Film Review - Kites!

First thing first... Director Anurag Basu must deserve accolades for his efforts in the making of the movie. Kites is a story of how love transcends the boundaries of language and locations and the level to which true lovers can go sacrificing everything !

The story revolves around J ( played by Hrithik Roshan) and Linda a.k.a. Natasha ( played by Barbara Mori) and a host of other actors in the background .Both J and Linda are from poor families , immigrants and were married once for the sake of green card and later found true love in each other when they entered the dark houses of the family led by Kabir Bedi and his son . Love springs up and its only a matter of time that Tony finds out . He's the usual bollywood type anti hero - sex obsessed ,killing people at will like flies and when he confronts our Bolly hero , some how he's unable to overwhelm him.

The first half is all about the finding of true love for J and Linda untill they are caught by Tony which translate in a chase rampage the other halve.The lovers are in for a constant run but still find time to marry , make love and what not !

The film looks very good in its overall structure but what ails it is that there are flashes of brilliance and suddenly moments of utter stupidity . This has somehow come perhaps due to the cluttered thinking of the director to make it as the first cross over movie of Bollywood.

The plot looks tight and the director has used the age old testified way of having different layers in the movie employing tactics like flashbacks and narration to explain what really happened . Anurag needs a clap for this endeavor. The risk in such a style is that not all the aspects of the story are explained or justified. Anurag does that job almost perfectly and must be congratulated.
The portrayal of the 'family' is something Anurag needs to take a look at.They are not merely a bunch of trigger happy boys but are ruthless as well as mean .Hence it looks lame how the lords of Las Vegas look at police to catch hold of our lovers and why the Tony( played by NickBrown) goes on a lonely chase whenever dealing with J .Sorry to say he proves to be the weak link in the movie. Bollywood type replays of him coming with a gun in all glamour only to be kicked on ass by our hero is again something that doesn't suit his status.Here again Anurag has to learn that crappy Bolly style bashing of goons by hero wielding out a machine gun and not a bullet hitting him does not work in Hollywood.Its here that Kabir Bedi should have been given more screen presence.As the head of the family he could have cast that dark colour that would have lended more reason for J and Linda's run .

Kangana Ranaut , so brilliant an actor is limited to the role of a hurted person with very little to say and very little to perform . She was another of those casts who was chosen well but under utilised. The person who rocks is J's aid .Little known actor pulls of his supportive role with ease and is never pressurised by the big wigs surrounding him.

Now the main leads , Hrithik like most of his past movies has put up a very dedicated performance .Still not upto the level of Koi Mil Gaya but there is no doubt that he's the leading light of our cinema and after the departure of Amir and SRK he is certainly the heir-in-waiting.

Barbara Mori is good and charming.The on screen chemistry looks good and atleast a few directors would have caught noticed of her.Together Hrithik-Barbara are not exactly the SRK-Kajol pair but certainly did their job pretty well.

Cinematographer deserves credit for picturising the landscapes in a great way . Be it the sizzling city of Las Vegas or the deserts of Nevada , the locations were shot in an aesthatic manner .Action sequence are the other part that deserve a lot of accolades.They are believable and yet at the same time exciting .

The music is a big let down. Apart from the KK song "Zindagi do pal ki" none of the other numbers are worth remembering .This is one of the reason why the connect feeling to the love stories subsides a while.Coming from the houses of Roshan's this was one area that should have been at the best.

Overall the movie is a good one packed with action , love , thrill, betrayel and all sorts of those key words .Certainly a 'dekho' but has it finally shown the way for cross over movies .. Naah!

My rating 3.0/5.0

The IPL League ...Cricket's New Avatar

With the first round of biddings for the players completed at The Hilton's in Mumbai the game of cricket has entered a new era . Without any doubt this is a path breaking move and the game of cricket will surely enrich from this format although its to early to say the magnitude of success that this league may get in India and the whole world.

The reason for IPL

Its an open secret that the only reason BCCI pushed for thsi format was to thwart any attempt from Essel's group lead ICL to uproot the former .The November event of ICL was an eye opener for BCCI .Although that tournament was far from being called a success .. BCCI knew that unless something is not done quickly enough there may be more rebellion , and the small menace may become a big problem in the near future.So BCCI pulled a coup of a sort by announcing IPL and flexing its Muscels in order that ICC recognises the event and a new International 2020 Championship has been proprosed as well.

As of now this move is looking like a big success and the BCCI without much of a trouble are laughing all the way to the banks as its account swells exponentially.

The Format

The DLF 20 20 will be played on a home and away basis similar to the way EPL is played.So the 8 teams based on major city will compete and fight for the covoted trophy . The purpose is to generate city based passions among the people their and soon cash on that feeling. Already the television rights , series sponsorships and teams have been finalised and with the major players already put under the hammer its clear that there's a copius amount of money flowing in .So what is the logic behind this mad rush ,why are the industrial goliaths so much interested in this game . Let's find out.

What the franchisees gain ?

Or rather say hope to gain from this whole procedure. The strategy is clear if we look the way the players were chosen. The Indian players even though less on skills were bidded at much higher price while the estabished foreign stars with their superb record were favoureda s second choice when c ompard to Indians, except a few ones .This is because of the following reasons :-

1. The Indian players will be able to create a great fan following among the people and their mass appeal will keep the ticket counters busy.




2. The Indian are very passionate about their players and trate them as demi gods so even one big performance will mean that the craze for that player remains till the end of the tournament.




3. The biggest reason which these men and women in coats may not tell you is that the Indian players will be utilised to feature in ads of the company and thus money spent here may be recovered elsewhere.

So this again puts one big question in front of us .. Will this attitude help them in the long run. The answer is both yes and no .. the reason is that yes the teams will be able to garner instant support and thus create a market for them and if they use it properly their fortunes may rise in the verticles they are operating in.For example a good performance by MS Dhoni may make the Indian Cements the owner of Chennai IPL team a national name and this will put them a step ahead of their other rivals .

The answer is no as a string of poor performance by these stars may mean people going to other brands . So from my view a team which is able to strike out a balance between these two will win the long drawn battle. I am not talking about this year alone but the whole psychology and the hidden agenda behind participating in this tourney.

The players

What ever is done off the field will be forgotten once the real action begins on 19th April as finally its the performance of these players that count. The international players are certainly richer now and their accounts have swollen by sums that have never been seen before in the cricketing world .

But this has put them at crossroads. Not many months back most of them were shouting of the cramped schedule of ICC and were crying for some rest. April happens to be the off season in many of the cricketing nations and the little time they had for rest will be consumed by this event.

So the players wil lhave to much fitter as the preasure to perform will be there and they will always be the danger of picking up injuries and detiorating the niggles and minor ones that most of teh players suffer from .

The biggest problem may be of that the senior players of many teams will contemplate retirement much earlier in order to take part in the game as it provides them the opprtunity to collect quick bucks by playing just for 44 days .

The biggest advantage that may come out is that the Indian domestic players which must not be forgotten will form the voluminous part of the team will gain a big exposure which is rarely seen on Ranji matches and this will be a big platform where if they perform well would be catapulted to the national level .

The advantages

There are certainly few big adavantage of this tourament which cannot get unnoticed .

1. The fact that the indian domestic players will get international sxposure and a once in a life chance to rub shoulders with some of the cricketing legends .




2. The Indian grounds will get a big facelift particularly in terms of value addition and basic eminities like the toilet facilities , refresments , better seating facilities , and certainly the chance to see live performance by some big Bollywood names in between the matches.




3. The pitches of the Indian ground may get some life as the BCCI is looking for truer ptches that have the ability to have good bounce and have uniformity, also the teams may look at their own intersts for eg. Kolkatta may give the Eden Garden's pithc a green flavour so that Ishant , Shoib ,Gul and co. can utilise the conditions well enough to put a shockwave in the opponent 's side.




4. The ground's condition may improve further in order to provide quick and lush green outfield .So the often seen patchy outfield of Jaipur may soon be replaced by lush green one like the Lord's .




5. This will be an opportunity to spread the game further as it can be shownto the eorld as a showcase event and many associate countries may get the adrenaline to prduce a competative team in the near future.

The problems

An old Russian saying goes ,"Hope for the best but prepare for the worst".The organisers must be carefull of not counting the chickens even before the eggs hatch.The reason is obvius , the Indians are not a big fan of club culture as inspite of their massive efforts the football clubs of India have been unable to get a nationwide popularity.

Second, with the amount of money involved there may be a case where it may ot be recoverd in the initial phase.

Third , which should concern the BCCI is that in there effort to make IPL a success they may further alienate Ranji and other domestic games which are certainly poor cousins as compared to IPL.

Fourth and final one is that the 2020 although seen as a teh next destination of cricket may well be unable to produce great batsmen like Sunny Gavaskar and Allan Border .The case of bowlers is even more pityful as the era of fast fiery bowlers like Walsh , Ambrose , Donald may well be a thing of past.

The final word

Criket is charting a new fight in terretories hitherto unknown and the jury is still out whether this tournament will be a success or not.But one thing is clear this is a revolution of a sort and may out cricketers at the same place with other world reknowned players like Federer , Woods , Beckham etc. and it will be a mouthwatering clash to see Ponting being bamboozled by a Warne delivery or an Ishant bouncer taking a wind out of Sachin Tendulkar.

We are all waiting to see!