The Kite Runner

Book by Khaleed Hossini
Movie by Marc Forster (Finding neverland fame)

First the good news, i read the book first and then watched the movie.
Two cult lines:

There is a way to be good again

For you, A thousand times over

First the book review. I didnt liked how the first hundred pages went but the next 300 were very well drawn out. First things first, this book is not a memoir of Afghanistan, (as many reviewers say), infact this book's attempt to portray Afghanistan is quite cliche, slapstick run of the mill stuff. The story and style has the author's American influence on it and it is visible.
Why the novel is good - because of the character baba, the above two lines and little philosophy of sin and lastly, it highlights an internal struggle of a man, his psyche against himself.
It was a good read.

A good fiction is one that blends morality with fiction. It can be a study of a man's psyche or society's beliefs. Kite runner does a good job in this dept.
Why i dont like the book: Weak premise, a boy of 12 is a ignorant, he is a child for god's sake. He is incapable of such complexities. He can not think this much. Cheesy depiction of Afghanistan is another reason.

How about the movie?
It is bad, quite bad. First, the novel is told in a first person while the movie is shot in third person. It was a bad judgement. A good voice over could have made all the difference. (For example The diving bell and butterfly). Secondly, they edited the favourite part from the movie. Amir laughs when Aseef beats him because as he is getting beaten he is getting rid of his guilt. This was cult in novel. That scene is edited out. But the movie was good in patches, especially since the ending. It came very close to my visualization. Another possibly wrong point is that the movie is in Afghan language. The novel was in english with some afgan words thrown between.
Marc Forster is no Majid Majidi when it comes to children but still he does a decent job there.

Lastly, finding neverland was cult because besides good direction, it had Depp and Winslet and a story which can bring anyone to tears. If there was a novel with the same name, i can without reading it say that the movie conveyed the central idea well. But that is not the case with Kite runner.