Kites

4 stars

Bollywood charms North American audiences with Kites.

Rating: 14A
Stars: Bárbara Mori, Hrithik Roshan, Nicholas Brown, Kangana Ranaut

What’s the story?
Jay (Roshan) is an Indian man living in Las Vegas, making his money by teaching dance classes and marrying immigrant women so that they can get their green card. One of his students, Gina (Ranaut), falls for him, and he goes along with it after he learns of her extremely wealthy family. While vacationing with Gina and her family, he meets Gina’s brother, Tony (Brown) and his fiancée, Natasha (Mori). Natasha turns out to be a Mexican immigrant who got her green card by marrying Jay. Before the night of Natasha’s wedding, Jay secretly goes to meet her so he can inform her that they need to get a divorce first before she can get married. When they get back to Natasha’s place, Tony is jealously waiting and starts abusing her. In response, Jay and Natasha knock Tony out and go on the run. This begins a wild chase for the couple by Tony, his gang, and the corrupted police.

Why see it?
Kites is a great Bollywood movie featuring an inspiring international love story between two people who can barely understand each other with the language barrier between them. However, there is some steamy chemistry obviously on display between Roshan and Mori – and no words are needed there! Although you may not recognize either lead actor, they are actually both talented actors who are not new to the industry – in fact, Mori has quite the background in the Mexican film industry while Roshan is a famous Bollywood star. Kites is a refreshing look at the foreign movie scene and is deservedly catching the attention of the mainstream North American audience.

Problems?
If you’re the type of person who scoffs at unrealistic action scenes and ridiculous stunts, you might want to sit out this movie. Scenes where people jump from a car to a hot air balloon are not exactly the most realistic of events, but they do make for an interesting movie.

All in all:
Kites is an action-packed love story.