An Indian film (with English subtitles) directed by Anurag Basu, Kites (2009) may be the most romantic lovers-on-the-lam movie ever made.
Not that the romance doesn’t become tedious, however, although an amorous scene in the attic of an empty house, with J. and Natasha in their wedding clothes, is moving.
J. (Hrithik Roshan) is a con man from India, Natasha (Barbara Mori) a Mexican seduced away from a Vegas reprobate. The style is too blatant and garish, but there is fun to be had. In its non-tedious action scenes, for example, Kites has a few things in common with that little Susan Sarandon-Geena Davis movie of the early ’90s, but Thelma and Louise it ain’t.
It’s probably better, for all the mistakes Basu made. I mean it.
It tells a simple story — an almost archetypal story — but it does so with a lot of passion and technical sophistication.
An intense, exciting and highly entertaining film.