the sense, this isn’t the failure of a clueless variety — like Housefull and such, where the contempt for the audience is quite clear, and no one wants to make a good film, only lots of money. This is by no means a good movie, bit it isn’t that type of failure.”
Would be really delighted if you care to elaborate on this a li’l better.
What do you mean when you say Contempt for audience is quite clear?
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Sayed
May 23, 2010
Hi… Nice Review… Well the movie was nice in parts, people were ridiculing the end…
_________SPOILER ALERT_____________________
See they died for each other, filled their ‘black n white’ lives with colour, but it didnt seem as endearing as Aamir n Juhi in QSQT..
___________________SPOILER END____________________
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KPV Balaji
May 23, 2010
For me the movie moved with a snail like pace and couldnt stop me from wondering what really took two years to make the film. I thought Barabra Mori was striking with her infectioius smile..and the spanish/hindi banter they shared was quiet fun. What did you think of Mori though..
Completely off topic..did you watch Kola Kolaya Mundhrika ?? It has some sparkling crazy mohan moments completely hilarious..touches the borderline of drama-ness ..yet its a fun watch..for any crazy mohan fan out there..
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Ramesh
May 23, 2010
re western critic ratings, while we indians are evaluating how well it walks on two legs, the western ones are applauding the dog for even walking so at all.
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ramesh
May 23, 2010
“In the sense, this isn’t the failure of a clueless variety ”
if you clutch at any more straws they will give you a job at pepsi.
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alfy
May 23, 2010
KITES movie, finally the long wait for Hrithik Roshan fans is over. With this action packed romantic thriller, Hrithik Roshan has made his debut in Hollywood. Kites movie story is not different, we have already seen many films on this very own concept. What that makes a difference in this movie is its taking, the action scenes, and the chemistry. Kites music, especially Kites background music has been excellent. Many known reviewers from India is slightly under negative side. But the International reviewers has given Kites good marks, and some of famous English movie sites lauded Hrithik Roshan as ‘a Man with green eyes and near divine looks’! Some question left after viewing is that, “Is this what a common man is looking for in one of the most awaited movies of the year? Isn’t it a responsibility of the makers to entertain us along with these additional added elements in the script? Do we visit the theater only to see some new foreign locations, few good action scenes on the screen and a speedy thriling love (without depth). Kites is visually stunning and makes a sweeping impact, but it totters in its writing department.
Hrithik is unbeatable and that’s the truth. Very few actors can rise above the script and Hrithik is one of them. He’s the lifeline of this film. Barbara Mori looks perfect for her part, but appears slightly mature at some places. Even though the film is nice comparing the repeadted stuffs in bollywood & one of the best movies released yet. If you are going to watch just go and watch, and be in the film, not be with your friends.
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kamil
May 23, 2010
Rangan…Did you review/like Life in a Metro?
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satya
May 23, 2010
Haven’t seen Kites yet and do not intend to. On an unrelated note, I, for a change, saw a Tamil movie yesterday (with subtitles, of course)..ManiRatnam’s “Kannathil Muthamittal” ..it was so heart warming and endearing..was a superb experience (though I felt the song sequences could have been done better or removed). Anyone has any idea why this did not get made in Hindi? And a simpler question would probably be why “Devdas” was the official entry to Oscars ahead of this?
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brangan
May 23, 2010
Radhika: Have you seen Douglas Sirk’s Written on the Wind? That’s the film I talked about in my review because that seemed to have this sibling-love angle but without the existential weight of Matchpoint. That was a pure soap, and you’d use words like “tempestuous” to describe it. That’s where I thought the inspiration came from.
B.H.Harsh Says: Ah, yes. Thanks. About contempt for the audience, films like Housefull care only about making money. And they have this attitude of “if you hire enough stars, they’ll see any shit we put out.” Kites, for all its problems, at least isn’t that kind of film. I have the feeling Basu wanted to make a sophisticated soap but was forced to reduce the film to a Hrithik showreel for Western audiences. I mean, the number of close-ups, for crying out loud!
Sayed: SPOILER WARNING – see, but the film is so fluffy, the death seems to come out of nowhere. Yes, it’s nice, all this matching-matching business about how they met at first in the sea and how they “meet” at last in the sea too, but that sort of heavily operatic end has to be earned. I was quite appalled by it.
kamil: Yes. Here.
satya: If you ask me, the only movies they should be sending to the Oscars are the ones made by Adoor and Budhdhadeb Dasgupta and so on — films that have a sensibility that other foreign-film nominees have, exotic in location and story yet universal in storytelling language. Yes, it’s nice to showcase our commercial cinema to the West, but not at the Oscar level — unless, of course, the logic is simply that it’s enough to showcase and not necessarily win.
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ramesh
May 23, 2010
re written on the wind, the subtext in written on the wind was quite different (as in most sirk films) you sort of misread whom rock hudson was in love with.
as regards the death scene, i watched the film in a theater with quite a few techie-desi families sitting behind me. when hritik ***spoiler*** jumps ***endspoiler**
there was a nervous titter from the thaikulams in the audience and then i heard “what is this ya?!” and then the male of the species giggled.
Im sure this was not the effect anurag basu was going for in his achetypal tale.
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Pradyum
May 23, 2010
Br : Exactly! I would love to see what Anurag Basu might have done with someone else as a producer! I feel Rakesh Roshan interfered a lot! Btw any noticed the self-referencing?
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krishnan
May 23, 2010
What is the meaning of ‘campy hoot’?
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Ratnakar
May 23, 2010
Tony Scott would have been wondering what he did wrong.
Kites is pretty much a rehashed version of his 1990 movie, REVENGE, that had Kevin Costner, Madeleine Stowe, Antony Quinn. Not a great movie, but has some real steamy stuff between Costner and Stowe. REVENGE was trashed roundly by critics when it first came.
Today Anurag Basu, tweaks it around, with not much difference, and the critics are drooling over it. Scott must sure be wondering “Sar a Sar Na Insaafi hai”.
Also regarding Western critics praise, i guess just as our desi pals go overboard when it is related to anything West, yes you can see Rajeev Masand, going gush gush over 2012 and The Bounty Hunter, the Western media too goes the other way around, when it comes to India.
I guess they don’t want to be seen as being ignorant of Indian sensibilities, racist, biased. Trust me i am sure Brett Ratner’s remixed version will be trashed by the same critics.
If the Indian media suffers from slavishness, the Western media suffers from Political Correctness, and a desire to be seen as “More Liberal than Thou”.
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Ratnakar
May 23, 2010
On a side note, why is that when these talented directors work for the bigger banners, they end up under performing.
Its not just Anurag Basu, we have seen it with Pradeep Sarkar, started with Parineeta, and then came up with a big dud in YRF’s Laga Chunari Mein Daag.
And while Shimit Amin did well with Chak De and Rocket Singh for Yash Raj, those movies did not really come up to the level of Ab Tak Chappan.
It is too much of studio interference? Or do the guys feel pressure?
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Lakshman
May 23, 2010
@Ratnakar, though i agree with you on Pradeep Sarkar, Shimit Amin has excelled despite the Production house he was working for. He is one of the very few recent directors who has taken up 3 different genres in his first three films and excelled in each one. Chak De and Rocket Singh will actually be misfits in the Yashraj stable.
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Shankar
May 23, 2010
“Romancing the Stone (and have eye-poppingly energetic escapades, leaping upon trains and into rivers and onto hot air balloons)”…escapades, and jumping into rivers…check, check…but leaping on trains & hot air balloons? Those don’t feature even in “Jewel of the Nile”!! Maybe you were making a generic reference? 🙂
RtS used to be one of my fav movies when it released…an entertaining, pacy adventure movie where the viewer didn’t have to do much thinking!!
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FuckTamilCinema
May 23, 2010
@Satya: Then fuck off
@Ramesh: We should showcasde Shivaji The Boss to Western Critics, that will get us the oscar.
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Vikas Bhargava
May 23, 2010
Nice bang on review. It appeared to me that the script was pure trash and Basu isn’t too good with Action scenes. He was very good with the drama. The Action scenes were laughable and it looked like poor Basu was trying really hard to extract the maximum out of the lifeless drag of a screenplay he was gifted.
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brangan
May 24, 2010
Shankar: Yes, generic sense — the spirit of that kind of film. For that matter, Ek Duuje Ke Liye isn’t exactly an Indo-Mexican love story either 🙂
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ramesh
May 24, 2010
dear expeltivedeletedtamilcinema
been there done that. why do you think warner brothers/disney are in south india doing deals with aishwarya rajinikanth and others?
want me to name the execs in q?
fucking jokers (one breed of punjabi worshipping hindi cinema buffs)they suffer serious cultural cringe.
shankar,
jumping on trains is in jewel of the nile.
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Pradyum
May 24, 2010
Ratnakar : Looks like you are pretty ignorant. Rajeev Masand called The Bounty Hunter boring. As far as the the western critics are concerned,they’re reviewing the Brett Ratner remix because that’s the only version released abroad.
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Ratnakar
May 24, 2010
@ Pradyum
Maybe i got it wrong, as far as Bounty Hunter is concerned, but is it not a fact that Masand keeps giving high ratings to almost every other Hollywood flick, irrespective of how crappy it is, check out his reviews on 2012 and Clash of the Titans.
No as far as i know, i checked out at RT, the Brett Ratner version will be coming later, many give quite high ratings to RR’s version of Kites, some even comparing it to Sergio Leone and all. Not the first time, i earlier seen them giving high ratings to Chandni Chowk to CHina too. I still feel the Western media never really tries to understand India, they just keeping jumping from India Exotica( Elephants, beggars, cows on the streets, palaces) to India Shining( the IT industry, Bollywood), without looking at the In Between part.
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ramesh
May 24, 2010
pradyum : wrong.
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shrabonti
May 24, 2010
Brilliant, beautifully written review. Every line is evocative. Thank you.
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varun
May 24, 2010
The actor’s name is Anand Tiwari. Haven’t seen Kites but figured he is the only one worth a mention in this thematic adaptation of ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’ by Rakesh Roshan.
Watch out for Anand in ‘Udaan’. In a film full of so many correct-pitch performances, he still stands out.
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Pradyum
May 24, 2010
Sorry my bad.. I must have been in a really bad mood when I posted that. I will be more careful in the future..
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APALA
May 24, 2010
Dear BR,
Did you see the reviews it got in US press? Goes to show how BAD the movies that are being churned-out from Hollywood! (I don’t think it’s perspective – rather how starved they are!).
I had more fun watching KKM (Crazy Mohan’s) – though not spectacular, still enjoyable!
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brangan
May 24, 2010
APALA: I don’t know what prism these American reviewers were seeing Kites through, but some of reviews are quite baffling even from a foreign perspective. The Boston Herald has likened this to Sergio Leone’s work simply because of (a) over the top, and (b) slo-mo. That’s a bit like saying any film that’s slow and with a rich colour palette is a Wong Kar-Wai rip-off.
From which angle does Kites seem like a Western, or even a frontier story? Just because they keep hopping to Mexico? At least if someone called it a noir-type story, I can get it, because there are those elements here (not strictly, but at least loosely).
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Ramesh
May 24, 2010
br if there was a smidgen more narrative continuity, a case can be mae that kites looks like some of robert rodriguez’s movies.
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B.H.Harsh
May 25, 2010
Rangan : Which are the noir-type elements in Kites You’re referring to? (even loosely)
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Amrita
May 25, 2010
I actually thought Hrithik did good in this. Comparatively, at least. There were times when he actually gave his face a rest or only attempted to show one emotion at a time. You can’t deny that’s progress!
And omg, the pretty! I look forward to somebody taking the promised Ratner edit and further distilling this whole thing into one giant beautiful slo-mo montage of Hrithik doing Awesome Stuff that I will happily watch while eating ice cream.
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APALA
May 25, 2010
Dear BR,
I guess all these guys were given some kind of magic eye-piece through which they saw the shorter version (90 minutes) by sleeping through!
Even 90 minutes is too long for this one – for about 20 minutes is sufficient enough!!
The sad part is that they all might “THINK” this is how all our movies would be!!! (They wont check out a No smoking, Dev D or Aamir ………).
Hmmmmm!
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Ramesh
May 25, 2010
apala, its lucky for us they wont check out anurag kasyap’s films. they might think thats how bollywood is.
Amrita. its a male gaze-ing thing.
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Venkatesh
May 25, 2010
Off Topic
Just wanted to share something with the “esteemed” readers of this blog –
http://www.cnngo.com/mumbai/shop/art-bollywood-935466?hpt=C2
I love stuff like this.
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ramesh
May 25, 2010
”
The demise of the chaste 1940s brought about attitudes that were more relaxed in the era post Independence.”
wat?!
has this guy seen any films from the forties in india? as a veteran of the second world war , who fought rommel’s tanks in north africa, and had huntervali nadia’s pin ups in my bunk, I take offense.
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Radhika Naidu
May 25, 2010
If you view Kites purely as Hrithik’s showreel for Hollywood producers – I think its right on the money. He has never looked more drool worthy.
But it left the kids in the theatre humming koi mil gaya – and the Punjabi housewives expecting hindi masala fare – totally nonplussed.
I agree with the Matchpoint reference – if only the cons were more mercenary and the tussle of love vs money was better fleshed out.
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brangan
May 25, 2010
B.H.Harsh: Oh, there’s a wronged woman in Gina (even though nothing is done with her; imagine if they had let her have a hell-hath-no-fury subplot). Then the gold-digging twosome, and their final fate (in general, there was a fatalistic air being attempted). These are not, technically speaking, noir elements, but at least I could see how and why someone could make this case, even loosely — as opposed to invoking Leone, which I can’t see at all.
The review, by the way, is here. Key excerpt: “Kites” echoes those great Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns. It’s so over the top, so accentuated every step of the way by music, slow-mo and tragedy, it becomes a great guilty pleasure. See if you can resist.”
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KPV Balaji
May 25, 2010
@ BR : Completely off topic do you follow LOST !! I just completed watching the last FINALE and is completely blown over !! There are fanboys all over the world giving their own interpretation and theories of the whole series. Never has a TV series been so intriguing. Would be like so wonderful to read a piece about LOST from you !!
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Rahul
May 25, 2010
BR, Is this a surprise after the multiple oscars to Slumdog Millionaire? Though I do concede that I am not able to fully understand this phenomenon in a non superficial way(i.e. selling exotica, poverty etc.)
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Amrita
May 25, 2010
@ BH Harsh / BR – well, there is the train moving across the desert. 😀 I’m now sad I never got to see Clint shake a leg in the middle of a shootout.
I think the Leone comment has more to do with the visual style than the plot. Rural Mexico, the wide open Nevada sky, the train, the quaint church wedding, Hrithik’s matchstick chewing (BWAHAHAA!), etc. I definitely got “Western” out of it, although Kites is way too lush looking to qualify for Leone.
I thought that entire last shootout in the rain was pretty noir. I mean, this is the story of a down on his luck grifter and the gangster’s moll. Plot-wise, noir is the closest you come to a genre if you’re looking at it through a western lens. It just came through in that scene best.
Personally, I fail to see why they can’t just use “masala”. It’s perfectly accurate.
And yes, Kangana. I thought her two and bit scenes were great and all the time J was wondering “why Linda why”, I was wondering “where’s Gina where?” I think she and Hrithik are both better when silent for entirely different reasons and Basu was very smart to tap that. That scene where she taps her spoon against her glass while listening to her brother and father was so perfect.
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ramesh
May 25, 2010
“I thought that entire last shootout in the rain was pretty noir.”
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!
clutching cluthcing clutching!!!
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Ramesh
May 26, 2010
but seriously,perhaps amrita judges genres by costumes/ props…
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NullPointer
May 26, 2010
BR,I second Balaji’s request for a piece on LOST. Would love to read your interpretation(or “deconstrution” -the way you call it) of that last plane crash scene with no survivors was all about.
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Ratnakar
May 26, 2010
Well looks like Kites is turning out to be a PHATTI PATANG in the US of A too, notwithstanding all that gush fest from the US critics.
This is from Rediff
“Kites certainly did not soar last weekend in North America — what the heck, according to the actual figures released on Monday evening, it did not even gross $1 million even though it was the 10th highest grossing film in the continent.
Now the speculation has started whether Hrithik Roshan’s underperforming film will good business in the mainstream theatres as a 90 minute version of the 130-minute long film Kites: The Remix retooled by the popular Hollywood film-maker Brett Ratner opens in a few dozen theatres this Friday. ”
So what happened Hrithik, did the Americans find the PASTA too bland and tasteless?
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Kamil
May 26, 2010
Rangan – Am just curious, as a reviewer, do people that are close to you (family, acquaintances, etc) really take your filmi opinions seriously? Does it influence their decision to spend the moolah at the turnstiles?
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brangan
May 26, 2010
Kamil: Don’t really discuss films with family/friends all that much. Music, yes. Not movies. The latter discussions are mostly with industry people or fellow film freaks.
I already write about it so much. Why talk about it as well, no? 🙂
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hari ohm
May 26, 2010
NullPointer, please, could have put “spoilers ahead” note. People in India have just watched the first episode.
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NullPointer
May 26, 2010
Hari ohm-My bad.Sorry about that .Will be careful next time around.
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brangan
May 26, 2010
KPV Balaji / NullPointer: I saw the entire first season. (I think they showed it Sunday nights.) But then Star World kept changing the timings and I lost track of it. I now plan to watch the whole series at a stretch though how I’ll make the time I don’t know 🙂
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V
May 26, 2010
I find Ramesh a rather unpleasant addition to the comments section
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KPV Balaji
May 26, 2010
@hari ohm : dont worry null pointer post is no spoiler.. infact nothing is a spoiler..with lost..with the way ended..as much as people are pretty convinced on their own theories..like me :P.. i think everything is debatable and open to different perspectives..:)..so chillax and enjoy the season
@BR : i watch it downloading torrents, season 1 – 6 is available completely, do you want the torrent links..though i assume you are against piracy and wanna watch it with original dvds 😛
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Ramesh
May 26, 2010
i think most people that think hritik handsome in kites are sufferring malnourishment. one good paleo meal of prime rib is what the doctor ordered.
dhanush will look good after.
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Kamil
May 26, 2010
For those who avidly await the arrival of SATC – A review not to miss: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100525/REVIEWS/100529986
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Bala
May 27, 2010
@hari ohm : the first episode ? I woulda thought it would be atleast a few seasons old in India !
@ baradwaj : Would suggest you stop at season 3 😀 Which is where it stopped being interesting and became yet another mega serial 😀
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hari ohm
May 27, 2010
@Bala, They are showing the first episode of the last season. Rombha koraichu eda podareenga 🙂
@KPV Balaji, True that, God knows how many crashes I have seen in Lost, I lost count.
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Venkatesh
May 27, 2010
If we are talking about Serials/Mega Serials i wonder how many of the folks here have watched The Wire.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wire
To get a flavour of it – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JK8j0KNLl0
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Amrita
May 27, 2010
Btw Ratner’s version of how he came to re-edit the movie sounds considerably different from that of the Roshans’.
@ Ratnakar – well, who’s surprised? I think the 1 million they brought in off 208 theaters was pretty good for a Bollywood movie. I mean what was the last foreign film to hit the cultural mainstream? Look at this list:
the two massive hits are Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero.
@ Troll Uncle – yes, Amrita does think visual and narrative styles have a bearing on genre depictions especially in a pastiche like Kites. Snark Fail.
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IIFA
May 27, 2010
Hi,
We stumbled across your blog and found it really nice. This is an invitation for you to participate in the IIFA Insider contest. The winner will be able to LIVE blog from the awards ceremony and will get an all expense paid stay at Colombo for 4 nights.
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Venkatesh
May 27, 2010
“IIFA Says: ” This is just so funny . Jeez, who are these people running IIFA , they haven’t heard of one of the best known Cinema critics in India.
@Amrita : you know what they say – don’t feed the troll.
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ramesh
May 27, 2010
amrita I’m your dad_ remember? Everyone is.
and that_ to quote catch 22 is the flaw in yourvphilosophy.
tc
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Bala
May 27, 2010
@hari ohm : heheh 😀 would it be a spoiler to say you aren’t going to miss much ? 😀
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ramesh
May 27, 2010
she should have stuck to posting tata pics. 😦
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Deepak
May 27, 2010
Somebodys going to Srilanka 🙂
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NullPointer
May 27, 2010
To an extent LOST did get “lost” and jumped the shark after season 3 but there were some episodes in the later seasons which were interesting to watch.Forget Kites, all the non-GRCA and GRCA members are dying to hear what BR thinks of the lives of the shallow show-loving martini sipping divas in SATC2
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brangan
May 27, 2010
NullPointer: As a card-carrying member of GRCA (who actually had the privilege of sitting across the table from the President himself), I object strongly to SATC being labelled a rom-com. It’s too brassy and cynical for that, even if underneath the general bitchery, there is some sort of rom-com-ishness going on.
PS: Actually, now that I think of it, I wonder what genre it could be slotted under — a hybrid of screwball comedy and four-handkerchief melodrama, perhaps? Amrita and Ramesh, do you want to put your heads together and help? 😉
PPS: Those aren’t martinis but cosmos. There, that’s my Bitty Ruminations for this week 🙂
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Ramesh
May 27, 2010
I have a genre slot for such films: bad karma films . under this category i file films like kisna, the bharatiraja film without fullstops “nadodi thenral” , manoj shyamalan films after “the village” , Anjali, Love story 2050, indiana jones and the crystalline skulduggery, most star wars second series, when freddie got fingered, ishqiya, Anurag kasyap’s films, anything with farhan aktar in, the list goes on…
these are films that irretrievably taint the minds of everyone that comes in contact with them in a way that can be described aptly as prarabhda karmam.
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Ramesh
May 27, 2010
satc and kites
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KPV Balaji
May 27, 2010
@Bala : The episodes does get sagging here and there even from season 3, but the overall effect was always satisfying..i dont remember any tv show that packed in so much..and to their writers credit, till the SERIES finale they kept the audience really guessing..to be precise till the last shot of the series finale..for me it was kickass..The more i think of the ending the more i love the show..and its fantastic that even some very trivial mysteries from season 1 are answered in the last season and the series of events makes absolute sense..so there is indeed a lot of thinking gone into the writing…They have placed in all the pieces, well almost all the pieces of the puzzle leaving out a few which will ensure that LOST is here to stay for a longer period than its run :)..i understand there is a section of the audience/fans/haters who are disappointed with the ending have their own weird theories..which may even turn out true..if indeed the writers decide in the future to fill in those missing pieces :)..Till then the arguments will go on forever..
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Deepauk M
May 27, 2010
Let it be heard that it was the president that was at the receiving end of spiderman-notepad advice. 🙂
And yes the distinction must be made between Cosmos and Martini’s. Until the appletini and the chocolatini came out, the vodka martini was a distinctly male drink. Hec, Bond drank it.
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Ramesh
May 27, 2010
but rangan, to be helpful to your riginal intention, I think SITC is an english(anglo?) telenovela.
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Amrita
May 28, 2010
@ Venkatesh – I know, I know 🙂 I usually starve him but thought I might make a single exception since that one comment had some semblance to the actual discussion rather than his usual TMI about masturbating to my posts and his incest- and pedophilia-related fantasies. But no, he was just taking the scenic route back to his bridge. Won’t happen again.
@ BR – Now THAT offends me. 😛 Just because that schmuck likes to follow me from post to post pathetically begging for my attention is no reason why you should group us together.
Oh, and I think the correct genre for SATC is “advertisement”.
@ Deepauk M – welllllll… President Bartlett disagrees! 😀
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ramesh
May 28, 2010
see there’s nothing we can’t do if we All pull together.
teamwork.
🙂
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ramesh
May 28, 2010
amrita
only one word for you. Whose your daddy.
ok three.
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senthil
May 28, 2010
Rangan sir, cudn’t you do anything to stop this particular guy from squabbling down offending languages for no reason one after the other…it’s so irritating coming to your comments section to find such craps written with no end
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ramesh
May 28, 2010
agree with sendhil here(even though he is complaining about me) it IS irritating to come to your comments section and see such utter crap written . It drives a man to using profanity when mere insult would do.
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joe tempo
June 3, 2010
dont see any profanity here.. what are you on abt. anyway there are more worrying things – like prejudice masquerading as commentary on these blogs – north vs south, hindu vs muslim, indian vs phoren etc; it is here and more unabashed on rediffs.. i’d be more concerned abt that.
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Pradyumna M
June 17, 2010
Maybe Anurag didn’t watch this :
🙂
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