DVD Review: Chandni Chowk to China: Akshay Kumar: Movies & TV
DVD Review: Chandni Chowk to China: Akshay Kumar: Movies & TV
Amazon.com
It’s a rare Bollywood show that gets a healthy stateside push, but in 2009 Chandni Chowk to China invaded U.S. theaters with its crackpot blend of music, slapstick, and melodrama. The plot itself couldn’t be clearer. (Just kidding.) Akshay Kumar, leading light of Bollywood, plays Sidhu, a Delhi nitwit who slices potatoes at a food store in the chaotic Chandni Chowk neighborhood. After discovering the unmistakable image of the god Ganesh in the skin of a spud, Sidhu is proclaimed the reincarnation of a legendary Chinese hero. A trip to the Great Wall and a job defending the much-abused population of a small town can’t be far behind. Mix in a pretty TV-commercial spokesmodel (Deepika Padukone) visiting China to bring closure to a childhood tragedy, plus martial-arts goofiness, a villain (legendary Kill Bill star Gordon Liu) with a razor-edge bowler hat–take that, Goldfinger–and the occasional musical number, and you’ve got yourself a thoroughly entertaining piece of absurdity. Kumar is spirited, Padukone is gorgeous, and Ranvir Shorey and Mithun Chakraborty provide amusing support. Arguments can certainly be made about whether Warner Bros. could have thrown their weight behind some other Bollywood offering for a U.S. push (this film’s chopsocky similarities to Kung Fu Hustle, which rang up tidy profits, might explain the choice), but taken on its own zany terms, Chandni Chowk is a good time. –Robert Horton
Product Description
Have you ever dreamed of being more than your circumstances? Sidhu (Askay Kumar) longs to escape his dreary existence cutting vegetables at a road-side food stand in Chandni Chowk, one of the oldest and busiest markets in Delhi, India. When two strangers from China proclaim he is the reincarnation of a Chinese war hero, Sidhu envisions fame, fortune and adventure. Journeying with them back to China, Sidhu meets the alluring Sakhi (Deepika Padukone) and love blossoms. But can it survive the vicious smuggler, Hojo (Gordon Liu) and his cadre of kung-fu assassins? Megalomaniacal villains, crazy inventors, Chinese mystics and outlandish kung-fu assassins all get thrown together in this joyful, uplifting adventure full of beautiful landscapes, attention-grabbing songs, and high energy dancing. Featuring top Bollywood actors Akshay Kumar and Deepika Padukone and produced by acclaimed father and son duo, Ramesh and Rohan Sippy, Chandni Chowk to China promises to excite.
Loved it,
By WYM19 “wm19″ (Canada) -
This review is from: Chandni Chowk to China [Theatrical Release] (Theatrical Release)
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.
Big Hit!!!,
By Diodoro Iacocca (USA) -
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
A good movie, not great.,
By A.K. -
This review is from: Chandni Chowk to China [Theatrical Release] (Theatrical Release)
Akshay Kumar ruled once again in this film. The action was pretty great, and gave the movie its PG-13 rating.
Deepika was great, Akshay always rules, Ranvir was pretty good ( the part after India Se Aaya Tera Dost was great), Roger Yuang was decent, and Gordon Liu was pretty great.
The songs were great, especially Chak Lein De!
The movie, is pretty stupid, though. The direction could have been better. This movie left me a little disappointed, but it is a good family film.
A 3.5 is the best rating I can give it, but I’ll give it a 5 for the heck of it.
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