'The Kite Runner' : A Touching Movie

The movie is an adaptation of Khaled Hosseini's 2003 bestseller and is the tale of two boys Amir (Zekiria Ebrahimi) and his servant-cum-mate, Hassan (Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada). Amir is affluent, pampered and sensitive while Hassan is underprivileged and street smart.

During their childhood innocence, the boys are playing with kites one evening. As Hassan runs in the streets to catch a kite he had won by cutting its strings, he is raped by a gang of bullies. Amir watches Hassan being raped but out of fright and cowardice, does not help his friend.

The incident changes both the kids deeply and Amir abandons his friend when he moves with his family to America to escape the Soviets. The incident however keeps torturing him and to seek salvation he goes back to his homeland in his adulthood to save Hassan’s son in contemporary Taliban ruled Afghanistan.

The movie is one of those rare films which lives up to the reputation of the inspired novel. Although not as detailed as the book itself, it still manages to compile a well scripted story.

The movie also gets slow at times but nevertheless keeps one glued to the seat for a stirring saga. It is also nice to see the film show how famous historic events have an effect on the lives of its characters.

Earlier, the release of the movie had to be delayed as the reported child abuse scene triggered threats of violence against the Afghan child stars for acting in the movie. It was demanded that the 30-second rape scene of Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada’s character Hassan be removed from the movie.

Khaled Hosseini, the writer of the novel, explained in an interview saying”I don't see how you could maintain the integrity of the film if you removed the scene. You'd pretty much have to scrap the whole thing. The scene is pivotal.”

The film was finally released this Friday after the studio reported that the kids and their guardians had been moved to safety in an unnamed city in the United Arab Emirates.