J., played by Hrithik Roshan, is a dance teacher in Las Vegas, Nevada. As a sideline, he marries immigrant women to get them green cards. When Gina [Kangana Ranaut], the rich daughter of a powerful casino owner [Kabir Bedi], falls for him, J. goes along in order to marry into money. He discovers that his future brother-in-law, the vicious, homicidal Tony [Nick Brown], is about to marry a Mexican woman named Natasha [Barbara Mori], whom J. knows as Linda, the last of the immigrant women he married. On the night before "Natasha" and Tonys wedding, Linda and J. spend a romantic but chaste night, humorously agreeing to a "divorce." A jealous, gun-wielding Tony, however, arrives at her apartment while J. is there, and after he hits her, Linda impulsively knocks him out with a heavy object while he tussles with J. Linda and J. go on the run toward Mexico, with Tony and police in pursuit. They are helped by a hotel clerk, Jasleen Grewal. Jasleen gives them fake passports and IDs so that they can go wherever they want. However, Jasleen was evil, and she led both of them into a trap where they would eventually die.

Release

Kites was on 2000 screens in India, across 30 countries and 500 screens globally, according to distributor Reliance BIG Entertainment. It opened on 208 screens in North America, making it the largest Bollywood release there to that time.

Box office

= Box Office India said the film "opened to a bumper response at most places" in India, but noted "reports are not encouraging, the biggest reason being the film has a lot of English and Spanish dialogue." On its first weekend in the North America, the film opened in 208 theaters and ranked #10 in the box office, grossing $958,673. It was the first Bollywood movie to reach the weekend top ten, though My Name is Khan had a larger first-weekend North American gross, with $1.9 million at 120 theaters, reaching #13. Kites debuted at #5 in the UK, with an opening of £274,000 from 70 screens.

Critical reception

= The film received an 82% positive rating on the film critics aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus being, "Thoroughly overwrought in true Bollywood fashion, Kites is deeply flawed -and too effervescently charming to resist." It rated 5/10 on the primarily Hindi film critics aggregate site ReviewGang. The chemistry of the lead actors and the cinematography were specifically praised by Indian critics Anupama Chopra and Raja Sen. Rajeev Masand of IBN said "Thrilling action set-pieces, a super-fluid dance number to show off Hrithiks killer moves, and repeated glimpses at the toned bodies of both lead stars. Its almost enough to forgive the uniformly bad acting of all supporting cast". Anupama Chopra of NDTV said "the film doesn''t become more than the sum of its parts because the second half is flat and in places, outright foolish".. Noyon Jyoti Parasara of AOL India stated, "It fails in the primary promise of a love story which surpasses language barriers," while Shubhra Gupta of Indian Express calls it "really old wine in a sort-of new bottle". In the U.S., Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times called it "a lovers-on-the-lam blast of pure pulp escapism" that "caroms from car chase to shootout, from rain dancing to bank robbing with unflagging energy. Its all completely loony, but the stunts are impressive, the photography crisp and the leads so adorably besotted that audiences might as well check their cynicism at the door. Frank Lovece of Film Journal International said, "Bollywood enters telenovela territory in a hybrid film that takes the heightened emotions, wild tonal ranges and impeccably crisp technique of modern Hindi cinema and puts all that in the service of a tragic love story straight out of Mexican TV. ... As an old-style Hollywood romance in modern dress, it delivers what people say they want when they say, They dont make pictures like that anymore." Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times said the film "draws from westerns, musicals, film noir [and] chase thrillers with stunts so preposterous they verge on parody - and it gets away with everything because of [director] Basus visual bravura and unstinting passion and energy."

Promotion

= To help the promote the film, mini "music videos" were released online, each about one minute long and featuring a song from the soundtrack set against scenes from the film. The clothing brand Provogue, which features Hrithik Roshan as its brand ambassador, launched a Kites clothing range. A photo shoot regarding this campaign was shot in the Maldives featuring Hrithik Roshan and Barbara Mori.

Track listing

=

Track #	Song	Artist[s]
1	Zindagi Do Pal Ki	KK
2	Dil Kyun Yeh Mera	KK
3	Tum Bhi Ho Wahi	Vishal Dadlani, Suraj Jagan
4	Kites In The Sky	Hrithik Roshan, Javed Dayma, Suzanne DMello
5	Fire	Rajesh Roshan, Vishal Dadlani, Anirudh, Anushka Manchanda
6	Fire English Version	Rajesh Roshan, Vishal Dadlani, Anushka

Characters/cast

*Hrithik Roshan as J. *Barbara Mori as Natasha a.k.a. Linda *Kangana Ranaut as Gina *Nicholas Brown as Tony *Kabir Bedi as Bob, Gina and Tonys father *Yuri Suri as Jamaal, Bobs family chauffeur

International versions

= While the Hindi version of Kites was released May 21, 2010 in India, the international version was released one week later, on May 28, 2010. The film was scheduled to be released in over 60 countries. In addition to its original subtitled version, Kites was scheduled to be released in a second international English version as Kites:The Remix, "presented by" Brett Ratner and recut by his regular editor, Mark Helfrich, with new music by Graeme Revell.