Barbara Mori and Hrithik Roshan star in the international Bollywood romance Kites. (Reliance BIG Pictures/Filmkraft)

Over the last decade, the Hindi-language film industry known as Bollywood has ventured out of Mumbai, gradually shimmying its way onto Western movie screens.

On May 21, the Hindi film Kites hits theatres. A week later, the producers will release Kites: The Remix, a 90-minute English-language version of the film.

One of the earliest signs was Muhammed Rafi’s kitschy-fabulous song Jaan Pehechaan Ho showing up in the opening credits of the indie drama Ghost World (2001), followed closely by the masala-flavoured musical numbers in Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge (same year). Crowd-pleasers like Bride and Prejudice (2005) soon followed, and when Slumdog Millionaire nabbed the Best Picture Oscar in 2008, it was clear North American audiences had finally embraced films set to a bhangra beat.

Bollywood director Anurag Basu insists there is still much to be done before Hindi-language films are recognized and loved around the world. A member of a younger generation of South Asian filmmakers, Basu is aiming to raise Bollywood’s profile significantly with the release of the film Kites. He hopes to make the melodramatic tropes and epic running times of Bollywood more accessible to global audiences.

Basu has teamed up with producer and beloved Bollywood actor Rakesh Roshan and powerhouse Indian distributor Reliance BIG Pictures for a unique filmmaking venture. On May 21, Kites hits theatres; at 130 minutes, it’s longer than the usual North American multiplex fare, but feels downright speedy compared to the standard Bollywood epic. A week later, Reliance will unfurl a 90-minute English-language version of the film; it’s called Kites: the Remix, and it was edited by Hollywood action director Brett Ratner (Rush Hour, X-Men: The Last Stand). The combined rollout means Kites will appear on 2,300 screens worldwide, the biggest-ever global release for an Indian film.

Though the second, “remixed” version of Kites had not screened for press at the time of this writing, reports suggest that Ratner’s edit is engineered to meet the needs of attention-deficit Western audiences. Kites’ more traditional musical score and dance numbers have been excised in favour of amped-up action and more overt sexuality than is generally permitted in Bollywood films.

I have seen Basu’s spirited original, and I encourage viewers not to shy away from it. Though I’m assuming it is not quite as adrenaline-fuelled as Ratner’s take, Kites is every bit as eager to please mainstream audiences, and many of its scenes feel as American as apple pie.

Kites opens on a scene in desolate Mexico, and from there, the movie circles back in time to tell the story of J (stubbly Bollywood heartthrob Hrithik Roshan), a slick young hunk making his way in Las Vegas through a variety of odd jobs, which include dance instruction and acting as groom in a series of green-card weddings.

Mori and Roshan dance in the rain in a scene from Kites. (Reliance BIG Pictures/Filmkraft)

One of these marriages pairs J with Linda (Mexican cinema star Bárbara Mori), a Spanish spitfire whose inability to communicate with the English-speaking J seems to guarantee the union will be short-lived. When the two cross paths again, they recognize they are destined to be together, though their love is complicated by the fact they are both seeing other people.

What follows is an updated take on traditional Hindi-language films. The star-crossed lovers and cornball themes about fate are still front and centre, but everything around them has been tricked out in a gritty, modern style. J’s show-stopping dance number is more breakdance than Bollywood, and the presence of a sleazy casino owner character allows for a violent scene that feels plucked straight out of Reservoir Dogs.

Part of Kites’ charm lies in Basu’s obvious reverence for American filmmaking. When he’s not copping moves from Tarantino and a handful of westerns and gangster movies, the director pauses to include a spot-on recreation of Charlie Chaplin’s dinner-roll bit in The Gold Rush (1925). Kites’ most impressive dance number — a loose yet graceful pas de deux played out against the rain-slicked, neon-lit streets of Vegas — is a pure Hollywood moment that would do MGM proud.

With all the odds against them, J and Linda refashion themselves as a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde, which paves the way for the elaborate stunts and car chases in Kites’ second half. Despite all of the action, the emphasis is placed squarely on romance. Melodramatic moments, hokey dialogue and overwrought acting abound – the lovers are likened to “Kites in the sky, floating together forever,” and Roshan delivers his lines with nostril-quivering, chest-clutching zeal. If this sounds like a slight, it isn’t meant to be — the over-the-top nature of Kites is what makes it so delightful.

Basu is focused on bringing Eastern moviemaking conventions to savvy global audiences — to do so, he never strays too far into intrusive Bollywood dance numbers, nor does he allow the more contemporary action sequences to hijack the film. It’s a tricky balance, one that’s referenced in Kites’ central theme, which shows lovers from different worlds fighting to meet each other somewhere in the middle. In one scene, J notes, “Love and music… have no language.” With the ambitious Kites, Basu has made great strides in proving that trope.

Kites opens May 21. Kites: The Remix opens May 28.

Lee Ferguson writes about the arts for CBC News.