Customer Reviews

Chandni Chowk to China

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I grew up on Hong Kong martial arts films, recently visited the Forbidden City Palace and Great Wall in Beijing, and heard this was the first Bollywood kung fu comedy, so I went to watch this movie on its opening night. I absolutely loved it.

I'm not familiar with Bollywood, but I thought the movie might be goofy-silly from the trailer. It was so much more than that.

The plot is well summarized by another reviewer, so I won't go into it in detail. Basically, a comedic buffoon in India is tricked into going to China to help an oppressed village. Along the way, he finds love, kung fu, and himself. The plot was complex but fun. The movie is in Hindi (spoken by the characters from India) and Mandarin (spoken by the characters from China) with good English subtitles.

In some points where the plot stretched credibility, I figured it was a Bollywood thing, and just went with the flow. For example, the heroine's family situation, airport incident, the drunken master fight, the kung fu training sequences, were all a bit unrealistic, but great fun.

The costumes and dancing were great (who knew a womem could dance in the long chinese cheongsam dresses?). I especially liked the scenes set in the Forbidden City Palace and the Great Wall. I read that this was the first fight scene permitted to be filmed on the Great Wall, and having been on the beautiful, windy, and super-steep steps of the Great Wall, I loved each and every Great Wall scene. I read that they shut down tourism for the filming, which is impressive given how packed the tourist site normally is.

I expected a lot of eye candy going in, based on the trailer, but I was caught completely by surprise by just how funny and dramatic the movie was. My friend and I laughed so hard that we cried through many points of the movie (laughing so hard our eyes were shut and I missed some of the English subtitles). There were some very touching points in the movie, aptly scored by a beautiful musical score.

The hero was an amazing actor. Initially, he is a completely pathetic and cringe-worthy coward. There was a lot of slapstick and very funny physical humour. By the end of the movie the hero was James-Bond handsome and riveting. I often see female characters have this physical transformation in movies (mouse to model) but have never seen this in a male character. The hero was completely believable and his transformation was very touching.

Some of the martial arts scenes might seem over the top, but the Hong Kong film martial arts are just like that, with exploding boxes, water rising, internal strength forces battling it out through palm stances, windstorms, etc. It was just like a really good martial arts film with Bollywood dancing and plot touches.

The movie was longer than I was used to, but I figured that was a Bollywood thing and enjoyed every minute of it. Be warned, though, there is quite a bit of casual physical discipine between adult children and their parental figures, which was a bit of a surprise to me.

There were some corny points, which I initially thought was bad directing, but the rest of the theatre laughed extremely hard right away, so I guess it was a sly spoof device used in Bollywood movies. For example, one of the funniest scenes for me is when the Indian/Chinese friend of the hero sees the assassin for the first time and after a stunned silence, bursts into song. The entire audience was howling with laughter and clapping, as the comedic timing in that scene was just perfect.

I highly recommend this film to everyone. More than 24 hours later, I'm still thinking of the film and smiling in memory of some of the scenes. I'm definitely going to get this on blu-ray when it comes out.

Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar, in his roles, tends to regularly shift from playing it silly to playing it serious, and most times he does this in the same movie. CHANDNI CHOWK TO CHINA is a fusion of fatuous farce, mawkish sentiment and high adventure, of Bollywood conventions and soaring Chinese martial arts. There's much to like about this movie, but also much to groan and roll your eyes at.

In China the village Zhange struggles under the oppression of the murderous smuggler lord Hojo. In desperation the villagers consult a wise man and learn that salvation lies in the shape of the legendary, centuries-dead warrior Liu Sheng, who has been reincarnated in today's world. Except that Liu Sheng has been reborn to another nationality, another country: in India.

Akshay Kumar plays Sidhu, a dimwitted vegetable chopper plying his trade at a roadside food stand in Chandni Chowk, one of the busiest market districts in Delhi, India. Discontented with his lowly lot, Sidhu (who, remember, is dimwitted) is lured away to faraway China by two Chinese elders. It's actually more Sidhu's friend Chopstick's fault. Chopstick, of possibly Indian-Chinese descent, is one of those manipulative, self-absorbed sorts, and he seizes an opportunity. The two old Chinese men are, of course, Zhange villagers, and they believe Sidhu to be their reincarnated protector Liu Sheng; they ask that Sidhu return with them to kill Hojo. Instead Chopstick (the vaguely Asian-looking Ranvir Shorey), purposely mistranslating, tells Sidhu that he will be feted as a king should he journey to China. So off goes the gullible Sidhu with Chopstick riding his coattails, from Chandni Chowk to China.

I like much of the film's tongue-in-cheek internal mythology. During its best outrageous moments CHANDNI CHOWK TO CHINA is reminiscent of Stephen Chow's very awesome Kung Fu Hustle (Axe-Kickin' Edition). In both films, kung fu practitioners disregard the laws of gravity as they make impossible leaps and perform other outlandish stunts. Vicious contact propels bodies to improbable distances and with lethal impact (but then folks just get up and dust themselves off). Speaking of internal mythology, the film never does confirm whether Sidhu was indeed the modern day Liu Sheng. And, oh yes, I have to mention the fairly outrageous Cosmos Thumb.

Considering the source (Bollywood), the wushu is actually pretty decent, even though I don't quite buy Akshay Kumar as a kung fu fighter (although he's certainly done plenty of action movies). But the inclusion of Chinese actors like Gordon Liu and Roger Yuan - both very good as, respectively, the fiendish Hojo and the kind of insane amnesiac beggar/police inspector - make it a respectable martial arts venture. Liu (best known probably for The 36th Chamber of Shaolin and the KILL BILL flicks) and Yuan are convincing in their acting and in their kung fu, even if Hojo's hat trick had already been done by a James Bond villain. And, for the sake of cinematic resonance, it doesn't hurt that Roger Yuan bears a striking resemblance with Takashi Shimura, the leader of the SEVEN SAMURAI. But if you've already seen films featuring Jackie Chan or Jet Li or if you've seen KUNG FU HUSTLE, then there's really no surprise in the fight scenes.

The stunning Deepika Padukone takes on dual parts. She plays the conventional love interest Sakhi, a spokesmodel of Indian-Chinese descent working for Tele-Shopping Media (Sakhi is known as Ms. TSM). But the meatier of the two roles is that of Suzy (or Meow Meow). Suzy is Sakhi's villainous twin sister and, as one of Hojo's henchmen, her kung fu is strong. It says something about Padukone's grace and physicality that I find her more believable as a martial artist than I do Akshay.

As Bollywood films are wont to do, the first half starts out in a silly vein as Sidhu's vacuous nature is again and again demonstrated, giving rise to moronic situations (one fellow airline passenger persistently asks Sidhu: "Are you stupid?"). Akshay Kumar seems to get a kick out of starring in madcap comedies, but I find that the quality of these films tends to come and go. Having said that, there was that airplane bit where Sidhu had trouble closing the overhead luggage compartment. For minutes afterwards I was giggling (but in a manly way). But, yes, Sidhu is one of those aggravating dopes, the type who ends up believing that a potato is a god.

And, as usual with Bollywood, the second half takes on a more serious tone, and this is where Akshay Kumar's goofball character transforms himself into an action hero. Akshay, when he turns it on, has tremendous acting chops. (*SPOILER* in the rest of this paragraph.) Akshay is very good and sympathetic during the death of his character's father, the tragedy which fuels Sidhu to master kung fu and to get even with Hojo. Afterwards, though, I did think that he went to the well too much with the blubbering for his dead dada.

Yes, the humor is predominantly cheesy, but there are several genuinely funny moments scattered throughout. I've already mentioned the airplane scene but I also laughed hard and plenty when Akshay gets strapped with the Dance Master G9 device, and at that short musical interlude with the odd little Chinese inventor and during Roger Yuan and Akshay's brawl with White Bull in that little diner and then during the training sessions, with Akshay and Yuan showing very good tongue-in-cheek apprentice/master chemistry. I'm sure I missed other moments.

The DVD, by way of bonus features, also offers 8 and a half minutes of eight additional scenes, the scene most worth watching being the one with Sidhu frantically trying to evade Hojo in a restaurant kitchen. And that's it for bonus features.

Three and a half stars for CHANDNI CHOWK TO CHINA, an entertaining film somewhat undermined by the banal stuff and by all the overwrought shedding of tears. This being a Bollywood vehicle, much emphasis is placed on the importance of family; Sakhi, for example, travels to China mainly to commemorate her long dead father's passing; the amnesiac beggar's memory is fully restored when he glimpses a photo of his family. Another Bollywood trademark is the song & dance, and the musical numbers here are nicely picturized. I enjoyed the lavish "Chandni Chowk to China" and even "Tere Naina," a brief song which lends to a surreal magical vision of Sudhi and Sakhi gently floating in the air, buoyed by an engineered umbrella. Also note that Akshay handles his own rapping during the song "Chandni Chowk to China (CC2C)" during the end credits. It's a bit disconcerting, though, watching these Bollywood stars in their dance numbers being backed up by Chinese dancers. "Disconcerting" being another good word to describe this movie overall, and I think in a good way. I mean, it's got singing and dancing, a bit of Chinese mysticism and some romancing, and everybody's kung-fu fighting. That is very neat.

CHANDNI CHOWK TO CHINA is the first Bollywood movie to get a nationwide release in the U.S. from a major Hollywood studio. Warner Bros. is not only distributing, but was also the producer, part of a growing move by the Hollywood majors to get involved in Asian film production. As such, it's less intended for diehard Bollywood audiences than for the international audience that greeted such past co-productions as CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON (2000) and KUNG FU HUSTLE (2004). It helps to be at least a little familiar with Bollywood and kung fu genre conventions before tackling this 154-minute combo of action, comedy, romance, melodrama, music, dance, and exotic locations. My guess is that adventurous audience members who embraced KILL BILL VOL. 1, BRIDE AND PREJUDICE and KUNG FU HUSTLE would also enjoy this.

The plot has to do with a poor Indian man named Sidhu, who works in a food shop but nurses dreams of bigger things when he is invited to a Chinese village, for reasons that are misrepresented to him, only to find out when he gets there that he's believed to be a reincarnation of an ancient Chinese warrior named Liu Sheng and is expected to vanquish the local tyrant, Hojo, who keeps the villagers enslaved. Various setbacks ensue until Sidhu resolves to undergo kung fu training and live up to the faith the villagers had in him. Also involved are two half-Indian/half-Chinese twin girls, Sakhi and Suzy, one good and one criminal, who'd been separated from their father and each other as infants. The dialogue is primarily in Hindi, with large sections in Mandarin and some English lines sprinkled throughout. Location filming includes many scenes filmed in Shanghai and at the Great Wall of China.

The international cast is led by Akshay Kumar, a top Bollywood action and comedy star who is evidently India's answer to Jackie Chan. This is the first of his films I've seen and I'm eager to see more. He has the difficult job of balancing the action, comic, romantic and dramatic needs of the script at every unpredictable plot turn and he does so brilliantly. Some of the gags are a bit over-the-top (such as when Sidhu's Indian mentor, Dada, gives him a super-powered kick and he goes flying into the sky above the city), but the alternate universe the film sets up allows for cartoonish gags, wild shifts in tone, and ready suspension of disbelief. Hong Kong kung fu star Gordon Liu (prominently featured in both volumes of KILL BILL) plays the villain, Hojo. The beautiful Indian actress, Deepika Padukone, plays the dual roles of Sakhi and Suzy and manages to make us feel empathy for both characters. Roger Yuan, an actor featured in American martial arts films and Hollywood blockbusters, is very good as the Chinese father of the twins and the kung fu teacher who takes Sidhu under his wing.

I found the whole production extremely satisfying and never felt that it was too far-fetched or contrived. If I have any quibble, it's that there weren't enough songs. There are two major production numbers and a few songs on the soundtrack at different times and they were all so good that I wanted more. Most Bollywood films have a lot more music and dance, but this time those sequences were toned down for the international audience. The film is 154 minutes, which is short for Bollywood (but long for a kung fu movie), yet I found it to be just the right length, although I wouldn't have minded it being longer to accommodate some more music. I saw this in Manhattan, where it's playing in only two theaters. It may be hard to find, but it's highly recommended.

This movie has been named the worst movie in india. I just do not think people actually understand the effort that was made into this movie. Akshay Kumar has done a fabulous job in this movie. His acting skills are exactly what an actor needs to have. His stunt, his dialogue, his comedy everything he did in the movie was absolutely fantastic. The movie story revolved around a lot of stories but yet the effort that was put into making this movie was great. The Actor who played the Guru of Akshay's Character Sidhu was fanstastic. His hindi speaking was absolutely marvlous. The guy should be recognized for doing what he did in the movie. Deepka made this movie a completely astonishing. Her marshal art was completely awesome. I hope there is a sequel to this movie and I hope that india should recognize that the movie was not a disaster but it was a GREAT Effort!!! Love Ya akshay, Love ya Deepka, and Love you Chinese Guy

This movie gives Boliwood (Bollywood?--that's not the right spelling) the best of good names. Bread-baking Brahmin-caste Sidhu (an amazing and hilarious Akshay Kumar), a denizen of the Chandni Chowk district of Delhi, can't catch a break. He needs money, wants a better destiny, and falls on his face every time. He accidentally burns his winning lottery ticket in the little fire of his home altar as he shouts at the goddess' statue, "OK!! Take it!!"

One day he and his goofy Chinese friend "Chopstick" (a very Chinese-looking Ranvir Shorey) are approached by two Chinese villagers. They are sure Sidhu is a reincarnation of a great martial arts hero. They beg him to return with them to China to fight the evil gang boss "Hojo" (the immortal Chia Hui "Gordon" Liu). However, it is incumbent upon the klutzy Sidhu to learn kung fu. Still he goes, with the blessing of the adopted older brother, the elderly Dada, who took him in as a child (Mithun Chakraborthy).

I have to stop there, as this film is just too darned funny, touching and wonderful to spoil. You will die laughing at the clever songs, how fitting and apropos they are and how...well, just plain funny. This film's humor reminded me of Jackie Chan at his best--yet it is truly and purely Indian in all ways. Even the Chinese seem to be straight out of an old Indian village in the Punjab.

Akshay Kumar is a multi-talented prodigy. I cannot believe I haven't noticed him before, but I will be from now forwards. I also deeply admire the powerful presence of Mithun Chakraborthy.

You will never regret having this fantastic Indian jewel in your collection, and you will always go back to watch it for the pure delightful fun. And there is whoopass martial action, as well as a profound lesson for all of us.

Now if you will excuse me, I am going to go sing a few bars of "Hello, I'm a Chinese Guy".

Did you ever see a movie that made your jaw drop? A movie that was so stunningly bizarre that it was all you could do to keep your eyeballs in their sockets? Well that's what I was hoping to get when CHANDNI CHOWK TO CHINA arrived in my mail box yesterday. Why was I so full of anticipation of freakish delight you ask? Because this Akshay Kumar film, which also co-starred none other than Gordon Liu Chia-hui, was the first Bollywood kung fu movie and if that doesn't conjure up some wild images in your mind then I feel sorry for you because you are obviously a Bollywood virgin and thus incapable of envisioning the havoc that the star of SINGH IS KINGG could wreak upon China in general and the martial arts genre in particular. Kumar is one of India's most popular leading men and although he has a serious macho image the two films I've seen him in have both been very silly comedies in which he's played goofy characters who have been compared to Adam Sandler seasoned with masala. In SINGH IS KINGG he was such a walking disaster that everyone in his village conspired to have him leave the country on a fool's errand. In CHANDNI CHOWK TO CHINA he's even worse off-- here he started life as an abandoned baby adopted by a man who owns the food stall where he now works chopping vegetables, when he isn't frequenting fortune tellers or buying losing lottery tickets that is.

Chandni Chowk is the name of a district in old Delhi where Sidhu lives and works with his Dada who loves him dearly despite literally drop kicking him from one side of Delhi to the other for his foolishness in trusting fortune tellers and every other kind of fakir and faker he runs across. One day while chopping potatoes Sidhu finds one that resembles Lord Ganesh (it kind of has an elephant trunk on it) and he's convinced it will change his life. Actually his life DOES change because 2 men arrive from China convinced that Sidhu is the reincarnation of the legendary warrior Liu Sheng and they cart him back to their village (along with a fortune teller named Chopstick to act as translator) to save them from the evil Hojo, enter Gordon Liu in all his villainous glory. Whew. The catch here is that Chopstick tells Sidhu a little white lie. Instead of telling him that the villagers believe him to be the reincarnation of a warrior and that they expect him to kill Hojo, he tells Sidhu that he was an emperor and they want to honor him. Just a little lie.

Of course there are other things going on here since that's hardly enough to fill out a 2 and 1/2 hour movie. We also have the love interest (although it never really goes anywhere) in the form of Sakhi, (also known as Miss TSM) who is the tv Spokes Model for a company that sells among other things the Dance Master G9, a clever device that when strapped to one's ankles can make you dance like a Bollywood star. Gotta get me one of those. Needless to say, our hero falls madly in love with her the instant he sees her on tv but when they meet in person things get off to a rocky start. Sakhi is bound for China too and she has her own story going on involving Hojo who, in true kung fu movie fashion, had killed her father and her infant twin sister Suzy when the family was on an outing to the Great Wall of China. There's more. There's always more.

But what's the bottom line you ask, was it all I had dreamt it would be? Nope. I was disappointed. The first 25 or 30 minutes were actually painful to watch because the humor was so over the top. Remember when I said Sidhu's Dada kicked him from one side of Delhi to the other? I wasn't kidding--he actually goes up into the air and sails over the city causing a danger to low flying aircraft. We don't even get a musical number until he boards the plane for China and although I enjoyed the number it seemed to be cut very short. Perhaps that's because this film has the distinction of being the first Bollywood film ever picked up by an American company. That's right folks. Warner Brothers hand their dirty little hands all over this flick and I suspect that might have something to do with it's flaws. I'm certain it explains the problems with the DVD release which include the lack of a special feature that let's you access all the musical numbers directly which is something that's been included on every Bollywood flick I've ever rented before. The American version is also 18 minutes shorter than the version the rest of the world got. If they cut out song and dances numbers I'm going to get really pissed because there was a definite shortage of them. What there was was good though, including the rap song Akshay does with the end credits. Who was that black rapper anyhow?

Even though I was disappointed that it wasn't the outlandishly entertaining spectacle I had envisioned, I still wound up liking this flick. Things definitely picked up after Sidhu got to the village of Zange where it eventually turns into a more conventional martial arts flick with Roger Yuan (who you might remember from an episode of ANGEL) showing up to serve as Sidhu's sifu and help him save the day. Did you know that learning kung fu can also up your I.Q about 30 points? It sure made Sidhu smarter, and better looking too. The action is pretty well handled although there is a lot of wire fu and CGI going on in this flick, and the showdown between Hojo and Sidhu has some laughs in it. I think the part that I liked best is that our hero manages to get throught the entire movie without actually killing anyone himself. A good Hindu boy to the very end. By the way those of you who like your women dark haired and gorgeous will not be disappointed. Deepika Padukone who made her debut in OM SHANTI OM will give you a double eyefull in the roles of Sahki and Meow Meow (yes I said Meow Meow) and of course all the back up dancing girls are Chinese.

Should you see it? Sure. If only to see Liu Chia-Hui. But I wouldn't recommend it as anyone's first Bollywood experience.

RATING: 3.75 stars.

I have to admit there were times during this movie that I wanted to turn it off and give up on it, but hung in there and watched it until the end. Chandni Chowk to China is a Bollywood Kung Fu comedy. If that sounds odd, then it is correct! This film stars Akshay Kumar as a buffoonish vegetable cutter from India, who is mistaken to be the reincarnate of a fallen Chinese hero. The movie is funny in parts, and serious in parts, and has a few brief musical numbers thrown in also. Think Bollywood Karate Kid! It's 150 minutes of unpredictable laughs, with good-looking main characters played by famous Bollywood stars. Time well spent? Not really. Enjoyable silliness? Absolutely. Will we watch it again? Probably not!

The first ever Warner India flim and probably the first Indo-Sino collaboration promises great hope. A Stephen Chow (Mo Lei To comedy) spoof Hindi action flick.

The upside - a parody of all the major Chinese wushu films - Crouching Tiger, Kung Fu Hustle, the classic Shaw films and major Hollywood action flims like the Matrix, the Bond series (Gordon Liu's character is a parody of Odd Ball) even the cartoon Mulan too. Moulin Rogue is parodied and Curse of The Gloden Flower is parodied as a song and dance number. American Idol and the Shopping Channel all poked at.

The downside - the dubbing. I may not know Hindi but Gordon Liu and Roger Yuan struggles through their Mandarin.Gordon Liu has not made any major Mandarin flims in decades. I would suggest for the general China/Hong Kong release to redub the track or to place a Cantonese track instead.

Overall good job. Looking forward for the sequel.

This is a very funny film. It is so called "the worst film of Bollywood". I personally think is one of the funniest foreign language films I have seen. I think people should pay at least a little respect to poorly reviewed bollywood films.

THE ADVANTAGE

- The picture is colorful.
- The dancers and their costumes are beautiful .
- The leading female actor is attractive and sexy.
- The music is funny and upbeat.
- There are some hilarious scenes. However, I've seen most of them in other comedies.

THE DISADVANTAGE

- The are many dragging scenes where the actors just keep on talking nonsense.
- The plot is incoherent in many places.

In summary, it's worth watching once for curiosity.