Movie Review - 'Chandni Chowk to China'

Chandni Chowk to China Starring Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone, and Gordon Liu Directed by Nikhil Advani Rated PG-13

It's somewhat daunting to try to review a film like Chandni Chowk to China for mostly western audiences. The overwhelming majority of Americans and Canadians, for example, have never seen a Bollywood film. A lot of them have never even heard of Bollywood. So where do you begin describing a movie that combines the pulsating sights and sounds of a typical Indian film with the traditional wu shu martial arts action of a Chinese kung fu flick? Exactly. Bollywood, if you need the primer, is the portmanteau of Bombay and Hollywood, is kind of regarding as derisive in that part of the world, and it's the common name for the film industry based in Mumbai, which cranks out the most movies of any country in the world. The films made in India tend to be melodramatic, loaded with song and dance numbers, and because the audiences there want to get their money's worth, the films are sometimes very, very long. You'll get everything in a typical Bollywood movie - romance, action, drama, comedy, music, and then more of the same. In one way, it's wonderful to see the vibrance of an Indian or Hindistani film walking hand-in-hand with elements of a Chinese martial arts film, which can be rather sparse and very direct. Ultimately, that's what I was evaluating while watching Chandni Chowk to China, because grading it on its acting or whether or not the plot flows is virtually impossible. It's not designed to make those grades. Chandni Chowk is a bustling market in Delhi, where Sidhu (Akshay Kumar) works for his father, slicing up vegetables and performing other menial duties. That seems to be what he's best suited for, though, despite his own desire to be something greater. Much to Sidhu's surprise, two Chinese travelers have been led to him by the spirit of feudal warrior Liu Shengh, who legend has it, protected the Great Wall of China from being overrun by invaders. Sidhu and his sidekick, a crackpot spiritual advisor named Chopstick (Ranvir Shorey) travel to China to claim the potato peeler's destiny. Of course, Chopstick didn't tell him that it involved killing the indominatable Hojo (the equally indominatable Gordon Liu), an organized crime kingpin who has tormented a tiny village for years. So that's the action set-up. In a very real way, this part of the story resembles Kung Fu Panda. But there is, of course, much more. Sidhu falls in love with an absolutely beautiful TV pitchwoman (Deepika Padukone), and is surprised to see her smuggling diamonds at the airport in China when he arrives. He's more surprised, though, by her astounding fighting skills, as she quickly dispatches an entire squadron of policemen before flying away in that oh so traditional wire fu manner. Was he mistaken, is the pitchwoman actually a diamond thief, or is there some other explanation? If you see Chandni Chowk to China out of some Slumdog Millionaire-inspired curiosity, remember that they're completely different styles of films. The celebrated musical number in Slumdog occurs roughly ten times in Chandni Chowk, although with just a couple of exceptions, the music in Danny Boyle's Golden Globe winner is a lot better. It's a very hard film to take seriously, because it doesn't appear to take itself too seriously. It's a lot of fun, at times very much so, but you can't put it side by side with a movie that's really trying to say something. Chandni Chowk is just here to entertain you. And I was entertained. The stars of the film certainly fill the screen; Kumar is a big star in India, Gordon Liu is one of the best and most reliable martial arts actors alive, appearing in both Kill Bill movies (most famously as the guru Pai Mei), as well as the third Drunken Master movie and one of my guilty pleasures, The Five Shaolin Masters. And Deepika Padukone is everything you want in a heroine for a film like this, meaning she's stunning and does a good job with the songs. And, yes, Chandni Chowk is a long effort. It clocks in at around 150 minutes, but there's real life in almost every moment and movement of the film. The movie is being released here in the United States by Warner Bros., which obviously sees the global potential for films from India. And if we ever get accustomed to the very particular style of film exported from Mumbai, that potential could be easily realized if the movies are as harmless and fun as this.

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[hari]

Warner Brothers is giving their biggest Bolly-push yet for the international release for their new film, CHANDNI CHOWK TO CHINA, a Bollywood film shot in Thailand but set in China.

Chandni Chowk To China is a Upcoming Bollywood the film release on 16th January 2009.The directed by Nikhil Advani and stars Akshay Kumar Deepika Padukone and Mithun Chakraborty too plays an important role in this Film.