'Kite Runner' Review by Rakesh Mathur

London, Friday, 14 December 2007. A much selected bunch of film-buffs and critics were invited to this exclusive London screening as the controversies mar the public viewing of the film. Soho near Piccadilly in London for old timers is a red-light district but during the last 10 years Soho has also emerged as the most happening place in London. Most of the international film companies and leading post-production studios are based in and around Soho. So, three cheers to Soho. Now, back to 'The Kite Runner'. In short, I enjoyed the film thoroughly.

In the year, 2003, Khaled Hosseini's 'The Kite Runner', came out as a debut novel and quickly shot to the top of the best-seller lists around the globe, where it still remains four years later. In India, the novel became a cult among the chatterati circles. Friends shared the book as a gift among themselves.

A story suffused with the culture of Afghanistan -- the remote, war-torn country that, for decades, has been seen only as hotspot of global conflict. The book seemed unlikely to succeed. Yet, with its universal themes of family bonds, childhood friendship, the courage of forgiveness and the salvation, only to be found in love, the story deeply touched people from every cultural and social background. Initially, critics showed lukewarm response to the book but word of mouth publicity catapulted 'The Kite Runner' to incredible heights.

Marc Forster, a Golden Globe-nominated international director of the German origin, worked very hard in capturing the true depth of friendship, family, mistakes and redeeming love depicted in the novel on celluloid.

Pictured: Khalid Abdalla (in the role of Amir) and the director Marc Forster
after the screening of the film, 'The Kite Runner' at Soho House in London. Pix by R Mathur.

The film stars an Egyptian, Khalid Abdalla in the leading role of Amir which can be very challenging for any actor. Khalid went to Afghanistan to learn Dari language which has lots of Persian and Arabic words. He told me after the screening that for one year, he lived in small villages of Afghanistan and spoke nothing but Dari language to prepare for this difficult role.

The film was shot in the Western Chinese desert on the border of Afghanistan.
The story is very simple. Any migrant or refugee or asylum-seeker can identify himself to this story.

In a divided country, on the verge of war, two childhood best friends, Amir and Hassan are about to be torn apart forever. It's a glorious afternoon in Kabul and the skies are bursting with the exhilarating joy of an innocent kite-fighting tournament.

But in the aftermath of the day's victory, one boy's fearful act of betrayal will set in motion a catastrophe and an epic in redemption. The family moves first to Pakistan and then to California.

After 20 years of living in America, Amir returns to a perilous Afghanistan under the Taliban's iron-fisted rule to face the dark secrets that still haunt him and take one last daring chance to set things right.

The result is a journey into a new world -- through a universal human story that speaks to anyone who has ever yearned for a second chance to make a change and find forgiveness.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film though sometimes I was taken a back by the blatant American stereo-typing of the characters and situations in the events that are created not so subtly in the film. But we have to accept the fact, that it is a very big budget film made with the American money.

'The Kite Runner' can not be called an Afghan film, even if most of the footage that we see is in 'Dari' language.

By Rakesh Mathur, London

From Archives:

Hollywood film The Kite Runner, based on the best-selling 2003 novel by Khaled Hosseini, is facing a huge controversy over a sex scene between two child actors. It's further aggravated by the fact that the scene is between a Hazara boy and a Pashtun boy- two Afghan tribes at loggerheads with each other. Now, film's release has been delayed. The child actors and their families are to be given safe haven.

Distributors of the film, Paramount Pictures, according to reports, are now arranging to get its three young stars out of their homeland before the movie's release to protect them from a possible violent backlash in Afghanistan.