Critical reception The movie generally received mixed reviews in India. 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 Hrithik's killer moves, and repeated glimpses at the toned bodies of both lead stars. It's 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". 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. It's 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 don't 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] Basu's visual bravura and unstinting passion and energy."
Box office India 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 for failure are being the film has a lot of Spanish dialogue and English." The film collected net in its lifetime run in India.
Overseas On its first weekend in the North America, the film opened in 208 theaters and ranked No. 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. Overall, the film was rated as a flop by
Box Office India. In the first week that both films were out together in the United States,
Kites: The Remix did only one tenth of the business that the original
Kites did, and less than half on a per-screen basis. Box Office Mojo shows that while the original
Kites film was able to become the first ever original Bollywood created film to score in the "Top Ten" of the overall Hollywood Box office tally on its opening weekend, the
Kites: The Remix hybrid version only managed to place 51st on its first weekend. == Awards and nominations ==